Murray McMurray Hatchery

[halo]

I wasnt sure where to put this...if its in the wrong spot I hope it will be moved. On Dirty Jobs, we all saw the hilarious M McMurray segment. They never show just exactly how they get their eggs, tho. Do they have huge pens full of different chickens? They must have thousands of hens on the payroll in order to produce....what did they say, 50,000 chicks a week? Are they particular on which hens they use to produce chicks, or is it such a mass produced deal that they just take any hens of the particular breed to produce eggs. Has anyone seen their set up?

 

[Blisschick]

I believe they get their eggs shipped in from breeders. They don't have any birds at their facilities other than the chicks they hatch.

 

[Smitty's Farm]

Some of the Hatcheries have a virtual tour of their facility. I can't remember which hatchery has it, but you can go to their website to check it out.

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

I know this is a little of topic but I seen every dirty jobs ep but that one

 

[Katy]

I don't have cable tv so I never saw the show. McMurrays is the only hatchery I've ever ordered from and I've always had good luck with their birds. I'm sure they aren't show quality, but they've always been nice and healthy.....and I've gotten what I ordered.

 

[halo]

Oh thats interesting. They get all their eggs from breeders?? Thats a nice little side job for someone, providing eggs for Murray McMurray. Ive read several posts where people have taken the MM chickens to shows and done well with them,so they must be nice. Does anyone know anyone who provides eggs for them?

 

[silkiechicken]

As in shipped from breeders, I doubt it's going to be show quality breeders with maybe 50 birds, but rather contract breeders with hundreds of birds that pump eggs out to them so they can hatch tens of thousands of chicks a week for shipment.

 

[SloCrevs]

As with most hatcheries, you can get 100 birds, and usualy only 1 or so is show quality. I've seen this ESPECIALLY with McMurray. But hey, I'm very particular about my birds. But for backyard flocks, as long as their happy and healthy, that's all that really matters.

-Sarah

 

[tarazod]

We had the special opportunity of visiting the Murray McMurray Hatchery and got a behind the scenes tour of the facility by one of the owners, Bud Wood. Bud explained that they have contracts with local Iowa chicken breeders to supply them with eggs. The McMurray trucks go out to the different farms on specified days and return to the hatchery where the eggs are placed into massive incubators.

If you're interested in seeing video footage of the McMurray operation, stay tuned. We are approaching the completion on a nearly 2.5 year feature film project that documents the phenomenon that is the backyard chicken movement. And we take the viewers on the same tour of the hatchery that we received.

Murray McMurray Hatchery

Mad City Chickens film project

 

[firechicken]

Your movie looks like it will be interesting.