Stromberg is wonderful! I have chicks coming from Meyer next week. If I could find someone who wants to go in with me for an order of keets I'd love it!
But with the recommendations for Meyer, Cackle, and Stromberg, etc.
How would you rate
1. friendly service
2. healthy vigorous chicks
3.chick production traits (meat/size of bird and egg production)
4.conformation / feathering (the show traits)
I ordered from McMurry, and I thought that for #1 and 2 they were TOPS, couldn't have been better. My ducks are still too young to say about #3, but they are definitely NOT up there on #4.
I would love to know since I got my light brahmas and EEs from the local feed store, and the light Brahmas......well They are not as close to the breed standard as I would wish.
I am not looking for show birds, but there is black all over these birds! Their coloring isn't even close to the breed standard. I would have liked to have had Light Brahmas that were more cecognizable as such, had a mostly white body at least.
Stromberg - very friendly! the chicks arrrived healthy and every one lived. They put in a free chick even of the same breed I bought. My chickens haven't started laying yet - they're too young but confirmation is good. I don't know what show quality would be but they have the correct rose comb, excellent color and bright healthy eyes! I would buy from them again anytime!
Meyers chicks will be here Tues or Wen. They are friendly on the phone but I wasn't happy that I couldn't get a pair of keets when I bought 25 chicks. They said I had to buy 20 keets. I'll let you know how the chicks are when they get here.
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i didn't order directly from meyer, i ordered from MPC, but the chicks came from ohio and i know meyer has the same small order parameters as MPC, so i strongly suspect my chicks are meyer chicks.
1. friendly service? yep, although that was from the MPC side. good communication immediately following my order and a user account set up on their website, so i could go back and check my order information whenever i liked. love the express mail option because that meant my chicks didn't spend as long in transit.
2. healthy chicks? oh, my, yes. as a medium small order (15 birds), they were shipped express and i'm sure that made a difference, but they were all alive and hopping when i picked them up. only one pasted up and after cleaning her up, she never re-pasted. she was a little smaller than the other chicks anyway, but she was really perky.
3. chick production traits? n/a at the moment. mine are still babies.
4. conformation/feathering? again, they're still just babies, so it's quite hard to tell. their conformation seems very much in line with their respective breeds so far. there are certainly no deformities, congenital defects, or inappropriate colouring/size/skin tint. they're all pretty "typey".
i've never dealt with mcmurray, but i have neighbours and acquaintances who do. they generally have one or two DOA in every shipment (which is more to do with ship time, IMO), although they always get extras, too. i feel that the quality and conformation of their birds isn't the greatest.
1.Customer service was realy freindly, no problems or mixups, ship date, hatch date, and shipping, right on schedule.
2. Healthy chicks? Good and strong, in spite of the fact the order was for the minimum # and also bantams. Very typey, much nicer little birds than I was expecting. They sent 2 extra. 1 bit the dust due to an accident involving a neighbor child, so I have what I ordered +1.