Meyer vs. Mcmurray Hatchery

[themenagerie]

I've purchased birds from Meyer several times. Each time the birds arrived happy & healthy, but this year I lost two of my Welsummer chicks the day after receiving them. I contacted Meyer and they replaced them at no cost to me. I already have my order in for next spring.

 

[featheredmom]

I have ordered from Murray and Meyer both this fall and my feed store chicks come from Ideal.

My MMcM order was WONDERFUL!! We ordered 30 birds plus free exotic. We received 32 birds, we had 4 lost during shipping and 3 more that were weak. I called and they sent 10 replacement birds plus 7 EE packing peanuts(and I am pretty sure a couple of them are even pullets!!!). We were able to save 3 of 4, so now we have 35 birds. We also ordered ducks, this was slightly more disappointing, but they made it right and we received the replacements yesterday...out of 6 shipped, 2 of our cayugas died, they replaced them with blue sweedish because they had many issues with this hatch of cayugas(it happens). We were also supposed to have 4 welsh harlequins, but they were out and wont be back in until spring-again, it happens. I spoke with Jackie several times and was never disappointed, she is super sweet and was apologetic and took care of everything-the way it should be. They have customers for life with us.

My Meyer order-ugggh!!!! First, I placed an internet order and they were supposed to ship a week after the MMcM chicks(it worked well since they were larger breeds), all was fine. I checked my order the week prior to delivery only to find that half my order disappeared in cyberspace. I called and sure enough, they charged me for the full order & noone caught it. So now they are supposed to arrive Thanksgiving week(full month after they were scheduled). I had to cancel plans to visit with family...and then they didnt arrive. No phone calls, email, or notification at all. My chicks arrived yesterday, I had ordered 50 pullets(25 rainbow layers, 13 rare layers, & 12 brown layers). We are now down to 3 healthy chicks and 4 stumbling chicks that if they follow the pattern of the others, they will be dead by lights out-no matter what we do. Oh, one of the chicks that died had a missing wing(birth defect). I know it happens, but I wish someone would've caught it.

I called Meyer this afternoon and they told me to call back tomorrow at 48hrs to report total loss before they will replace...really??? With 45 dead birds, I would think they would just replace the entire order...worse case scenario, we end up with 3 extra chicks at this point...and Im not even sure that will happen the way things are going.

The customer service has been less than stellar, honestly, I wouldn't place another order with them. When the dates were messed up, I got an email how it wasnt their fault, never an apology or offer of credit or more birds nothing...either cancel(with cancellation fee) or get them Thanksgiving week. Now they are making me call back instead of just replacing chicks...just craziness.

Ideal....I have never dealt with the ordering process, but most of our chicks have been great. We ordered production reds, barred rocks, and EEs. The PRs lay consistent large brown eggs(we had one roo out of 14, he was the only one incorrectly sexed-he is gorgeous and living with my father in law since he was aggressive toward my daughter(only)), the barred rocks are great layers and one of the roo's would be able to be a show bird, our first batch of EE had a few issues, of 14 we lost 6(2 to the dog, 1 to a weasel-only 3 "just because"...since that was the only breed we lost that way, I assume it was a bad hatch)...the next 9 were perfect and are now laying beautiful blue eggs. My daughter also has 2 bantam silkies, we bought 2 to ensure she would have one, but they are both doing great. We have 2 white EEs that everyone thinks are true ameraucanas because they fit breed standards. We do have 2 green layers(as opposed to blue), but its all good, variety in the egg basket is what we were going for and we got it. I actually like seeing green eggs in addition to the blues even if it isnt the way its supposed to be. The majority of our chickens are lap chickens...I couldn't be happier with their personalities-especially after hearing many people say that hatchery birds have "issues," this is NOT the case with our birds, they are calm, like to sit on your lap, head, shoulder, whatever.

Overall if I was ordering again I would pick MMcM as my first choice, but I wouldn't hesitate to use Ideal either. However, I would NEVER order from Meyer again(and my pet chicken uses Meyer to fulfill most orders).

Hope that helps!

PS. I do not have personal experience with this, but a friend ordered birds from Cackle and they were sick(like diseased sick) and ended up killing all of her grown chickens as well as her peacocks, ducks, and turkeys. Cackle denied it even after local ag office determined cause of death and wouldnt even replace the birds that came from them as it was past 48hrs. She lost over $2000 in birds(her peacocks were $550 ea) because she ordered 20 chicks from Cackle and she kept saying it wasnt just the money, they were her babies...I found similar stories on the net, so it wasnt just her. I BELIEVE they ended up in trouble from some gov't agency if I remember right. Very sad/devastating. So I doubt I will ever try them either.


Sorry so lengthy, just wanted to relay all the info!

 

[Vamvakas]

McMurray

 

[sparrker]

Meyer. I ordered 35 chicks and they sent 1 extra. Only one has died and they've been here since halloween. So 4 weeks old and only one loss , they are growing great and real spunky. Definately will order from meyer again.

 

[donnavee]

I got 17 pullets from Meyer in 2011 - they arrived on time, all healthy and strong and all sexed correctly. I have also ordered from My Pet Chicken twice but the 2nd time one of the six ordered turned out to be a Roo - a Speckled Sussex. I am getting some more from Meyer in the Spring. Good luck with your decision.