How to raise Backyard Chickens: Re: [CHICKENS-101] Hatcheries

Susan, A 101 member we both know had a nice poultry farm started with several breeds. They ordered from McM and got a virulent mycoplasma that cost them a pretty penny and their farm. I used to order from McM back in the middle '90's. I'd never order now because of the horror stories. It only takes one bad order to wipe out what you have. 
Cackle's chicks arrived weak and killed my silkie chicks. You and I both know that 1 and 2 week old silkie chicks will mother chicks so I put cackle's chicks with mine and ended up with nothing but a few weak chicks from cackle and rudeness from the owner. Out my $$ and my chicks.

    Cathryn rainbowsilkiesTM  in  Michigan

    From: Susan F. <Susan@Foreverpugged.com>
 To: CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2013 9:24 AM
 Subject: Re: [CHICKENS-101] Hatcheries

 McMurry probably doesn't have the best quality chicks .... (then again, 
  what mail order hatchery does?) but I found them in the past to be very 
  easy to work with.

  We placed an order for our 4H group, where each child picked out 1 or 2 
  or 4 or 6 chicks .... so *MANY* different breeds.  I think we ended up 
  getting around 50 or 60 chicks, maybe more.  When we explained this to 
  McMurry they happily took the time to mark each chick's head with a 
  colored marker (or 2 ) and put the same mark on the packing slip so that 
  we'd be able to tell who was who.

  When you need to split the order up amongst a dozen or more children, 
  this was VERY helpful.

  Susan F.