Murray McMurray Hatchery

[Kelsie2290]

Some MCM EEs

 

[ShadowsFIAL]

Here are a couple of MCM chickens, the NHR (first pic) and Blue And were about 4 months, the rest were about 8 months in the pics, Red Sexlink, Lorp, Black Sexlink, Buff Orp, I tend to stop taking pictures after they are out of the cute chick stage.

Oh my gosh! They are gorgeous! I hope my black sex link looks as good as yours!

Some MCM EEs

I love your EE's! Did you order them specifically or did you do straight run, or the egg layers assortment?

 

[Kelsie2290]

 

[Kelsie2290]

Well, it does not seem to want to let me post more pictures.
At any rate. I have ordered either sexed pullets of specific breeds or various straight-run assortments from them, have never ordered any of the egg-layer assortments. I really like their ees best of the hatcheries I have ordered them from, they are good layers and all tend to have nice temperaments. They are not terribly big birds, at least the girls are not, but they lay a nice large egg. They also usually have a high % that lay the green/blue egg and not many that lay brown (Which I like, if I am buying an ee, it should lay green/blue imo).

The black sexlinks are very pretty, calm and gentle birds, good sized, they have different amounts of red on them, Copper Penny there has a lot. They have been decent egg layers, 4-5 a week, light brown large eggs. The red sexlinks are better layers (some rival the white leghorns) but they are smaller more dominant pushy birds, and I don't think they are as pretty. Their "Pearl" white leghorns are small skinny birds, but those things lay eggs like you would not believe, I have had some that laid an egg a day for months on end in a free range yard situation. They do tend to start having problems at about 2.5 years of age and usually wind up culling them around then, have kept some longer than that, but if you are looking for birds more as pets, they may not be a good choice unless you are really regulating their feed intake etc.

 

[ShadowsFIAL]

Well, it does not seem to want to let me post more pictures.
At any rate. I have ordered either sexed pullets of specific breeds or various straight-run assortments from them, have never ordered any of the egg-layer assortments. I really like their ees best of the hatcheries I have ordered them from, they are good layers and all tend to have nice temperaments. They are not terribly big birds, at least the girls are not, but they lay a nice large egg. They also usually have a high % that lay the green/blue egg and not many that lay brown (Which I like, if I am buying an ee, it should lay green/blue imo).

The black sexlinks are very pretty, calm and gentle birds, good sized, they have different amounts of red on them, Copper Penny there has a lot. They have been decent egg layers, 4-5 a week, light brown large eggs. The red sexlinks are better layers (some rival the white leghorns) but they are smaller more dominant pushy birds, and I don't think they are as pretty. Their "Pearl" white leghorns are small skinny birds, but those things lay eggs like you would not believe, I have had some that laid an egg a day for months on end in a free range yard situation. They do tend to start having problems at about 2.5 years of age and usually wind up culling them around then, have kept some longer than that, but if you are looking for birds more as pets, they may not be a good choice unless you are really regulating their feed intake etc.

I hope I get two very different colors with my two ee's. I like having different birds. I am also crossing my fingers that my black sex link has some decent red on her. That makes me a little sad about the leghorns, I do want them as pets, but I open feed my birds letting them nibble when they want to. If I have to cull her when she gets older I will. Will make me a lil sad, but hey, that's the way life goes some times i guess. Were the leghorns rather flighty in your opinion?

 

[UnlabeledMama]

My black sexlinks from McMurray have a great range of color. The black is a blue-green black in the light and they range from a little sprinkle of red to an entire red breast. One is more gold then red and one is a deep red crimson. And they are very sweet and friendly. Some of my favorite girls!

 

[UnlabeledMama]

This is one of them.

 

[Kelsie2290]

I don't know what they would do if you order "2" ees, probably just depends on the packer who is filling your order. I know when I have ordered them they have always sent a nice assortment of colors (I have ordered 10 to 50 at various times) even in the smaller orders. Most tend to be some shade of that gold/black pheasant type color, but even those vary really widely in shading and pattern/lacing, some are a really dark brown/black and they range to a more gold/yellow, you can have 30 of them running around and they are really all different. The only ones that really look alike are the solid whites. Other colors I have gotten are blue versions of the gold/blacks, buff/white like the picture above, a weird white/splash color with a red chest... in the bigger orders it seems like 50% are the gold/black, 20% gold/blue, 10% white, 10% buff white, 10% weird colors.

I like their black sexlinks as pets, with the color, you can pretty much tell as chicks how much red they are going to have, the ones that are really reddish as chicks tend to have a lot more red in the feathers.

Ya, those commercial leghorns are a totally different bird. I don't really find them that flighty -as adults- the old ones are dominant pushy birds, and once they figure out you are the one with food, the biggest problem is getting them to leave you alone. ... the pullets are pretty wild, but most of the chickens seem to be that way, once they start laying they calm down, but I also do not spend that much time with the layers trying to tame them. You can really tell they are bred for extreme production, they probably should be kept on a really regulated diet being really careful with the protein intake. You just get the impression they are always hungry, but if they get too much protein (like they get into the dog food bowl or something) boy can you tell it in the eggs the next day or two. I free feed mine a mix of chick pellets and grain and they can free range in the barn/pasture/yard. The 2 oldest I have right now will be I think 6 in May, and that is out of 10 I think, they still lay like 3 eggs a week, but their eggs have a lot of shell defects, lines and wrinkles. I usually have gotten 10 every other year or so, and like I said, they tend to lay really well for about a year and a half and then have problems. They also do not really seem to molt as such (not like most of the other chickens do where they quit laying and loose all their feathers), they lay year-round and just slow down as they get older.

 

[ShadowsFIAL]

I don't know what they would do if you order "2" ees, probably just depends on the packer who is filling your order. I know when I have ordered them they have always sent a nice assortment of colors (I have ordered 10 to 50 at various times) even in the smaller orders. Most tend to be some shade of that gold/black pheasant type color, but even those vary really widely in shading and pattern/lacing, some are a really dark brown/black and they range to a more gold/yellow, you can have 30 of them running around and they are really all different. The only ones that really look alike are the solid whites. Other colors I have gotten are blue versions of the gold/blacks, buff/white like the picture above, a weird white/splash color with a red chest... in the bigger orders it seems like 50% are the gold/black, 20% gold/blue, 10% white, 10% buff white, 10% weird colors.

I like their black sexlinks as pets, with the color, you can pretty much tell as chicks how much red they are going to have, the ones that are really reddish as chicks tend to have a lot more red in the feathers.

Ya, those commercial leghorns are a totally different bird. I don't really find them that flighty -as adults- the old ones are dominant pushy birds, and once they figure out you are the one with food, the biggest problem is getting them to leave you alone. ... the pullets are pretty wild, but most of the chickens seem to be that way, once they start laying they calm down, but I also do not spend that much time with the layers trying to tame them. You can really tell they are bred for extreme production, they probably should be kept on a really regulated diet being really careful with the protein intake. You just get the impression they are always hungry, but if they get too much protein (like they get into the dog food bowl or something) boy can you tell it in the eggs the next day or two. I free feed mine a mix of chick pellets and grain and they can free range in the barn/pasture/yard. The 2 oldest I have right now will be I think 6 in May, and that is out of 10 I think, they still lay like 3 eggs a week, but their eggs have a lot of shell defects, lines and wrinkles. I usually have gotten 10 every other year or so, and like I said, they tend to lay really well for about a year and a half and then have problems. They also do not really seem to molt as such (not like most of the other chickens do where they quit laying and loose all their feathers), they lay year-round and just slow down as they get older.

I hope i get a nice mix of color in the flock I am getting. I hope that my sex link has a little bit of a red collar on her, an I hope I can get a gold/black pheasant color and another one such as the blue, white, or black.