These are from the first Rhode Island Red chicks I purchased from Murray McMurray Hatchery. They are two weeks old in this pic. (C).2017. Chicken Heaven On Earth
In this tour of Murray McMurray Hatchery you can plainly see that they do not use the same rough handling of baby chicks as many other large commercial factories who sort baby chicks by rolling them down a conveyor belt, shoving them into a machine to painfully debeak them. Murray McMurray baby chicks are handled gently while sexing, sorting, and while moving them around. They even make sure the chicks have a feeding gel when packing them for shipment. When shipped they are in well ventilated trucks. During cold weather they are packed with styrofoam around their shipping boxes. I have bought vaccinated baby chicks from Murray McMurray Hatchery and the chickens arrived all in good health. When I talked to them on the phone, anxiously awaiting my peeps, their friendly receptionist told me to be sure to give my chicks a bit of sugar water to help them recover more quickly from the trip, so I did and she was right-it worked! My little peeps perked right up. This video demonstrates how large commercial hatcheries could improve their baby chick handling practices by following Murray McMurray Hatchery's example and for those of you who are wondering if I am getting paid for this endorsement, and the answer is, no I am not. I am endorsing them because I was (and am still) years later, very happy with my peeps.
Tour Murray McMurray Hatchery.
I have ordered and have many friends who have ordered lots of baby chicks from Murray McMurray Hatchery and I can assure you they are in much better shape physically and emotionally than baby chicks hatched in most large commercial hatcheries. If you want to see what I mean, check out the video on large commercial egg hatching I posted earlier. At first, it seemed like a very efficient method and as I kept watching I found myself cringing in fear for the baby chicks who had to go through this process.
