My mom and I have been planning on placing a chick order through McMurray's. We bought chicks from someone locally who had ordered day-old chicks from McMurray's last spring. Mom had a few losses and I had my first loss last week (though mine was 10+ months old when she died), I don't think I would attribute our losses to the hatchery. One of my McMurray girls had a respiratory infection around the time she moved to our house (about 3-4 months old). We treated the whole flock with Duramycin 10 (tetracycline) and everyone was fine after that.
Anyway, back to my point. I've been planning on ordering some chicks from McMurray's and have just been told that mail order hatcheries are not usually MG-free and that chicks often come infected with MG. Is the risk of MG from McMurray's really that bad? Is it bad enough that I should reconsider my order? I'd hate to buy infected chicks and have them all die, or spread the disease to my current flock. But at the same time, if they did have symptoms of MG couldn't they just be treated with antibiotics in their water or with the medicated chick feed? I know I worry unnecessarily about silly things, but figured it couldn't hurt too much to ask ya'all and get some other opinions.
Anyway, back to my point. I've been planning on ordering some chicks from McMurray's and have just been told that mail order hatcheries are not usually MG-free and that chicks often come infected with MG. Is the risk of MG from McMurray's really that bad? Is it bad enough that I should reconsider my order? I'd hate to buy infected chicks and have them all die, or spread the disease to my current flock. But at the same time, if they did have symptoms of MG couldn't they just be treated with antibiotics in their water or with the medicated chick feed? I know I worry unnecessarily about silly things, but figured it couldn't hurt too much to ask ya'all and get some other opinions.
