Murray McMurray hatchery???????

[bwalden]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/629086/second-order-from-mcmurray-dead#post_8405257


Found this interesting BYC thread about Murray Mcmurray. You cant always blame the hatchery. Postal handling can be a major factor as well.

 

[dandydoodle]

I really wasn't questioning their handling of the chicks. I know being mailed there is a number of factors that can go wrong which is completely out of their control. Heck I hatched out about 16 babies last week and two died and everything possible was done right. Chicks sometimes have things wrong with them you can't see. One died in the middle of zipping. His nose was exposed and everything so he could breath. I went ahead and took him out and everything looked normal. No blood, the egg yolk was absorbed everything looked normal except he wasn't alive. Then I had one more pass right after putting them in the brooder. They had plenty of heat and no drafts in the brooder but, my cute little chickie passed anyway. Everyone else is doing fine. Sometimes you can't figure out the rhyme or reason for it and you have really done all you can do, its just a part of life.

If lots die when you get them, sounds like they might have got chilled on the way or after you got them. After a baby gets a chill doesn't take long for them to die and there is really no returning from a chill.

What I was really wanting was to see pics and know what ya'll thought about how they looked. The pics of the birds that are posted are beautiful. I would love to see more pics of different breeds. Especially Aracaunas and Mille Fluer D'uccles. I have a couple of these and I am just curious what they might look like in the future. Also I know that the Aracaunas are actually EEs that was obvious when they arrived. They are suppose to be rumpless and they are not. It really doesn't matter to me though because, I raise EEs and they are my favorite breed. I am just calling them Aracaunas so you know what my friend ordered and what he gave me.

MORE PICS PLEASE!!!!

KEEP EM COMING I LOVE SEEING THEM. SUCH A BEAUTIFUL BRAHMA!!!!!!!!

 

[RaeRae2]

Actually, I do believe that a HUGE portion of the "postal handling problems" mostly certainly IS McMurray's fault. There is no reason that they have to hatch chicks on Friday and get them in the mail on the weekend. NONE. No other hatcheries do this, to my knowledge.

When they ship on Friday, it's up to the dock worker at the distribution center if they should so happen to call you at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night, or if they choose to let the chicks go on to your local PO Monday morning.

I had to drive about 130 miles round trip to get my chicks late Saturday night from the distribution center so they did not sit on a frigid cold dock with no food, water, or heat until Monday, at which point they would have all been dead.

If they'd shipped on a week day, it would eliminate at least a full 24 hours from the shipping schedule.

I got 27 chicks and only one was dead on arrival. I feel I got VERY lucky as it seems that McMurray's losses are unusually high due to the weekend shipping thing.

Also I didn't feel the customer service was that great. Wasn't terrible, but wasn't stellar either. When I called to express my concerns, the rep on the phone had a "Yeah whatever." attitude. She seemed annoyed, short, and stressed on the phone. She said that my chicks would have come FINE on Monday morning, and that all the stress I experienced trying to find my chicks and get them picked up over 60 miles away from my home, was brought on by myself. If I'd just waited until Monday, I could have picked them up locally and they would be fine.

But what she doesn't understand is that many people who wait until Monday end up with heavy losses, and I did NOT want that.

 

[dandydoodle]

Can you ask them to not send out your shipment on Friday?

 

[Steve234]

I got an order from Mcmurray the other day. They also where hatched on friday and shipped out. The Post Office called Sunday morning and I went and picked them up. All are doing fine but one. It is a Dark Brahma and I doubt it will make it. I can't wait to see how they feather out. That is a nice Buff Brahma chickenhawk.

 

[jody78]

Our flock came from MM about 2 months ago, and had an excellent experience. We had no problems at all with our chick order.

 

[Vamvakas]

I just got my chicks easter sunday from McMurray... So far all are very healthy, eating, drinking, running around. I orderd 43 chicks they gave me 2 extra males and the mystery chick so 46 all together. I'll update in a few days on how there're doing.

 

[erinszoo]

We've ordered from McMurray several times. Last year we had ducks and turkeys both die within 24 hours. They didn't give us a refund, only credit towards a new order which sucks if you don't want to order from them again. We are very happy with the quality of birds that we have gotten otherwise. They seem to be friendly and healthy and passed all of the pullorum-typhoid tests that our city runs on them. This year we ordered 15 turkeys. At three weeks we have 8 left that are still thriving and doing very well. 2 died within the first 24 hours. 2 more died within 48 hours. The other three grew until the 3rd week and then quit growing. I've read that there is a virus in some of the hatchery turkeys that strikes about the third week that can cause this as they had no other signs of illness. Kind of rubs the wrong way when we've lost half of them before they are even out of the brooder. We have had some issues with customer service with them but that doesn't really affect the quality of the birds they have so we put up with it ...

 

[gallusdomesticus]

My local feed store just got a shipment of 73 chicks from McMurray...19 were dead. The owner blames the Post Office for misplacing the chicks. She did say that the chicks were supposed to be banded to identify their breeds and none of them were. Perhaps an isolated incident and more of a pain for the feed store that ordered the chicks but not identifying the specific breeds of chickens is not good.

 

[myhubbycallsmechickeemama]

I really like McMurray Hatchery. We ordered 25 Buff Orpington pullets from them last year and got 26 pullets , all are alive and well (one did happen to be a Buff Rock but I didn't care because she is a sweetie). We also ordered 40 CX from them and we were sent 47. Butchered all but 4 but those were accidents on my part not the chickens. I just ordered 35 more CX, 5 GLW and 5 Delaware from them and they should be here a week from Monday. I will probably always do business with McMurray!!