Murray McMurray Hatchery Reviews 

I'm disappointed with the way everything worked out with my McMurray order though some I guess could be considered my fault because I didn't review everything for a second time after leaving the cart to find another chick to add. The problems considered partially my fault have to do with their ordering. I clicked off that I did NOT want an "extra" chick because they said it would be a rooster. I ended up with one anyway. Before leaving the cart to add another chick I also checked off that I wanted to order the supplements they list on the final part of their order form. I had to get out of the cart for a time to get my credit card. When I'd finalized my chick order and went back in to the cart to check out all of my chicks were still on the order form, my contact info was still there so I went straight to the payment page. Unbeknownst to me some of the info on the order must reset each time you leave the page. I didn't receive the supplement I'd initially added, we tore apart the whole box looking. I also received the extra chick I'd said I didn't want, a rooster I presume since that's what their site said I'd get as an extra. I also paid for each of my nine chicks to receive two vaccinations each. I was billed for vaccinations for the nine chicks I'd ordered but I wasn't billed for the extra tenth so does that mean it wasn't vaccinated? All of the chicks were suffering by the time we received them, they were born Tuesday but not delivered until Friday. They guarantee the chicks live for 48 hours after receipt, one died after 55 hours so I didn’t bother to call because I wouldn't get a refund. One chick was almost dead when we got him but perked up and was running with the others after I taught him to drink. But, he was blinded within a couple of hours of opening the box after some of the other chicks pecked at his eyes. I removed him and made a small box brooder with everything he needed. Initially we thought he was permanently blinded because of the blood we could see around each eye but thankfully it was only for 4 days. I used my fingernails to tap on his food and water bowls to let him know where they were. For four days I held him to calm him when he loudly cried out and I put aloe on his eyes hoping they would have vision when all of the scab crust came off and the lids were able to open. They finally opened and he could see so I slowly introduced him to others and they accepted him. I think I'll order from another hatchery next time and see how that goes. I think McMurray should fix their site to keep all selections someone elects and not reset the cart each time, I can't imagine I'm the only one who has had this problem.

06/25/26: I placed my second order, #2413193, with McMurray on June 15th. This time I ordered 12 Buff Orpington chicks since my three year old Rhode Island Reds have slowed down on their egg production. They were shipped out as promised and on-time. They arrived the next day after shipping, healthy and ready to drink and eat. This time USPS delivered them to my front door. I am very pleased with my chicks and McMurray. They continue to deliver as promised. When we deal with live animals, anything can happen along the way; from simple human errors to our packages being delayed, or even some deaths of our chicks. Knowing that these things are possible, I order a few extra chicks and I am prepared to give McMurray Hatchery some grace in advance. Having said this, I haven't had any problems, concerns, or diseases coming from McMurray Hatchery. I get my chicks vaccinated before shipping and all chicks have developed into prolific, productive, egg laying Hens. I will continue to buy my poultry from McMurray Hatchery. They have proven to be a reliable and trustworthy source of quality poultry! 😀👍🏼

The best hatchery by far. The customer service was a 5 star. Any questions I had they were on board to help me when I called and a quick response when I emailed.
I ordered Black Copper Marans they shipped on a Monday afternoon at 3:30 and Wednesday June 24th at 6:15 am the Post office called and said they're here. Picked up and all 20 chicks were chirping and strong. Great communication, care and quality wins every time for me. We've ordered several decades ago and the service was the same as today. Thank you Murray McMurray. - Angela Orr

I have used McMurray for years. They have been rockstars about any issues I have ever had. I recently watched a documentary on them. OMG, I had no idea. Amazing. It's not possible to do the kind of business, volume they do and not drop the ball on occasion. I had something happen to my chicks that I could not explain, never happened before, they stepped to the plate and knocked it out of the park. You don't have to be afraid of doing business with these good folks.

I pasture my chickens; they have to be healthy active foragers. I've ordered chicks 3 different years now and just got another 16 chicks yesterday. The first and third years all arrived with no problems, very quick shipping, with heatpacks in the box and all chicks alive. The 2nd year the chicks arrived in an unexpected freezing spell and were cold and not doing well on arrival. Several died within 24 hours. I notified the company and they replaced the chicks on my next order without any hassle (I ordered twice that year). I was able to get Dark and White-Lace Red Cornish from here when nobody else had any. Their Pearl White Leghorns produce the most eggs at the lowest feed cost of any birds I've ever raised in 30 years. All the chickens I've raised from this hatchery have been healthy, productive, and long lived. I've not had any problems with birds from McMurray, and as I said, the one time the weather was horribly cold, they replaced the chicks that died. They do put a heater pack in the boxes.

We ordered 54 birds from Murray McMurray. They arrived today in one giant box, all combined breeds. When I called about the problem I was told I should have called them and told them to label them if I had wanted that, even though they acknowledged that it wasn't mentioned anywhere in the ordering process that I should have to do that. So much for our attempting to manage our bloodlines. Wasted $500.

Our kids in the Kicken Chickens 4H club were so excited to launch a new program this year. The goal was to create a fair and educational experience where all members would raise the same two breeds of chickens—from the same hatchery—and then bring them to the fair in August to show. This way, everyone would start on equal footing, and success would come down to how well each child raised and cared for their birds.

The kids voted and chose Polish and Cochins. They worked incredibly hard to fundraise—hosting a community breakfast and selling tickets—to afford these chicks. At $12 per bird, this was a significant investment for our club.

Unfortunately, our experience with McMurray Hatchery was devastating.

The chicks shipped Tuesday and arrived Thursday in terrible condition. It was heartbreaking and honestly traumatizing for the kids. Several chicks were already dead on arrival, and the rest were extremely stressed and some even injured. On top of that, our order was completely incorrect. We ordered 42 birds (21 Cochins and 21 Polish), but only received 7 Cochins. Instead, they substituted 7 birds with Salmon Faverolles—breeds we did not request—and sent 28 Polish.

The kids who were excited to raise Cochins were incredibly disappointed to not receive the breed they worked so hard to fundraise for. To make matters worse, many of the chicks were very sick. We spent days trying to nurse them back to health, but sadly, we still lost more in the days that followed.

This was an extremely upsetting experience for our entire 4H club—not only dealing with the loss of the chicks but also not receiving what we ordered.

When our 4H leader contacted McMurray Hatchery, we were told there was nothing they could do because we hadn’t checked a box indicating we did not want substitutions. While they did offer replacements for the chicks that died, we would have been required to accept 12 additional roosters due to their shipping policies, which was not a reasonable solution.

Overall, this was a nightmare experience. Many of us have ordered chicks from other hatcheries in the past and have never encountered anything like this. We will not be ordering from McMurray Hatchery again.

Picked up 12 chicks plus the extra one, 20min drive home and within the hour all 6 of one breed had pasty butt . It's January and so they got a bit cold when I cleaned them,they weakend more....half my order died within a day. I would not recommend them

We have placed 2 orders with McMurray. Our first order was 16 seed hens. After several months we realized 2 of the 16 were roosters. Missexing happens, we didnt think much of it.

Second order we got 36 sexed hens. 4 of them turns our to be roosters.

I reached out this time only to have customer service say they only garuntee 90% accuracy.
32 out of 36 is 90%
14 out of 16 is 90%

What are the odds of getting exact 90% in both orders?

They're sending out roosters for the price of hens and saying their is nothing they can do about it.

It also took 3 days from shipping date for our birds to arrive. That is too long!

This hatchery scams its customers. They will never get another dime from us.

Do yourself a favor and order from anywhere else! We had good luck with purely poultry and Metzers.

We have been chicken keepers for many years. We moved and sold our chickens and had to start all over in another state. Trusting McMurray for the first time, we started a new flock. The extra chick is a sacrificial chick with deformities. The rest have completely stopped laying. We have never experienced complete stoppage before. The only chicken laying on this property right now is a chick born here when one of the McMurray girls went broody and I gave her some fertilized eggs from A LOCAL FARM. That chick is the only one laying. I will NEVER order from McMurray Hatchery again. Never.

Horrible experience. I ordered 25 sexed hens. 7 died within the first week - transport shock as it took the day old chicks 72 hours to get to my post office. Mcmurray did refund me for these birds but it was not fun for my kids to witness the chicks dying as we tried to get them to eat and drink With no success. 3 months later it turns out nearly half of the "hens" are roosters! they only would refund me for a fraction of the male birds. Nevermind the fact that I have been feeding them organic chicken food for four months and caring for them daily. I'm down to 10 hens, and I need to deal with 7 roosters - give away or kill and eat...not what I signed up for. I asked them for a full refund and they refused. Shop locally - sure wish I did.

I have ordered from them before. 2 orders ago, they got the Anconas mostly right, bit they killed the xtra free chick, they are pretty aggressive. That aside, the order filler messed this order up pretty good. I have his name if they want to discuss. I ordered 16 chicks of mixed breed layers. I got 25 chicks, ten of which were broiler chicks. I had so many die, Im down to 9, and the sexes are still unknown. Next time, I'll shop around, as they show no interest in customer service, and blame my order on the post office instead of the person that packed my order.

My family has ordered chicks and ducks from Murray McMurray for many years and we’ve had great experiences with them. The only problems we’ve had have been with the USPS not shipping them correctly or not calling us when they arrived at the post office. The customer service has been excellent and we’ve always gotten what we ordered.

Out of 50 chicks that my wife and I ordered, 17 died within the first two days of arrival. An additional 25 chicks have died since then, leaving us with a survival rate of 16%. We contacted Murray McMurray, and they basically told us that it’s not their problem, even though they claim they guaranteed their orders for a limited time (48 hours after delivery). They claim their chickens are vaccinated and well cared for, but statistically, in my opinion, this is way too high a death rate for vaccinated chicks. I would recommend other breeders and dairy farmers stay away from this seller.