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.

 

[TSparks123]

We ordered a shipment of chicks from MMH on Fri, Feb. 16, 2024. (A week ago today actually.)
12 Bielefelders - Unsexed
15 Special Assorted Unsexed
1 Free Chick

On Tues, Feb. 20 I received the text they had shipped. So I started impatiently tracking them. lol

I did not receive these chicks till the morning of Thurs, Feb. 22.
I went to the post office & was chatting with my postal carrier & peeked in the box. Noticed a dead one, then what looked like more.
I quickly set the box down & popped the staples off one side to find a horrific scene. On first glance in horror it looked like 6 were alive, the rest were dead! Squashed on top of each other. The live ones picking at the dead ones!
My postal carried was grossed out too. But advised me to take pics. In doing so, I gagged as they were already smelling horribly. The drive home I had to roll the windows down on a cool morning.
Once home, we did an official count & we had 10 alive. One was dying; the rest dead.

These guys were STARVING. I mean they probably ate a cup of food within the first hour! We thought we were losing another one, but it was just weak. It started going down last night but has picked up since then & made it through the night.

Customer service apologized profusely BUT didn't try to make it right.
Our options were: 1. Re-Order but we have to pay for 7 more chicks to meet the minimum. 2. Wait till April to get the order as is. 3. Credit our card.
They initially issued us a store credit; we had to call back after we talked about it to get them to just refund our card as we didn't want this experience again plus having to order & pay for more chicks. (That potentially could die too.)

The circumstance we are in now, is trying to figure out what chicks we have as it literally looks like most of what survived where the assorted chicks, with 1 for sure Bielefelder male alive. Plus trying to find locally a breeder, that's NPIP/AI clean for the breeds we want.

This is my 2nd hatchery order ever. The first one was in Jan from McMurray for some Runner ducks. It went fine.
But as I found out then & with this fiasco coupled with it, I'm not pleased.
See McMurray sells itself as a family owned company. Tom's granddad started the hatchery, whatever the story.
You think you're getting chicks from THEIR breeding lines; expecting a cleaner line than say Hoover.
Except that is NOT the case that I have found. (Feel free to prove me wrong.)

McMurray sources their ducklings from Metzer Farms in Cordova TN. (Hoover may also, I haven't ordered from them.)
These Bielefelders & Assorted mix came from St. Paul, MN. NOT Iowa.
My cousin who ordered meat chicks from Hoover Hatchery, came in from St. Paul, MN also.
I've read that McMurray sources Turkeys from Privetts in New Mexico. And I believe Hoover does also.

I understand business side; it might make sense logistics/finances/etc.
But as a consumer this does not. Especially for McMurray, they should be transparent about this. If these are outsourced chickens, it should be clearly stated on their catalogs, that it's not a breed line from them.

So that's our story for those who care. This has left a bad experience for us on ordering from hatcheries.
Granted my local feed store got in 400 chicks today & of all those only 1 arrived dead! That's crazy! But from what I can gather via tracking, those poor chicks sat in St. Paul airport (for USPS) for almost 2 days waiting to be shipped out. No wonder they died. It's been cold there.

-A.

I just had a sick chick experience with Murray McMurray. I placed an order. The chicks arrived a day later than they normally do. THE CHICKS DIED ONE-BY-ONE. After 5 died I took them to the vet. They were treated for myoplasmosis which they would be born with. I had to cull them because it is really not effectively treatable and is very contagious.

I called Murray McMurray to tell them. I asked for a full refund and pay $96 for my vet bill which I wouldn’t have had if the chicks were healthy. They closed my account and told me that I can’t purchase from them again. What kind of company closes the account of a good customer who tells them of their wrongdoing? I do NOT recommend Murray McMurray.

 

[McChooky]

75-90% all flocks are estimated to have it but don't show signs until stressed. Lowering stress and practicing good hygiene and biosecurity can help prevent the disease and symptoms.It doesn't affect older chickens much as it does the younger ones.Culling them certainly prevents the spread but its likely already on your property.You can carry it on your shoes and clothes.