Question on ordering from Mcmurray

[boykin2010]

Long story short my grandpa is getting into chickens and i wanted to order him 50 or so chicks from mcmurray. Probably something like 15 white leghorn St Run, 20 Rhode island red St run, and 15 Black stars ( only females ).... He plans on butchering excess roosters from the St runs and i told him to expect half to be roosters so my question is shouldnt he end up with about 30 or so females if they are really 50/50?

Also i have read about mcmurray sending a mystery chick i think? What does this mean. Does it mean every time you order a certain amount of a breed of chicken they send you a mystery chick?

Have yall had good experiences with mcmurray? Are all the chicks healthy, happy and good layers for the price? I noticed they may be a little more than other hatcheries but they seem to have better reviews on the internet.

 

[vickie2133]

I like them, but they are the only ones I have ordered from. I like all the chickens I got.

 

[boykin2010]

Ok thanks, do you know anything about the mystery chick?

 

[4kidslotsapets]

I ordered 25 hens from McMurray and had very good luck with them. We did lose one, but the rest all are doing very well. The mystery chick is just that- they throw in an extra, and it could be a rooster or hen, of any kind! I haven't figured out what ours is yet!

 

[boykin2010]

ok But do they send a mystery chick just when you order 25 or if i ordered just 1 chick they will send one mystery chick with it? So lets say if i ordered 15 chicks would they send a mystery chick then or do they only send mystery chicks when you buy a lot of chicks at one time.

 

[Cowgirl71]

I ordered from them twice in 2009. Very pleased. I'm planning another order this spring. Their RIRs are AWESOME layers. I highly recommend them! One thing you may notice though is that for some reason it's cheaper to order half cockerels and half pullets than straight run. I haven't tried any of their White Leghorns, and only have one Black Sexlink from them. She's a good layer.

McMurray's "mystery chick" is a freebie with every order, regardless of how many you're ordering. Often times it's a Easter Egger rooster. In my two orders I received an EE rooster and a Black Cochin. The Cochin was weak and only lived for a day, so I don't know what gender it was. Really cute though.

95% of the time their mystery chick will be a rooster. You can ask them not to send it if you don't want it. Sometimes it won't be rare at all. I've heard of people receiving a Cornish X male and a RIR female.

Their minimum order is 25 chicks.

The rest of my chicks were very healthy and vigorous and I only lost a few to beginner mistakes. All of my McMurray hens are excellent layers. I highly recommend them!

 

[dela1991]

I ordered 25 from McMurray last year. I ordered one Delaware rooster and the rest hens...Delaware, RIR's and Buff Orpingtons. They sent two Delaware roosters which ended up being White Rocks and one mystery chick. He (and they are almost always roosters) was a Buff Cochin. I kept one of the White Rocks and found homes for the other two.

I would guess that if you ordered 50 chickens, 15 of which were ordered as hens, the chance of you getting another 15 hens out of 35 straight runs is pretty good. But don't hold me to it.

The hens that I have are good layers. That I can say for sure. We kept six hens and have more eggs than we really need for the two of us. Today I got 5 eggs. I dropped one on the way into the house. I need to get a basket or a coat with bigger pockets.

 

[gardeningsis]

I have ordered several times from McMurray and have had excellent results. But I'm not sure about the mystery chick. I have also had excellent results from My Pet Chicken. With My Pet Chicken I specified (and payed a little extra) for hens. There is no minimum. Last time I ordered 7 hens and 1 rooster and received what I requested all in good health.

Edit: I checked my records and I didn't get a mystery chick. Maybe I checked that I didn't want it?

 

[boykin2010]

Ok thank you that does help me a lot. What about the roosters from these breeds are they usually pretty meaty and good to be butchered. Sorry i am aggravating yall with so many questions i just want to make some good decisions.

 

[Illia]

The mystery chick is an extra rooster. It usually is an Easter Egger (what they call an Araucana/Americana) and my last one was a good, amazing 10 lbs, but normally if it is any other breed you're lucky to butcher a 6 lb rooster from them.