Emyers, I second Nelda's vote, start off with day-old chicks. I ordered from McMurray hatchery my first time and all the chicks showed up alive and healthy so in that respect they're pretty good. As far as the quality of the breed I'd rather go with Ideal Hatchery. My RIRs from McMurray are consistent layers but they lay small to medium eggs and RIR are suppose to lay large. Also the Americuana roo from them doesn't have the earmuffs they're suppose to have. My Americaunas from Ideal are beautiful and are breed standard. So for quality of breed I'd go for Ideal hatchery. Plus they allow smaller orders. As for raising chicks, they definitely don't need a chicken to raise them. In fact if you stick a bunch of chicks in with a chicken that is not it's mom chances are she'll kill them. Here's how I raise my day old chicks... First of all you need a brooder box. Chicks need to be kept very warm at first, 95 degrees the first week and then decreasing 5 degrees for every week after that until they are feathered out. I usually get my chicks in the summer because it makes it much easier to keep them warm. I built my brooder box myself and I designed it with a removable bottom so I could let the chicks be on the grass and eat bugs during the day. (you shouldn't let them free range until the are almost full grown or they will get picked off by hawks. It's basically a 3'x4'x3' two by four frame with hardware cloth sides, a hinged plywood top, a bottom that connects with 4 latches, and my nephews training wheels attached to two corners of the bottom so I can move it around easily. At night I cover the whole thing with a old comforter. I pull back one part of the comforter and I put one of those radiant dish heaters up against the hardware cloth to keep them warm. I always keep chick starter food in the brooder box and plenty of clean water. If the chicks are crowded or bored they can peck each other bloody. Putting them on grass during the day alleviates that and to help at night I throw a bunch of grass clippings on the bottom. If you do this, it'll probably keep them from starting to peck which is good because once they start they are really hard to break of the habit. When they are a couple weeks old I add some roosts to the brooder box so the get used to roosting. If you don't do this when they are young they may not roost at all. This kind of brooder box also helps when introducing new chicks to an older flock. I did that this summer and it worked great. The big chickens would come everyday to check out the chicks through the sides of the brooder box so they really got used to them early on. I've heard some horror stories about big chickens killing chicks when people tried to put them in together. They say to wait until the chicks are grown before trying to blend the two flocks or there will be trouble. But because my chicks and chickens got to visit with each other everyday I was able to combine the chicks with the chickens at 6 weeks. I watched them closely when I combined them and gave them a lot of supervision for the first week or so but they did really well. The chicks were definitely bottom of the totem pole but beyond the occasional "watch it youngun'" peck from a chicken everyone got along well. Another bit of advice, when you build nesting boxes build them with the tops at 45 degree angles so chickens can't decide to sleep up there. I think 18 inches wide is a good width for the nesting boxes. My coop came with our house and the nesting boxes were built with flat tops and half of them are only 12 inches wide. The chickens like to walk around on top of the boxes before they go in to lay which means chicken poop to clean up. Also they all fight over the bigger boxes, sometimes they're be two or three hens smooshed into one of them. My nesting boxes also came with nailed on fronts that go about a quarter of the way up. This keeps the hay in the nesting boxes well but makes it a hassle to clean out. I plan on rebuilding them when I get the time and when I do, they'll all be 18 inches wide with slanted tops and hinged fronts for easy cleaning. Okay and for the end of this book of a post. Chicken poop doesn't really have a strong odor if it gets mixed with litter. It's only when a bunch of it is on it's own that it gets stinky. (which is why I'm always cleaning off the top of the stupid nesting boxes!) My hen house is in a stall of my barn which is about 300 feet from the house and I have never gotten the slightest whiff of the chickens at the house. Actually though, I usually don't smell anything until I'm in the barn. If there's a strong smell in the barn then I know I really need to clean out the coop. To sum everything up most of my work goes into setup to make my life easier. The training wheels on the brooder box keep me from killing my back. The detachable bottom means I can hose down the bottom instead of scraping it out. The grass clippings greatly reduce the amount of stuck on poop. The hardware cloth sides mean I can combine the flocks sooner which means half the work. The new design on the nesting boxes means easier clean-up. You get the idea Jenica

I have ordered several more times since my original reply to this thread. I have always used Ideal for mail orders and have always been very pleased with both the chicks and the customer service. Again, I choose them because of their option to buy pullets on many of the birds I want that McMurray only offers as straight runs. I've heard very good things about both places so I would think either one would be acceptable. Ideal is also a tad cheaper. The few times I've tried to buy chicks from the feed store didn't always end up so great. The pros were that I got to pick the chicks I wanted and therefore you could see what kind of shape they were in, generally. The downside was that I had only a 50-50 chance of getting a pullet even when the cages were clearly labeled as pullets. If someone knew enough about days-old chicks to sex them on the spot, obviously they would have better odds. I thought maybe the people putting them into the cages got some mixed up or the chicks jumped into other areas, not sure but I ended up with a band of roosters when I should have had pullets. In the end, I still use Ideal and if I happen to see something at the feed store I really want I might just get it :) Lori

I have had numerous purchasing/shipping experiences with McMurray. There were a few problems but they were resolved to my satisfaction. I wasn't happy when they changed their shipping procedures but they were always helpful the couple of times I had problems. It seems like McMurray has done all they can for you. You can still put the roosters you got in the freezer. They aren't as big as the Cornish X but they are edible. So for the cost of shipping (which is what $5?) you have 25 edible birds. It was a mistake which happens to everyone. There are other hatcheries but few of them are as good as McMurray. The only other hatchery I use is Ideal and that is when I just want standard chicks. Ideal is a half day drive away from me. Best of luck with your chickens. The Cornish X's will be yellow and will double in size within a week. You'll be able to tell the rare chick from the others because of the size. I'm surprised about you getting a hybrid. We've been extremely fortunate getting sicilian buttercups. Give them another try. I think you will be happy with them.

My chickens are bantams, and most are crosses between a black aracauna, assorted cochins and a gray silkie. I think they are beautiful & I get an assortment of brown & green eggs. I given my extra eggs away to friends and I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that arranges the eggs so that they look especially pretty in the carton. I love having chicks, so by summer, I usually have 30+ chickens. I give the extras away, and I can usually find homes for all of the extras. This winter I am keeping two roosters and 10 hens and six chicks were hatched in November. I presently have a gray silkie rooster & a barred Cochin rooster. I have one black araucana hen, a partridge Cochin hen, a Golden lace Cochin hen & the rest of my hens are crosses. Some of my crosses are the prettiest hens I've seen ( says a proud mother). I let my chickens free range in the flower garden and prefer bantams for this, as full size chickens do too much damage. Janice in the Sierra