Murray McMurray hatchery?

[RaeRae2]

I ordered 25 from and received 27. One was dead in the box. The remaining 26 are healthy, happy, and 10 days old now. There was a lot of hassle in receiving the box from the P.O. We ended up driving 130 miles round trip at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night to get the babies, or they would have been shipped to our local P.O. on Monday. It was COLD and they would have been dead by then.

The only screw up was that they sent me two Dark Brahmas instead of 1 Dark, 1 Light, as I ordered. The others seem to be the right breeds. I ordered all pullets, so that remains to be seen yet, how accurate the sexing was. Their site says 90% accuracy, so if I end up with only 3 or 4 roosters, I will be happy with that.

I like the variety of breeds that MM has, but their shipping policies SUCK. Suck with a capital suck. They mail out Friday night/Saturday morning, which puts these babies in a warehouse over the weekend. You have to be annoyingly persistent with the P.O., make a million phone calls to JUST the right numbers, and then do a rain dance, HOPING your chicks get to you some time on Saturday or Sunday and not have to wait until Monday morning.

I will not order chicks again. The hatcheries casually replace boxes of chicks, like they are old newspapers or something. They are live animals, left on docks to starve and freeze. Days in a box, in the total darkness, being jostled around, frozen, hungry. Clinging onto life, just waiting for somebody to open that box. I can't even imagine why shipping live chicks is even legal! It makes me absolutely ill to think of the babies that suffer and then die without a chance. All in all, my order was very successful with only 1 casualty, but a friend of mine opened a box of 25 dead chicks - and hers was in the middle of the summer! It was 90 degrees when her chicks arrived dead. So they either were left in the sun to bake to death, or they starved. She said the trauma of opening up those dead chicks turned her off from hatcheries forever. The really bad thing is that she only lives about 6 hours from MM Hatchery! And it still took them 3 full days to get to her.

In the future, I will find local breeders, since I like a variety of breeds. Or MM hatchery isn't too terribly far from me. I will just drive there and pick up chicks instead of having them mailed.

 

[mb poultry]

Our replacement order of chicks are somewhere on there way here. This is our replacement order from the Valentines Day DOA. Hope they arrive tomorrow, they shipped Sat evening, and its getting cold tonight. If they are not here in am, this will be our last order from McMurray. Too bad, we love their chicks.

 

[Showvol]

My son and I have ordered 25 of the Rainbow layers collection from MM (plus the free mystery chick) and had scheduled delivery for this week (March 5). Thanks to many of you, we took your suggestions and called the Knoxville USPS Distribution Center on Saturday (March 3) and let them know that our order would be coming through there on Sunday (March 4) and we would like to pick them up from there instead of having them shipped to our more rural post office. The dock supervisor appreciated us calling and called us back on Sunday afternoon to let us know that our chicks were there and how to pick them up. We opened our package of 28 chirping chicks and so far have only lost one (which was probably not going to make it anyhow as it was a very small Golden Polish). Our only real problem is identifying what we have as I can only truly identify three so far (3 white crested black polish).

Would we do this again with MM? Yes. My suggestion to MM (and BYC members) would be to add a little more grow gel as ours was gone within 48 hours of shipping and realize that your chicks are probably going through the St.Paul, MN USPS Distrubtion Center.

 

[mb poultry]

Well just got our replacement order of chicks today from the Valentines day DOA. This time 40 shipped, 37 dead, 3 gasping and struggling to live. Called McMurray, agin CS very polite and friendly, said they didnt know what the PO hold up was, and asked if we wanted credit, replacements, or refund. We took the refund! I really like McMurray, but the weekend shipping is a bad set up, I guess we will try Meyers now, although I'm already going to be a month behind on fall replacement layers. If you can get them on time, I would recommend McMurray, if you are like us and can't, try and find somewhere that ships early week!

 

[wildcat chix]

Our replacement order was supposed to be here this coming Monday. After reading your post, MB, I called this morning. Customer Service told me they're still having issues shipping to Kentucky. We decided not to chance it again and cancelled the order.

We got a refund and will be looking locally for chicks, either TSC or the local stock sale. It won't be quite the same, but we won't be opening a box of 41 dead chicks next week. Maybe instead of arriving here dead, they'll be able to get to someone else's house alive and well.

I still want to order from McMurray or another hatchery. I do not know enough about the postal service to know who to blame, but I do hope they get their act together soon.

 

[Showvol]

With the problems that some are having with the USPS, I would suggest (if anyone continues to order with MM) that you contact your local PO and find out which distribution center serves you. Then get the direct phone number for the dock supervisor and let them know that your shipment will be coming through their center over your particular weekend. If you leave your name and phone number, they will call you if they see the shipment and what to do with it.

 

[mb poultry]

Our replacement order was supposed to be here this coming Monday. After reading your post, MB, I called this morning. Customer Service told me they're still having issues shipping to Kentucky. We decided not to chance it again and cancelled the order.

We got a refund and will be looking locally for chicks, either TSC or the local stock sale. It won't be quite the same, but we won't be opening a box of 41 dead chicks next week. Maybe instead of arriving here dead, they'll be able to get to someone else's house alive and well.

I still want to order from McMurray or another hatchery. I do not know enough about the postal service to know who to blame, but I do hope they get their act together soon.

I did mention when speaking with customer service that I had heard of similar issues in this region. They said they work closely with the PO, but agreed they are still having issues. Just placed an order with Ideal for delivery next week, I will let you know if it works better. It is a further trip, but I called them and they said two days, plus they ship on weds, so the Sunday delay should be avoided.

 

[mb poultry]

Well the good news is chicks from Ideal made it alive except for one. The bad news is shipping is still an issue to this area. If it hadnt been for a nice postal worker in Knoxville, these would have not made it either. They shipped on Wednesday, just arrived in Knoxville today. He called and said they would be in Johnson City this evening around 6:00 if we wanted to pick them up. He even called the JC shipping docks, and told them we was coming, and called back to let us know and give us the direct # to the shipping area. He was afraid they wouldnt make it here tommorow, and would be dead by Monday(true). He was so polite and nice, and is the only reason we have them now. So we drove to Johnson City this evening (an hour and half away) and picked up our chicks. I dont know what the problem is with the postal service shipping delays!!!

 

[luv dem chicks]

Well the good news is chicks from Ideal made it alive except for one. The bad news is shipping is still an issue to this area. If it hadnt been for a nice postal worker in Knoxville, these would have not made it either. They shipped on Wednesday, just arrived in Knoxville today. He called and said they would be in Johnson City this evening around 6:00 if we wanted to pick them up. He even called the JC shipping docks, and told them we was coming, and called back to let us know and give us the direct # to the shipping area. He was afraid they wouldnt make it here tommorow, and would be dead by Monday(true). He was so polite and nice, and is the only reason we have them now. So we drove to Johnson City this evening (an hour and half away) and picked up our chicks. I dont know what the problem is with the postal service shipping delays!!!

That's too bad. I live outside of Tellico Plains and our shipped-in birds always arrive in the time the hatchery says they will. PO calls asap, and we go immediately to pick-up. I open box in parking lot to give the chicks water, and maybe this is just luck but we haven't had a casualty during shipping yet. Next time I'd call all of the PO's in your local shipping line and let them know you're expecting a delivery of live chicks and stress the importance of a speedy delivery.

 

[hensonly]

I just got my first McMurray order, also arriving on Sunday. I got my robo call at 6 am Sunday, then at 9 the post office called. The chicks were at the main hub post office, and they had a guy loading them in his car as we spoke, who would deliver them TO OUT HOUSE as soon as he finished loading his car. We would be the first stop, in order to get the chicks to us as quickly as possible. The babies arrived at my back door an hour and a half later, all in fantastic shape. YAY for the Albany, NY Post Office! Now that's how I like to see my tax dollars at work!!