Murray McMurray Stock Info ( Domestic Goddes this might help)

[chickenwhisperer123]

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I think thats a great idea!

 

[FlashPointFarm]

I have some birds in my layer pen from MM, but not the breeds you have listed.

 

[schmije]

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That's a good plan. You may not be able to get EXACTLY what you want, but you should be able to get close. We've sold chicks on craigslist, and it's worked out really well for us.

 

[Mrs MIA]

I've had some beautiful birds from MMH, and some that were so-so. If you just want 'the breed', then they're fine. If you're looking for good quality stock with which to start your own and possibly show, then your best bet is to get them from a breeder.

You're going to have both positive and negative feedback from any hatchery you ask about. That's just the way it goes.

 

[prov31gal]

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they say that the majority of the photos on the site and in the catalog are of their birds. i dont mean to contradict, but my birds look really good, i dont show birds, but with any batch of birds you get, whether from a breeder or a packyard chicken raiser or a hatchery, your going to get some degree of variation, and you pick the very best top show, not every single bird will be the perfect bird. but there have been kids in 4h here whove won awards for cackle birds, abd i know its just 4h and everything but i really bwlieve they have good birds.
now im very interested in knowing about this person who called cackle and was told that the pictures were not of their birds.....i want to know more about that, because if they specifically say that most of the pictures are their birds and they are not, then i have a problem with that.

 

[Katy]

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they say that the majority of the photos on the site and in the catalog are of their birds. i dont mean to contradict, but my birds look really good, i dont show birds, but with any batch of birds you get, whether from a breeder or a packyard chicken raiser or a hatchery, your going to get some degree of variation, and you pick the very best top show, not every single bird will be the perfect bird. but there have been kids in 4h here whove won awards for cackle birds, abd i know its just 4h and everything but i really bwlieve they have good birds.
now im very interested in knowing about this person who called cackle and was told that the pictures were not of their birds.....i want to know more about that, because if they specifically say that most of the pictures are their birds and they are not, then i have a problem with that.

I didn't call them, I emailed them and they said a few are of their birds, but the others are not. I asked them straight out if the pictures were their birds. and that is what I was told. All of the hatcheries I contacted that use actual pictures admitted to me that the pictures they use are not of their birds.

 

[FlashPointFarm]

Some hatcheries come across show quality lines for their breeding stock, but mostly they are not what is shown. It's hit and miss on the breed. Strombergs and Sand Hill Preservation are a couple that will advertise show quality birds on a number of breeds of their stock. You just have to do your research to find them.

 

[prov31gal]

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they say that the majority of the photos on the site and in the catalog are of their birds. i dont mean to contradict, but my birds look really good, i dont show birds, but with any batch of birds you get, whether from a breeder or a packyard chicken raiser or a hatchery, your going to get some degree of variation, and you pick the very best top show, not every single bird will be the perfect bird. but there have been kids in 4h here whove won awards for cackle birds, abd i know its just 4h and everything but i really bwlieve they have good birds.
now im very interested in knowing about this person who called cackle and was told that the pictures were not of their birds.....i want to know more about that, because if they specifically say that most of the pictures are their birds and they are not, then i have a problem with that.

I didn't call them, I emailed them and they said a few are of their birds, but the others are not. I asked them straight out if the pictures were their birds. and that is what I was told. All of the hatcheries I contacted that use actual pictures admitted to me that the pictures they use are not of their birds.

sighs.........in disappointment.....................

but i still feel like they have good birds, and all mine look like they should.............
and its still better than stylized drawings.....................at least you can tell what they should look like, unlike a certain hatchery whose birds are so woefully inadequate that they hide behing cartoon- pencil drawings.

 

[Katy]

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I didn't call them, I emailed them and they said a few are of their birds, but the others are not. I asked them straight out if the pictures were their birds. and that is what I was told. All of the hatcheries I contacted that use actual pictures admitted to me that the pictures they use are not of their birds.

sighs.........in disappointment.....................

but i still feel like they have good birds, and all mine look like they should.............
and its still better than stylized drawings.....................at least you can tell what they should look like, unlike a certain hatchery whose birds are so woefully inadequate that they hide behing cartoon- pencil drawings.

As an example.....one of the breeds I specifically asked about was their silver laced wyandottes. If you look at the pictures in the catalog, those are not their adult birds. I don't know about the chick pictures.....I didn't specifically ask about chick pictures. If you look at the website the only one they said was their bird was the top left hand picture of a roo......clearly the poorest bird in the group of photos. Compare him to the roo that is pictured directly under him and you can see the difference.

 

[Cara]

I think we need to get over the 'photos rather than drawings means they have better birds' line of thought. I buy eggs from breeders to hatch some specific breeds that I raise, I purchase my layers (for eating purposes) from hatcheries. Most hatcheries do not use the same supplier for eggs for each breed every single time. So on occasion you might get good birds, on your next order you might get poor examples. Then there is the variation between particular birds in a hatch. It is not completely impossible that you will get an excellent show bird from a hatchery, it is just highly unlikely. If you buy from a breeder you are increasing your odds. It's kind of like buying a racehorse from a sale barn as opposed to someone who has a barn of winning Thoroughbreds.

I do take exception to the suggestion that hatchery birds are worthless. The majority of people who raise poultry in this country (and the world) do so to produce food, not to show. In many ways an ugly bird that produces a lot of eggs is more valuable. To me it is snobbish to assume that only a pretty bird can perform a noble purpose. It seems that a lot of people get hung up on buying 'show quality' (or what is advertised as show quality, anyway) when they have no intention of ever attending a poultry show. Many will take a good line of birds and ruin it, but claim that their flock is from 'X's line' when X would probably have culled most of their flock.