I totally agree with you about Central Hatchery! We have ordered a few times from them when we just wanted some good production hens. Never had any problems with them, very nice healthy chicks too! Now Ideal on the other hand.....we have had NOTHING but headaches from them this year, what a total nightmare! Horrible hatches, very weak chicks and terrible customer serve when it comes to replacements!! We like to order some "fancy" rare chicks each year for the kids to show at 4-H county fair, but this year Im thinking these birds wont be old enough to show even! we had to have our first order resent, they were all dead (in the mail for 3 days!) and it took 1 month for a partial reorder...the rest wont get sent to till mid May! We ordered these birds Feb. 2nd by the way.Needless to say, I wont be ordering from Ideal again. Murray or maybe Cackle (I hear Cackle hatchery is pretty good) next year.

Love Murray! I've ordered from them several times and had excellent results.

i also love murray. have ordered from others but murray is my hatchery of choice. a little more expensive maby, but worth it.