Second order from McMurray, DEAD

[Countrychick8540]

I can second that Ideal was very good to deal with. All my chicks survived, even the packing peanuts, and I live in Wisconsin (they're in Texas), got them last week. They got here in 2 days. I have another order coming the middle of March from Ideal. I don't think i'd order from anywhere else now. Hopefully at least some of the chicks from this order from MM will survive! It is a shame the post office doesn't work the same in every state.

 

[vjbakke]

How long did it take for them to get to you? Did they send them express? I think a lot of problems happen on part os USPS. Could they have been left in a very cold area? I have never ordered from them, only ordered from Meyer. They always put heating packs with my orders, but we only order about 5-6 chicks, They are in OH and I am in MN, so somewhat close. It took almost 3 days. Maybe go with a hatchery closer to you next time. Sorry to hear this, hopefully they will refund your money.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

I beg a differ I ordered two geese from mm last April and they arrived healthy and alive. It's not the hatchery it's the people who ship them you don't know what they do if they throw them around or whatever.

 

[Chickenjocky]

I live in Iowa where MM is located but, I order chicks from Ideal located in Texas. The reason for this is you can order any number of any breed of birds from ideal and, even though I live in the same state as MM, The shipping is much cheaper from ideal. Ideal hatches Wednesday and I receive them next day. last order arrived last week in 0 degree weather, but all were alive and healthy. It is absolutely the fault of the post office, and not the hatchery if birds arrive dead.

 

[kmb221]

I believe it is the USPS also. I had 25 chicks from Ideal to PA and luckily they arrived safe and health. I made sure I called them a head of time so that they would call me the minute the chicks arrived.

 

[EweSheep]

I agree with majority, its the USPS.

I have a friend that works at the airlines in O'Hare and she said they DO get chicks from one plane to the next or plane to truck. If they have to wait for the next flight or "on hold" while other stuff is being loaded, they would try to keep them in an area that is not cold or too hot depending on the weather. During summer, she said they pull the chicks next to the cooler, NOT inside of the body coolers (for cavaders or people that needs to fly back home to be buried). The chicks were noisey LOL!

Whatever happens, weather, time and USPS employees having a bad day or rush, careless day would equal dead or dying chicks.

Rarely chicks come down with diseases but "failure to thrive" chicks do happen. Only the strongest will survive.

 

[Queen of the chickens]

No one person/business is at fault. A lot of it has to do with your postal route. I live in Missouri, which isn't that far from TX but it took three days for my chicks to arrive from Ideal each time. They get to ST. Louis within a few hours but then have to travel to a processing center and then on to my local, very rural, post office. The first time we suffered significant loss with 11 DOA, 2 who died later, and 18 surviving. Replacements were shipped two weeks later. They also took three days, but all 17 arrived alive (3 died later). So the postal system is somewhat at fault. So am I for wanting our poultry to be as mature as possible by our fairs in late summer. However, the Hatchery shares part of the blame. I was told it would take 1-2 days to receive my shipment. It is their business to have accurate information. I also assumed that if they were shipping all over the country during this time of year, they must know how to do it so that the birds arrive alive. They included extra males for warmth in the first order, but there was little packing material in the box and the vents were somewhat open. The second shipment had the chicks packed in a nest of of the packing material so there were several inches of insulation around them and they were kept close together. I assume that they took extra precautions once they knew how long they would take and because they were sending a smaller order. Because they replaced my order and were great to work with in that respect, I will consider them in the future. However, I will likely choose to order from Cackle for my winter shipments from now on.

 

[chickensinwasillaAK]

I'll chime in that I loved McMurray. I've ordered from them two times and both shipped to Alaska in April. The hatchery did it's job, you can't blame them if somewhere along the line the post offioce delayed the box. It is winter, it won't take those chicks long to get cold if someone isn't paying attention. The box shipped by MM shows when it was shipped, look at that and see how long the PO had them before blaming the hatchery.

 

[halo]

You people order chicks from Iowa to Kentucky in the dead of winter, and then you want to blame the hatchery and the post office???

Amazing....

 

[1muttsfan]

I live in far northern Michigan, and have NEVER had a shipment in less that 2 days, with eggs 3 or 4. We are just a long way off the main route. My local PO is wonderful about notifying me when I get eggs or chicks once they arrive here.