McMurray Chicks Arrived! *PICS uploaded bottom of page 1*

[the_great_snag]

Hey Everyone,
I just got my McMurray shipment this morning! 43 healthy little fuzzballs.

I orderd them on Thursday of last week and handled the whole thing online. I never even had to call them.

I got 5 Black Giants, 6 Barred Rocks, 25 Dark Cornish, 5 Delawares, and the mystery chick. They also threw in an extra DC and an extra BR. I got all roosters, but obviously I don't know what the mystery chick is.

Actually there are 2 mystery chicks. One looks like a Dark Cornish but with grayer down, and I have a golden one with what looks like tufted cheeks, although it's much too early to know for sure. The grayish chick also has different eyes.

Anyway they all arrived healthy and cheeping. I have them all drinking and eating well so I have high hopes! I will be going back out there in a few to look at them, and I will try to get pics uploaded today.

 

[rooster0209]

 

[boxermom]

We just picked up our order from MM too.

We ordered 10 EE's, 40 BO's. We ended up w/ 10 EE's, 42 BO' s and 1 mystery chick. Our chick sounds like yours. Lighter yellow than the BO's, gray legs and poofy cheeks. I can't figure out what it might be. The only "poofy" cheeked ones that I can find are EE's or Ameraucana/Araucana. Any guesses? Are there buff EE's?

Also, all are very healthy and active. I am very pleased.

 

[the_great_snag]

I know EE's tend to have a wide range of colorings, but I think they are usually chipmunk colored.

I'm not sure if mine has puffy cheeks or not yet, and I didn't think to look at the legs... hmmmm

I'm almost positive the one bigger chipmunk with the grayish down is NOT a Dark Cornish though. I'm kinda ruling out Leghorn because he is not skittish whatsoever. Every other Leghorn I've ever had has been spastic.

 

[Nostalchic]

My chicks were scheduled to arrive "the week of the 27th" from McMurray. Thank goodness I called them on Saturday the 25th to check on the shipment date - they had hatched and shipped out that day and the post office called at 8:30 am on Sunday to tell us they had arrived! 39 (we think, dang those little things are hard to count) all healthy and active, eating and drinking. The folks at McMurray's were great, our post office folks were super nice and efficient, all went well. The brooder has temporarily taken over the dining room so I can watch them all day, and the dogs can get used to the idea that they are under our protection! Man are they cute!
My advice: CALL the hatchery to verify shipping date - they could ship out a few days early. And it helped to go to the post office and talk to them about how this will work if you haven't had chicks shipped before (we had, but 20-30 years ago).

 

[the_great_snag]

OK, finally got my pictures sorted out a bit and uploaded...

Here is the lovely weather we woke up to this morning. It was freezing outside.

Here is the shipping box. Notice the air holes on the side are taped over for heat retention:

Taking a peek:

Beaks dipped and unpacked. The big yellow ones are the Delawares. Chipmunks are Dark Cornish. The blacks with white spots on their heads are Barred Rocks, and the other blacks are Jersey Giants:

My two Cornish X Rocks wondering what the noise is. They are on the other side of a partition:

The Mystery Chick:

And a couple brave explorers: EDIT: oops, here is the correct pic

 

[mom2chicksandpups]

McMurray sends a free "exotic chick" with each 25 chicks you purchase, so one of your mystery chicks is probably the "exotic" one. What type it would be other than that, I can't tell you! If you post pictures of the individual chicks you aren't sure about, maybe someone here can help you.

We ordered our Australorps from McMurray and have been very happy with them. They all arrived alive and well and are still healthy and all living at 6 weeks old. McMurray is a bit more expensive, but when you consider this it's worth it.

 

[the_great_snag]

Yup, I love McM's wide variety of breeds. I also like their week by week availability info. I ordered these birds 4 days ago and had a confirmation within hours.

It's nice to have a spreadsheet of all the breeds and know at a glance which birds I can buy on a given week.

I have ordered from them a couple times now, and I can't bellyache on the price. The DC were only $1.19 apiece since I bought 25.

Last time I ordered I used the phone and their service was superb. Online was completely trouble-free. No phone calls or follow-up of any sort was needed. I just asked the PO to call me when they arrived, which they did at 6:30 this morning.

Were I buying broilers I might've bought closer to home, but McMurray has always soon me nice standard breeds that are very close to type for their breed. I don't care if they are show quality, but you KNOW what breed they are and they are always pretty.

 

[the_great_snag]

Oh, and another consideration with McMurray is their shipping rates are quite good...

 

[the_great_snag]

OMG... I just went over and checked on my chicks again. They are roaming all over their coop peeping and eating like crazy. I opened the door and they went bonkers!

It's hard to believe they are the same little timid puffballs I took out of the shipping box this morning!

They are all really skittish now, but the Dark Cornish quickly chill out and walk up to me. A couple of them even stepped up on my hand with very little coaxing!