Rate McMurray Hatchery

[windnleavesfarm]

I would give them a 4/10. I say this for multiple reasons:

1. I believe about four of my chicks died.
2. They put a bantam in as my mystery chick. I have all standard breed chicks so he had to be seperated all by him self because the others would pick on him.
3. The same mystery chick now crows at 2am in the morning (I realize that this isn't their fault but if the chick is going to be a rooster i'd rather not have any mystery chick at all I have enough roosters as it is. Since he is a bantam he is not good for eating.
4. I think that they screwed up my order
5. The BLRW do not come in blue they come as white laced
6. All my birds were very flighty
7. After I ordered about 24 chicks last spring I'm only getting 3 eggs a day if I'm lucky!

 

[austrolover1]

I am sorry bad a bad experience with McMurray hatchery. You can request not to get a mystery chicken. When they sent me a mystery chick with my order I wasn't so pleased with HIM either. Did you only get BLRW or did you get any other breeds? BLRW aren't the best layers you know.

 

[keesmom]

I would give them a 4/10. I say this for multiple reasons:

1. I believe about four of my chicks died
3. The same mystery chick now crows at 2am in the morning (I realize that this isn't their fault but if the chick is going to be a rooster i'd rather not have any mystery chick at all I have enough roosters as it is. Since he is a bantam he is not good for eating.

4. I think that they screwed up my order
5. The BLRW do not come in blue they come as white laced

As for #1, shipping is hard on chicks. I always anticipate losing a few if I order from a hatchery.

Regarding #3, just about all the free exotics are cockerel chicks. A surprise pullet may get through once in a while but the odds are against you. We ended up with a silver Leghorn cockerel. Not a lot of meat there but he is currently resides in the freezer.

And for #5, blue does not breed true. When one orders blue fowl, solid or laced, one stands the chance of receiving blue, black or splash birds. You got splash. My daughter wanted blue cochins so I ordered 6 to make sure we got at least one blue, and hoped for one splash. We got 3 blue and 3 black. It's the luck of the draw.

 

[windnleavesfarm]

As for #1, shipping is hard on chicks. I always anticipate losing a few if I order from a hatchery.


Regarding #3, just about all the free exotics are cockerel chicks. A surprise pullet may get through once in a while but the odds are against you. We ended up with a silver Leghorn cockerel. Not a lot of meat there but he is currently resides in the freezer.

And for #5, blue does not breed true. When one orders blue fowl, solid or laced, one stands the chance of receiving blue, black or splash birds. You got splash. My daughter wanted blue cochins so I ordered 6 to make sure we got at least one blue, and hoped for one splash. We got 3 blue and 3 black. It's the luck of the draw.

I just wish that they would give you a choice for a surprise chick don't just throw something in. That's not fair to the customer. And they should state that in there details about the breed that not all will come blue otherwise you can loose many customers. Thank you for your reply!

 

[keesmom]

I just wish that they would give you a choice for a surprise chick don't just throw something in. That's not fair to the customer. And they should state that in there details about the breed that not all will come blue otherwise you can loose many customers. Thank you for your reply!

I did find this under their page for blue Andalusians. Not a very good description of the blue gene. Blue has nothing to do with white, and I have no idea what they mean by black-white colors. Breeding blue to another blue will not result in white.

THE COLOR BLUE: A unique genetic feature of this breed is the constant recurrence in the offspring of not only all blue chicks, but also the black, white, and black-white colors used in the original matings many generations ago to produce these blue birds. All of these chicks carry the blue genes and when mated black on white or with other blues in turn produce many blue offspring. In our breeding flocks, however, only blue males of the finest color are used.
Approximately 50% of the baby chicks will be all blue. The other 50% will be black, white, and black/white combinations.

Blue is an incomplete diluter of the color black. No blue gene means the bird will be black, one blue gene produces a blue bird and 2 blue genes create a splash. So when you breed blue to another blue you get 50% blue, 25% black and 25% splash offspring. It is possible to get 100% blue offspring, if one pairs a splash to a black.

 

[CrowHollowFarm]

I would give them a 9 out of 10. I have been very happy with the quality and the sexed birds I bought were 100%. The first order I purchased was in February and very cold. I lost a dozen birds but they refunded every penny no questions asked. I did have a issue with the response to one question that I emailed them for, but they took care of it and apologized. Will order again. I never take the surprise chick because it is usually a rooster that you don't want to waist food on.

 

[austrolover1]

The mystery chickens that we have had in the past were very interesting birds. The first order we got a DUCK!!! She was a very sweet thing and raised several chicks, and they survived until she tried to teach them how to swim... Then the next time we got one she was a BEAUTIFUL chicken-- all black with blue and red stripes on her wings!!! That night we had them in the barn with a light. When we came in the next morning all of the chicks were laying on the bottom of the box motionless (obviously we needed more than one light). The next two hours we blow-dried half of them to life again. But that one's feet were badly frostbiten and her toes fell off. So, she couldn't walk around very well do she lived in my grandparent's house as a pet-- she was a very sweet chicken.
So as you can see we have had some very interesting experiences with the mystery chickens.