McMurray Hatchery- Our Experience :(

[Robert Kazlauski]

Update:
We lost the only male Bielefelder today. and past the 48hr window so no refund on that.

Wow. So sorry to hear that.

 

[EmmaDonovan]

Update:
We lost the only male Bielefelder today. and past the 48hr window so no refund on that.

I wish I weren't on the other side of the country from you. We have a 7 week old Bielefelder boy who needs a good home. He's handsome and the friendliest of all of our Bielefelders.

 

[Robert Kazlauski]

So nice of you to say that. Thanks. Where are you located?

 

[EmmaDonovan]

So nice of you to say that. Thanks. Where are you located?

Arizona. If by some coincidence you're traveling here in the near future, let me know! He's big and healthy, calm, comes up to say hello, gets along with everyone, we handle him (and all the chickens) every day, he'll happily eat treats out of your hand. We use organic feed and treats. His father is gorgeous. I think he'll be a splendid rooster. We can't have roosters here or we'd be delighted to keep him.

 

[Love Donkeys]

Over the years we have used Hoovers Hatchery with no problems. When our 4 children were in 4H, every year they would each buy 100 Straight-Run Fancy Breed Chicks. The 400 chicks were always shipped by USPS with no problems.
I purchased my Speckled Sussex from Hoovers, shipped USPS. Only lost one, which Hoovers refunded the cost to my card.

 

[Predoggg]

I am sorry to hear about the terrible chicken shipping experience. I never ordered from Hoover or McMurrary. It might not be just the hatchery the problem. USPS can contribute to the problem too.

Hope you have a better experience with a local breeder or a different hatchery closer to your home.

 

[McChooky]

Sorry for your loss! Due to the high probability of extreme weather in the winter and summer months I won't schedule any orders to arrive before the last frost date for zone 6.Last year I didn't get to order the legbar pullets I wanted because so many other people wanted delivery dates around the same time

 

[Birdsonghill]

I have ordered from Murray McMurray Hatchery and other well known hatcheries since 1977. Received many from MMH and others, with minimal losses and good stock mostly in healthy condition. However, due to the wild card in the deck, the USPS delivery, disaster has happened to me occasionally. The callous handling or neglect for life of the chicks intentional or not, has caused me to open boxes with birds with broken legs wings and necks or just dead from extreme temperature exposure or lost on a loading dock an extra day or two resulting in casualties. Chicks can survive three days without food or water in transit and that is how we got them in the old days. Now most companies put some gel in the box with a bit of water and nutritional support. After three days casualties rapidly mount up. My worst loss was here at my local post office were they failed to bring the chicks inside the heated bldg. overnight or call me until over twenty four hours later. Ten dead on opening the box and ten more died over the next week, only six survived. They shipped on a Monday, I got them on a Thursday morning after they spent the night on the dock "because they stank" said the postal employee. I have had perfect shipments with no losses occasionally, but one or two is not unusual. Mail order chickens has gotten somewhat, less reliable along with the USPS services in general it seems to me. I have only had a couple hatchery issues with shipping defective birds. I got a cross beak chick and a couple one eye chicks before, one from MMH and a couple from another hatchery about twenty years ago. Seldom has the hatchery failed me. Sexing accuracy has been spotty somewhat, but usually within about 80% accuracy and MMH will refund for Less than 90% accuracy, those chicks wrongly sexed over the 90%. I understand the frustration with having unwanted roosters or less surviving birds than you wished after a botched delivery. I usually take the cash refund for the chicks as reordering does have minimums for delivery that must be met, with the added cost of additional birds. Purchasing good stock locally is a great solution to avoid these problems, if you can find the breeds you want from a reputable breeder of quality stock. You may get better stock as well. You may also not get good stock and bring home disease or pest if you are not experienced. I have enjoyed a wide variety of chicken breeds over the last nearly fifty years of my adult chicken raising efforts, because of Mail delivery chicks coming from reliable hatcheries like MMH. I am grateful for them enriching my coops with interesting birds that I could not have found locally.