Positive hatchery order experiences.......Please post yours here

I've ordered from Murray McMurray Hatchery several times and have never been let down. From an order of 55 all chicks were alive except 2. All breeds and sexes were correct.

 

I was pretty happy with Cackle hatchery, both their service and the quality of their birds was pretty nice.

But one I would NOT recommend is Privett because of their HORRIBLE customer service, and I'm not the only one to have the same experiences. If you want something at Privett has that others dont, order it through Welp. Welp drop ships from Privett.

 

Welp Hatchery has always been wonderful for me...and they seem to have better prices than a lot of the others. I've always had good luck with Ideal too.

 

I ordered from McMurray twice and had all breeds/genders correct, all chicks arrive alive and well, and a total of 4 extra pullets in the same breeds I ordered(3 I think were accidents) thrown in free.
That being said, I ordered my chicks to be delivered in good weather, and picked them up at 6-7 AM on sunday, rather than awaiting monday delivery.
Also, keep in mind the quality of the birds you will get...McMurray (I found out later) has a rep for mean plymoth rocks. I also found that 3/4 of my columbian wyandottes are small, uncooperative, and have crooked toes. My silver penciled Wyandottes have aweful coloring/patterns.
I, of course, ordered them because I wanted them and didn't know where else to get these breeds. I have no intention of showing, all I wanted was pretty chickens, which they are. They lay me eggs, amuse me, and the aforementioned mean rocks taste delicious!

 

First I'm not a shill for MacMurray but started ordering from them back 25 years ago and have never had a bad experience or reason to go any place else. My last experience went like this: I ordered 25 Black Star's in January for the end of May delivery. In April I had a weasel get in and kill all my breeder EE's so I got on the phone with them, gave them my order number and asked that they add 6 straight run EE's to the order. There was no problem. On May 31 I got 32 live chicks, 6 EE's and 26 BS (the gave me an extra BS since I asked for no exotic chick). All the birds arrived alive and thrived--the straight run EE's turned out to be 1 rooster and 5 hens. I'm now getting 26 eggs a day--only one EE is laying thus far but I'm not surprised as they tend to start slow and last longer.

 

I have ordered from McMurrays and Hoovers Hatchery. Lets start with Hoovers

Hoovers Hatchery was by far the best place to get your egg layers. They are very nice, informative people. They are a smaller hatchery also. I have placed 3 orders with them and have had excellent results with all orders. They have by far the best prices of any hatchery I have seen. They have descent stock for a hatchery. On a scale of 1-10 I would definetly rate them a 9. Its been a while since I ordered so I might have a few chicks in the wrong category.
Orders I placed
1st order---------------
15 White Leghorn Pullets(all were pullets and they gave 3 extras and 1 male)
15 Production Red(2 extras and and 2 males)
8 Black australorp pullets(9 pullets recieved and I ordered 2 males)
4 Easter Eggers pullets(One died of shipment stress which was a female and recieved 2 males)
2nd order-------------
25 Production Red pullets(2 died but refunded me the difference)
Recieved 1 free female and 1 free male.
3rd order---------------------
10 female White leghorns(exactly 10)
10 Production Reds females(11 recieved)
5 assorted females(3 were easter eggers and other 2 were black Austrlorps)
I had a total of 4 chicks that died on all 3 orders.

McMurrays is an ok Hatchery. First of all they have real good customer service. pretty Descent stock and had a wide selection. But the only bad thing is the prices. they are pretty expensive. Only made 1 order

25 Silver Spangled Hamburg St. Run(had 12 hens and 13 roosters)
6 White Leghorn females
3 Buff orpington females
2 red star females

total for all of this was $99.47. recieved as the "free ""rare"" exotic" chick just so happend to be a cornish rock broiler male.
Thank you

 

1st chioce: Cackle all the way. Seem to recieve healthier birds all around. Never lost one in transit.
2nd choice: Murray McMurray. A little more expensive especially on their shipping. Mostly good birds, lost very few birds in transit, have always credited account for lost birds. This is from my brothers experience.
3rd choice: Haven't ever ordered from them but thinking about going with Mt. Healthy they have some Amberlinks that I'm wanting to try and have heard very good things about them.

 

We used Sandhill Preservation because they did a few things none of the others do - they breed their own birds (no brokering or "bunching" hatching eggs from other breeders) and they're a no-kill hatchery. They only sell straight run and don't kill the day-old cockerels. Customer service was excellent, tons of extras (I ordered the 24-chick Fall Assortment and got 20 chickens and 10 guineas for my paltry $15) and quality is a bit better than most of the "pet" hatcheries. Nothing show quality, of course, but the Mediterranean breeds look different from the heavy breeds (light and have a good pinched tail), the Giants I got are genuinely twice the size of the others, the RIRs are the dark mahogany they're supposed to be. If you have to have pullets only, they're not an option, but for straight run I'd definitely use them again.

 

I've ordered from Meyer and had excellent service & communication - still have 2 of my 3 original hens from my first order, & looking forward to my 2011 order from them. They get five star rating in my book!