McMurray Hatchery, drop shipped chicks from Texas?

[chriscos]

I ordered 25 chicks from McMurray. 2 DOA, 3 other died within 8 hours (all BRs, the other breeds I ordered were fine), everyone else is doing great 2 weeks later. This is my first time ordering from a hatchery. I have been getting all my other birds and chicks locally.

Now, silly me, I thought Iowa was a little closer than it actually is, and it is about 1200 miles away. However, the birds appear to have been shipped from Texas (about 2000 miles away). The birds took 2 days to get to my post office (which might explain the deaths, or might not).

At any rate... has anyone else ordered from McMurray and gotten their chicks sent from Texas? Not that I have anything against Texas, but I'd rather not buy chicks from 2000 miles away. Buying from Iowa seemed pretty far to begin with.

I've heard good things about Meyer and they are only about 700 miles away, so I will try them next time (assume they really ship from Polk Ohio and not Texas!)

 

[al6517]

When you place an order with a hatchery it doesn't tell you that the chicks will come from them, just that they will be kinda sorta like the bird you think you ordered. Many times the birds will be shipped from another hatchery that has sold overstock to other hatcheries. Your birds probably came from another hatchery, it's just the nature of the beast when dealing with hatcheries, it's all about the deception and their really good at it.

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

Mail order hatcheries ship chicks for each other all the time. In the vernacular of the trade it is known as "working out the over and shorts"

Think about it- this is a business where you do have to count your chickens before they are hatched and we have all been admonished for doing that. It's a tough business.

They meet the demands of the customers as best they can. It is not like the order takers can call the hatchery boss and tell them that they need such and such hatched tomorrow to fill the orders that have to be shipped.

 

[Nambroth]

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I researched hatcheries quite a bit before I ordered my first chicks, and from what I understand, Meyer only ever ships from Meyer (in Ohio).

 

[chriscos]

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I'm pretty sure, that after almost 100 years in business, they have a pretty good idea what the hatch rates are and they plan accordingly. I'm inclined to think that they have some cost savings by subcontracting out to whomever in Texas. And I'm not faulting McMurray for doing it. I guess I should not have assumed that the chicks would ship from the home office. Live and learn. The 20 chicks that lived are thriving and they look pretty good for hatchery birds, so I'm not complaining, was just making an observation

 

[prov31gal]

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oh my gosh, thats not true. geez, i know most hatcheries ive ever worked with dont do that, and they plan their hatches according to the orders, some may operate deceptively, i know mcmurry does, but many many dont. and its not like your getting a crap bird from a hatchery. we have some of the best looking buff orpingtons around, and they came from cackle. wow, you really hate hatcheries, what happened to you? i bet you have experience with a terrible place like mcmurry.

 

[al6517]

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oh my gosh, thats not true. geez, i know most hatcheries ive ever worked with dont do that, and they plan their hatches according to the orders, some may operate deceptively, i know mcmurry does, but many many dont. and its not like your getting a crap bird from a hatchery. we have some of the best looking buff orpingtons around, and they came from cackle. wow, you really hate hatcheries, what happened to you? i bet you have experience with a terrible place like mcmurry.

I see you don't know much about the hatchery business as the others have stated, most loyal hatchery folks don't and don't realy care to and all that is fine. If you think the hatcheries sit at the right hand then you bess think angain. I do completely understand that hatchery buyers are totaly happy with their so call ed kinda sorta close to whatever breed they think their getting, the hatcheries bet on the fact that you don't know what that true breed should resemble and also that the fact that you realy don't care. As long as they are cute and fluffy and you can name them all pretty little names, that's fine my issue is with the fact that hatchery birds are nowhere near what they are advertised as and Ya'll think they are Show quality when they are really just mutts only suitable for the backyard novice. Ok enough said about all that i am happy your happy with your choices, but don't for a second think that hatchery birds compare to real birds of heritage quality. I wish you and your birds the best of luck.

 

[chriscos]

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Kinda harsh and off topic, but thanks for the reply

 

[EweSheep]

Well that is the nature of the hatchery. As far as the orders I've had from McMurray did come from McMurray, IA. But that is many years ago.

With Backyard chicken theme going on to the mass public, I bet McMurray, Ideal, Meyer, Cackle and all the other hatcheries probably found themselves short changed probably out of certain breeds and can not send you a partial order. So I bet McM decided to call Ideal hatchery to see if they can fufill the order that McM can't. If Ideal can fill the order, then the chicks are on their way to you.

REally not a bad number that you lost. Some folks lose about 80 percent up to 100 percent of their chick orders.

 

[Oregon Blues]

Hatcheries might know what their hatch rates are, but they have no idea how many orders they will get, how many cancellations, how many replacement chicks they will have to send out. They aren't going to end up with the number of chicks hatched and the orders perfectly matched.

I've received birds from Texas. That's got to be at least 2500 miles from me. They arrived in one day and excellent condition. I don't think the distance is a problem.

The problem is post office handling and the weather can definitely be a problem. The post office doesn't ship chicks in air-conditioned comfort. They go into the hot truck just like all the other packages.