Have any of you ever ordered the Special Assorted Bargain from Murray McMurray? If so were you in general pleased with it? What was the assortment like. Did you get just a few types or a few of many? Was it indeed straightrun or did you get predomin. cockrels? Did you get many heavy breeds? Would you say it was an even mix between meat and egg birds?

I also remember another company who used to advertise in Countryside which did a large assortment. I can not find their information, have any of you ordered from them?

Thank you Kim

-- kim (fleece@eritter.net), January 06, 2002

Answers

Kim, my first mail order of chickens came from Murray McMurray. It was supposed to be their heavy breed mix. What I got were mostly bantams. And more than a few were dead when they arrived. Needless to say, I didn't order from them again. I've ordered from several mail order suppliers with much success, everything from chickens & turkeys to ducks and geese......Hoffman Hatchery, Clearview, Mother Goose to name a few....all of whom advertised in Countryside at one time or anot

-- Fran (on MD's Eastern Shore) (SimplePlesurzGuy@aol.com), January 06, 2002.

I would look around! Do you have A state farm paper? We have Wisconsin State Farmer. McMurray Nursery is a nice point of reference, but way overpriced in my opinion. I can order chicks at a local feedmill, but I can buy them from a hatchery close to home even cheaper than that. So needless to say I don't plan to order from the local feedmill. Besides I talked to somebody I know that works at the C-store(Cenex combination feed/hardware store) and they arent't as good as healthy at first arrival as I can get from the cheaper hatchery.

-- Katie (4gnaturegirl@chibardun.net), January 06, 2002.

Kim, we haven't ordered the asst'd bargain, but we did order from them 2-3 yrs ago. We ordered 25, a few of each of specific types, and requested pullets. All survived, and resulted in only 2 roosters. Overall for our first experience ordering with them and with chickens in general - we were pleased. We don't have a local feed store where we can get specific types, so we plan on ordering through them again in June. Unless we learn of something better before then! ;)

-- Michelle in NM (naychurs_way@hotmail.com), January 06, 2002.

Kim, I didn't get any of their assortments, but have been ordering from them for years with no problems.

-- Sue (sulandherb@aol.com), January 06, 2002.

Kim-I had excellent success with chicks from Estes hatchery in MO. (2x last year!) Also good success with Belt Hatchery in CA. If you want to hatch your own, Pete Theer (www.poultryhelp.com). I almost ordered the 100 rooster special from Mt Healthy hatchery in OH (dirt cheeeep!), but am glad I didn't have that many birds to clean. By far, this is your best bet for large breed (non Cornish/Rocks) out there. Hope some of this helps. Jim

-- Jim Deweese (jedeweese@earthlink.net), January 06, 2002.

Also, both Estes and Belt chicks were 100% pullets. Ideal Hatchery in TX gets a lot of positive recommendations.

-- Jim Deweese (Jedeweese@earthlink.net), January 06, 2002.

Kim, !2 - 15 years ago I ordered the heavy breed assortment from Murry-McMurry and was quite pleased. To the best of my memory I belive it was a true straight run batch, about a 50/50 hen rooster mix.

I think if you shop around you can beat their price.

-- Mark in N.C. Fla. (deadgoatman@webtv.net), January 06, 2002.

Murray McMurray will credit your account for any dead birds on arrival. They also offer great phone support for newbies. I have ordered from them in the past with great success. Yes, I have found cheaper places, but none that offer the same selection of breeds in one place. I got the bargain assortment (about 50-50) which had great variety. I had no trouble selling the ones I didn't want.

-- Anne (Healthytouch101@wildmail.com), January 07, 2002.

Katie - you said you get chicks at a hatchery in Wisconsin. Which one is it? Utgaard in Star Prairie, by any chance? If so, what breeds do they carry?

Thanks - Jane

-- J Flynn (flynn4@netzero.net), January 07, 2002.

Hi Kim,

We have ordered the heavy breed brown egg LAYERS, but not straight run. We ordered 2 doz, got ~27 or 28, got one cockerel by accident (and he's our nasty rooster now!)

One chick had a pasted vent the first or second day and died. Other than that, they were all healthy and grew up well. We got Buff Orpingtons, Black Australorps, Silver Wyandottes, some kind of production Reds, White Orps (I think) and some Brahmas. Maybe a couple of other kinds...we had existing chickens, and of course, I'm all mixed up by now on which lot came from where when....

Funny, Mr. S. and I were going through our McMurray catalog last night. We're thinking about replacement hens. Ours are almost 3 now, and laying a lot less. We're going to order Buffs and Black Australorps, I think. I like their sensibilities, if you can call chicken intelligence that!

-- sheepish (WA) (the_original_sheepish@hotmail.com), January 07, 2002.

I use to order quite a bit up North and all were okay, except I do beleive I lost quite a few in one year. All arrived alived but they seem real stress and within a day lost quite a percent. Last year ordered 50 egg layers to be divided between 3 familys. All lived to lay their nice brown eggs.

-- debbie (bwolcott@cwis.net), January 08, 2002.

We ordered chicks from the local feed store last year, and they used Privitt Hatchery in New Mexico as their ordering source. They all came in healthy, but there were 3 chicks that didn't make it beyond the first 10 days. Out of 125 hatchling chicks, that wasn't bad odds. McMurray is supposed to have a pretty good reputation, and we ordered ducklings from them. They were shipped in to us from somewhere in South Dakota & all arrived healthy. I've heard very good things about Ideal Hatchery in Texas, and I personally like some of the hatcheries in SW Missouri, like the one at Springfield and the one at Lebanon (can't remember which ones they are). They were especially helpful in answering our questions. I called several times to ask them about this and that, since last year was the first time I had any place to raise poultry, and ordered several books from one of them. Currently I'm planning to put in a February ship order from Ideal, send off for a few birds from one of the hatcheries in SW MO, and a few from McMurray - just to see what the differences might be.

-- CJ Glass (glasss2001@hotmail.com), January 09, 2002.

By the way - just for general info for anyone interested... if you go into the Google search engine and ask for "poultry hatcheries" you can find almost every decently sized hatchery location on the North American continent that has any mention on a web site.

-- CJ Glass (glasss2001@hotmail.com), January 09, 2002.

I have done business with Murray MacMurray several times and have yet to have a problem. They repeat my order, tell me how much and when they should be at my post office. I have found the chicks to be healthy and grow into healthy egg layers.I would not even think of trying another hatchery unless Murry MacMurray did not have what I wanted.

-- george (bngcrview@aol.com), January 09, 2002.