WHat to do? does anyone know if McMurry has been given a clean bill of health? I have babies coming from there on the 31st of march.
People with sick chicks from McMurray
it means there is not enough food to ratio it will take alot more food ect to keep them going and basically they r failure to thrive chicks. a high or bad feed to growth ratio if that makes sence and agree with what molly said also.
looks like I need to cancel my order then.
InnBetween I haven't read anything indicating that McMurray has a clean bill of health yet. When is your order due to arrive? How much time do they require for you to cancel your order? Maybe you can wait till the last possible moment they allow so you can wait to see if they clean things up.
MollyD
march 31st. I just emailed McMurray and told them that they were not to send me any order until they had a clean bill of health.
Maybe if they get a lot of people saying the same thing it will light a fire under them to get things cleaned up fast! Then maybe fewer birds will die.
MollyD
I have been reading other poultry forums and this is out of control. Seems like eveyone but a couple got sick chicks the end of Feb and all of March. MM knows all about it and do not seem to be offering any answers. THey are just refunding money for lost or sick chicks. THe thread I was reading had someone who was having tests done on dead chicks at univ of Wisc. But the tread was terminated. So now I dont' know what the results were.
I wonder if anyone here knows the person having the testing done and can post the results here?
MollyD
MM offered to send replacement chicks, but I asked for a refund, they obliged. I want to see proof they have the situation under control before I buy from them again, which I will do. IMHO they do have excellent customer service.
Molly, do a search under "sick chicks" on BYC and you will see a thread that has the first post reads something like "I just got the results back and it was positive for AE" I think there is a link at the top of this thread, but I can't verify - BYC banished me for being mouthy there...LOL
maineiac,
i'm glad you were mouthy....i feel i have learned a lot which will help my feathered ones (all of ours are pets)...we have more ducks and geese coming followed by an order of chicks now from ideal vs mmh....yesterday i also confirmed we have three nesting birds...a toulose pair under the porch (the things she used to build her nest from boxes of "stuff" when we moved), a chinese goose, and a rouen duck......we are going to be busy with babies and now i feel i'm much better prepared to keep them healthy....happy is different as they are all spoiled feathered beggars at this point which causes a lot of comical relief for us......i'm sure they are worse than the goats!
lynda
That they can not spread the disease, if they recover, is
what I wanted to hear. I will consult my vet for a conclusive
answer, but I feel better about bringing in future hatching
eggs/birds. I have not heard back from MM about my final
loss total. I sure hope this has run it's course, and that they
can recover from this and move on. I'm sure they will, they
are a huge supplier. Any hatchery can have a calamity and
it devastate a season. Best wishes to those of you just now
getting birds. Hope they stay healthy.
PennySue
Member
From: Twin Lakes, WI
is the name of the person that was having the tests done. If you see this PennySue, please post the results of your lab tests to help us all.
THanks
Wow. I was thinking that it was the cold that killed so many. But two were
sick well after they arrived. One died and the other is still shakey. Fits the
symptoms to a Tee.
I read through all the posts and the link. I'm not clear why to kill the infected
chick. Its been with the others for almost three weeks now. I'm OK if she's
not as good a producer when she grows up. Is the decision to remove and
kill infected chicks an economic one or will she present a problem to the
remaining chicks? Anyone know?
I got mine 3/3 so they are about three weeks old today. We lost 10 of 35
so far, with one more being sick. The rest seem to be doing quite well.
Thank goodness for DG!
Tam
I just put a comment in the garden rating here. I did not mention the AE
since I can't say for sure that's the problem though it sure sounds like it.
Tam
Thanks maineiac,
I had read it back when you were still there. I still don't understand how they can ban you for speaking your mind if you didn't use vulgar language or make false accusations against anyone. Those are the main two things I've ever seen someone banned for on any internet group!
MollyD
Ooh. Horrible this is happening, but sure glad I know about it. Thanks for posting. Sorry for anyone who lost chicks.
I believe MM is a broker and their sources may be very high in numbers so it would be a big project to track down the culprit/s.
Never the less this situation should be reported to the USDA.
I think Ideal Hatchery is a broker too. I think its very risky buying from big commerical hatcheries and unknown sources via eggbid and ebay etc.
Caveat emptor!
Sorry to the folks that ended up with AE.
Best solution it to put everything down and burn everything... birds, bedding etc. and sanitize everything with Oxine or something similar.
This message was edited Mar 22, 2008 6:49 PM
What's mcmurray doing about the ones that have chicks with this disease? Did they refund the money spent by brett dixon?
I received my 40 chicks from MMH on the l0th of march their all doing fine, but I recently introduced 30 more in the past few days, and we divided their house in two sections so the smaller ones wouldn't get smashed, I have a couple squatting and not wanting to get up and move around unless they have to I feel one is from getting squashed, because every time I walk into their house they scurry all in one corner and smash the ones on the bottom, one of these two were onthe bottom, The other who is really s quatty, I put in with the babies DUH! the new babies, now I wonder if this is a mistake, I felt like it just got squashed, their in a big area, but seems the weaker ones don't do well when their stompted on a few times.
I've lost 5 so far , one was dead on arrival, and the other four , were smashed, or drowned in the water trough.
Does MMH know what's going on with Brett's chicks?
I think they've gotten a lot of calls from many people with dead or dying birds. Someone here was offered more chicks or a refund. I think they're trying to make things right with their customers.
MollyD
Really - kill them and burn the remains? I read the virus lasts 4wks in
the feces. Will it remain in the live birds when the grow up? Is that
the risk? Future chicks?
Tam
After finally reading all this thread, It has literally scared me to death, What happened to just the simple times, where folks raised a few chickens , sold a few eggs, made enough to pay the feed bill and go on.
All you guys talking about not letting folks in your barns and such, are you guys in the poultry business? selling chicks or eggs etc...
My chickens are all over the property, they free range. Their onlyin their house at night time.
I have one more question, If folks are calling in with sick chicks, are all our chicks going to be sick? Meaning, all the chicks we bought from MMH in a certain period? My chicks were received about the same time as The member on backyardchickens received his .
geeze
I'm not in the poultry buisness,or maybe I am
I do sell chickens
and hatching eggs
and many of my birds freerange
some are in a huge fenced area
But outside,stuff can be washed away by rain
in my barn...no ,no one is going in there
not unless they want to go barefoot
I have way too much invested in these birds
I have a tray of odoban outside of my hen house and if anyone wants to go in with street shoes, they must dip their feet to kill anything on their shoes. So far no trouble.
crestedchik where is West Monroe? I'm in Canandaigua. Are you near me?
MollyD
Yup
I'm on the north shore of Oneida Lake
north of Syracuse
What breeds do you sell?
MollyD
The same as the ones I show
Polish and Sumatra
I have some other breeds but they are ...well...kinda pets, like
Large Fowl Cochin
I am working with Auracana(rumpless,tufted)
and LaFleche
but I won't be selling any of those for a few years
But anything that's not show quality gets sold,sometimes at the auction down in Bath in May
Things that are possibly show material I hold on to for a year or so to see how they mature
The Sumatra is lovely (as are the others) but not what I'm looking for. No show birds, just good solid egg layers that will eventually go into a pot.
Do you know anyone in NYS selling Jersey Giants, Marans (not cuckoo), or Orpingtons ? The Marans are for a friend who lives near me. neither of us can take birds before late April at the earliest.
Thanks!
MollyD
The marans-no
Jersey Giants...there was a girl in Bath - 4h - who showed them for the last few years
I can't remember her name though
Orpingtons....again There is a guy in Bath...Robert Whitney who shows them....and wins a lot
he's gotta have culls
glad to see free exchange of information here!
sad that McMurray is sitll shipping out chicks, having not tracked down the source of the AE, or cleaned out their hatchery. i suppose if they ship them out fast enough [before they poop LOL] , their chickend won't be exposed?
it is good that many of you are now seeing the big picture and looking for local breeders. i am wondering if MMH is just the first of many possible hatcheries with infections. since they send out more chicks, they would naturally have more reports. eventually folsk will figure out that it isn't the ocld weather killing these baby birds...
btw, thought this was funny...
"Avian Encephalomyelitis (AE) disease can cause devastating egg production drop in laying hens. In breeders, the AE virus can be passed to offsping resulting in neurological disorders and mortality. When AE causes neurological lesions, it maybe described as "Crazy Chick Disease". Fowl Pox disease often results in poor growth and mortality in broilers, commercial layers and breeders. Fowl Pox infection also causes egg production losses in laying hens. Vaccination is applied through the wing web with an enclosed stabber. Comes in 1,000 dose vial. We ship vaccines 2nd day, Mon-Wed to avoid week end."
yep, you can buy your vaccines from MMH!!! how's that for diversity of income LOL
One thought on MMH. Since they are brokers, do they actually have the chicks at their facility or do the chicks get shipped from the source.
If you think about it, they probably don't have the chicks coming into their facility then getting shipped out from there. They are probably being shipped from the breeder. That puts a whole other spin on the problem.
I am not defending MMH, but thinking logically about the problem. You could get the same thing from local breeders if they don't take care to prevent it. In fact, it is probably a local breeder to MMH that it came from.
crestedchik you've got dmail.
Thanks!
MollyD
they hatch from their own facilities, they have different ones. they have huge incubators and hatchers that hold thousands of eggs at once.
Silkie is right. Last year I watched a TV program on McMurrays and they showed their facilities. They hatch the chicks there in huge brooders in a room that only does that. I can't remember where the eggs came from though.
MollyD
yep it was on dirty jobs,lol. if i remember right they buy stock from different places then once their's they take the eggs for hatching in their brooder rooms.
That's right! That's where I saw it! I had forgotten what I was watching :-)
MollyD
This message was edited Mar 28, 2008 4:03 AM
It sure was. I remember thinking it wasn't something I would ever want to do myself!
Molly
My goodness... I haven't checked in for a couple days and am I sorry I couldn't. We have White Midget turkeys and Wyandottes and partridge rocks coming from McMurray in April. We have such a healthy flock now I would hate to bring anything like that here... our customers know that we keep everything as clean, natural and free of additives as possible. As a result we have more customers than we have eggs most days...Now I am really unsure of what to do. I will have to check to see if I can order the same birds somewhere else and cancel! Wow...I can only offer heartfelt sympathy for those of you who have lost chicks!
I'd cancel the order no matter what, I can't imagine them penalizing anybody since all this has happened.
I have 7 sick ones now, out of 39 have already lost 5 of them, and now 7 more are sick. I have quarantined them, I have no idea if they have the virus, but they are staggering around, acting like their drunk, laying on their sides. etc...
I am going to contact MMH and ask for a full refund, I have also bought 30 other babies and have them in the same house, but I did a stupid thing and put them on the same bedding as the ones from MMH and I put a couple sick ones from MMH in with my new babies, thinking they just got smashed and needed some heal time, Little did I know I was putting my 30 new babies in harms way. I'm sick over this, I have already emailed MMH but am going to call them monday to see about a full refund, even if I have some survive, Like was said before, they won't be good egg producers. Which is why I have them.
I am also going to talk to them about t he 30 other ones that have been contaminated by these chicks.
This was my one and only time ever ordering on line like this, NEVER again I don't think i'll purchase anywhere even my goslings, I"m going to try buy locally. I'll have to wait 4 more weeks or so to find out if all are going to die or make it, and it's going to be a long 4 weeks for me and my chicks.