Well, technically not a newbie... but I used to be part of the first backyardchickens forum a long time ago when I was in my teens and did 4-H. Since, I have bought my own home and have a family and have decided to incorporate one of my loves in life in to all of this, and that is CHICKENS! I held back the urge to buy chicks from the feed store, mainly because I saw the look on my husbands (who has never had a chicken in his lifetime) face when I was showing them to my daughter (LOL). I made a comment to him the other day how I wanted to start our daughter in 4-H soon and he had all kinds of questions, so needless to say, we have chickies coming who are supposed to be here between the 1st-4th of Sept. I ordered 25 of the Special Assorted Bargain and 25 Assorted Purebred Bantams. Hoping for a good variety of breeds, has anyone else here ordered from McMurray? I use to order chicks from them years ago and always was pleased with the outcome, but it has been years! I don't think I can wait much longer to get them, verrrry excited!!
For not having chickens for several years, you sure are starting out big with 50! I haven't ordered from McMurray in years but a coworker got some from them this spring and was happy with his chicks.
I ordered 25 Black Stars and 6 EE's from MacMurray at the end of May--got 32 since they sent an extra BS--all arrived in great shape and are growing like weeds. I'm expecting a mess of eggs come midOctober. Welcome back BTW.
i ordered the "rainbow layers" mix from mcmurray, and got ee's, andalusians, white leghorns, new hampshire reds, and dark cornish, all pullets (including the packing peanuts, i was SO HAPPY about that!) the only roo was our "free rare breed" and he turned out to be a gold-laced wyandotte, which is one of the better breeds if you have to have a roo because they are pretty easy going and friendly. my birds are almost 4 months old now and several are getting ready to lay. i was told by several ex-farmers that mcmurray is not only the most affordable hatchery, but one of the best to work with, and i absolutely found that to be the case. we had to contact them several times and they were very helpful, and when several peeps got sick (shipment was in april and even with the peanuts some got too cold) they refunded us for each one with no argument whatsoever. the only thing i don't like is that you can't order a specific number of a specific breed, because i love my andalusians so much that i want more (but not 25 more!). guess i'll just take my chances on another mix order in a few years when i need to order again.
