2011 McMurray Hatchery Photo Contest Rules

This year, we will have a number of photo contests, each covering a different topic. There are many opportunities to win a prize.

Several contests are underway. For links to all of our currently active photo contests, please visit the link below:

Photo Contests

Homesteading Chores, Ideas, and Contraptions

This contest is for photos of homesteading chores, ideas, and contraptions that are related to caring for poultry. Photos eligible for this contest can include anything that you do on the homestead in regards to caring for or feeding your chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, or other poultry. Photos may include you or your children tending poultry, gardening with your poultry, or nifty contraptions that are related to poultry, such as a gravity fed watering system, a homemade heater to keep your poultry waterers from freezing in the winter, homemade waterers and feeders, or any other homemade or contraption used in conjunction with your poultry. Whenever possible, please enter a description when uploading your photo.

Prizes: the first place winner will receive a $100 gift certificate, second place will receive a $50 gift certificate, and third place will receive a $25 gift certificate. Each finalist in the Homesteading Chores, Ideas, and Contraptions Photo Contest will receive a Murray McMurray Tote Bag.

Poultry Open Class Photo Contest

This contest is for photos of all types of poultry that we carry in our 2011 catalog or on our website. This includes chickens, ducks, guineas, geese, partridge, peafowl, pheasants, quail, swans, turkeys, and several other types of fowl. Each photo may include a single bird or more than one bird. Ideas include chickens or other poultry in a natural setting, chickens with adults, chicken or other poultry with children, and poultry together with other livestock. Each photo may include a single bird or more than one bird.

Prizes: the first place winner will receive a $100 gift certificate, second place will receive a $50 gift certificate, and third place will receive a $25 gift certificate. Each finalist in the Open Class Poultry Photo Contest will receive a Murray McMurray Tote Bag.

Female Poultry Photo Contest

This contest is for photos of female poultry (hens, female ducks, female geese, female turkeys, etc.). To be eligible, each photo must contain one female bird of one of the poultry breeds that we carry in our 2011 catalog or on our website. The photo should show a full view of the female bird in front of a plain or muted background. Please enter breed and type of the bird into the photo description when uploading the photo.

Prizes: the first place winner will receive a $100 gift certificate, second place will receive a $50 gift certificate, and third place will receive a $25 gift certificate. Each finalist in the Female Poultry Photo Contest will receive a Murray McMurray Tote Bag.

Egg Photo Contest

This contest is for photos of poultry eggs. To be eligible, each photo must include one or more poultry eggs. The eggs can be from chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, swans, quail, guineas, peafowl, pheasants, or from any other type of poultry that we offer in our 2011 catalog or our website. Egg assortments that contain more than one type of egg are also acceptable. We encourage photos of eggs in interesting arrangements and settings. When you upload your photos, please describe the type or types of eggs in the description field.

Prizes: the first place winner will receive a $100 gift certificate, second place will receive a $50 gift certificate, and third place will receive a $25 gift certificate. Each finalist in the Egg Photo Contest will receive a Murray McMurray Tote Bag.

Male Poultry Photo Contest

This contest is for photos of male poultry (roosters, drakes, ganders, tom turkeys, etc.). To be eligible, each photo must include one male bird of one of the poultry breeds that we carry in our 2011 catalog or on our website. The photo should show a full view of the male bird in front of a plain or muted background. Please enter the breed and type of the bird in the description field when uploading your photo.

Prizes: the first place winner will receive a $100 gift certificate, second place will receive a $50 gift certificate, and third place will receive a $25 gift certificate. Each finalist in the Male Poultry Photo Contest will receive a Murray McMurray Tote Bag.

Poultry Housing Photo Contest

This contest is for photos of poultry housing. These photos can be of chicken tractors, chicken coops, chicken pens, hoop coops, range shelters, chicken houses, or housing for any other type of poultry that we offer in our 2011 catalog or on our website, including housing for ducks, turkeys, geese, guineas, peafowl, pheasants, and quail.

Important Note:
Qualifying photos must contain all or part of some type of poultry house, shelter, or pen. If you have beautiful photos of your chickens, ducks, turkeys, or other poultry without a poultry house, pen, or shelter, please hold on to those photos. We plan to have contests later in the year that those photos will be perfect for.

Prizes: the first place winner will receive a $100 gift certificate, second place will receive a $50 gift certificate, and third place will receive a $25 gift certificate. Each finalist in the Poultry Housing Contest will receive a Murray McMurray Tote Bag.

Requirements for all Contests

We reserve the right to choose which (if any) photographs to publish in our catalog, website, blog, or other online or offline media. Photo credits will be given by including the photographer's name under the photo. Photographs submitted to the contest become the property of Murray McMurray Hatchery, Inc.

By submitting your name and photograph, you agree to these terms. By submitting your photo, you agree that you are qualified to enter our 2011 Chicken Photo Contest, and you agree to abide by the 2011 Chicken Photo Contest Rules listed below.


Official Rules for the Murray McMurray Hatchery 2011 Photo Contests

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE WILL NOT IMPROVE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING.

Contests are open to residents of the fifty United States, and the District of Columbia, ages 18 and older.

We will have several contests this year. The rules for the contests are described below:

HOW TO ENTER

  1. Murray McMurray Hatchery ("Sponsor") is the Sponsor of this contest.

  2. In these contest rules, "bird" refers to a chicken, duck, goose, turkey, peafowl, guinea, pheasant, or other type of poultry of one of the breeds listed for sale on the Sponsor's website (http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/) or the Sponsor's 2011 catalog.

  3. Once you have taken photographs, visit the photo contest page. Click “Upload a Photo”. Follow the instructions the upload form.

  4. Photos must be in gif, jpg, or png format.

  5. Photos will not be returned. By entering the Contest, contestants agree to abide by these rules, and represent and warrant that the entries are their own and original photographs and that the entries do not violate or infringe the rights, including, without limitation, copyrights, trademark rights or rights of privacy, of any third party.

  6. Entries are void if they are in whole or in part illegible or incomplete. Sponsor assumes no responsibility for late, lost, incomplete, illegible, or misdirected entries.

  7. Uploading a photo to the Sponsor's website constitutes participation in the Contest and grants the Sponsor all rights to edit, publish, copy, display, and/or use the photo for any promotional purpose.

  8. Sponsor and its parent company, subsidiaries, affiliates or other parties and its affiliated companies are not responsible for technical, hardware, or software malfunctions of any kind, lost or unavailable network connections, or failed, incorrect, incomplete, inaccurate, garbled or delayed electronic communications caused by the sender, or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Contest which may limit the ability to participate, or by any human error which may occur in the processing of the entries. If for any reason the Contest is not capable of being conducted as described in these rules, Sponsor shall have the right to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Contest. In the event of a dispute over the identity of an online entrant, entry will be deemed submitted by the authorized holder of the email account whose address was specified on the photo upload form.

  9. Each contest has a photo upload start date and end date. All entries to the contest must be uploaded on or between those dates.

  10. Each contestant may upload one or more photos.

MODERATION

  1. To ensure that the contest entries stay within the topic areas and to ensure that they are of acceptable quality and appropriate for display, a representative of the Sponsor will moderate the photos. In other words, he will review each photo and make a determination of whether to accept the photo in the contest for which it is entered.

  2. Photos that are accepted by the moderator will be shown in the contest gallery, so they can be judged as described below.

  3. If a photo is rejected by the moderator, it will not be shown in the contest gallery. If your photo is rejected, you will not have an opportunity to win for that photo entry.

  4. The Sponsor may reject any photos which do not meet our requirements or may reject photos for any other reason deemed valid to the Sponsor. The Sponsor may accept to the contest any photo that the Sponsor deems acceptable. The Sponsor's decision to accept or reject a photo will be final.

JUDGING

  1. The rating process will consist of two stages. The first stage will determine the finalists. The second stage will determine the winners. Each stage will use a photo rating poll to allow participants to rate the contest photos.

  2. Each contest rating poll will have a photo rating start date and end date. The contest photos will be made available for rating by the public during the time period beginning on the start date and ending on midnight of the end date. To rate photos, all participants must be registered. Registration is open to anyone who wants to participate.

  3. Selection of finalists and winners will be done strictly on the basis of popular vote in the rating system of the online photo galleries.

  4. The photos with the highest ratings in the finalist rating phase will be chosen as finalists.

  5. The photos with the highest ratings in the winner rating phase will be chosen as winners.

  6. Invitations to participate in the photo contest rating polls will be published in the Sponsor's e-mail newsletter, Sponsor's Facebook page, Sponsor's Twitter page, and on the Sponsor's blog. The Sponsor reserves the right to publish and announce the rating poll in other media in addition to those listed above.

  7. The rating poll is designed to allow each participant to rate each Contest photo once.

  8. The Sponsor will review rating poll responses and reserves the right to reject rating responses for any reason.

  9. Contest winners will be notified by e-mail and/or by telephone, using the contact information provided on the entry form.

  10. Any winners that are unable to be contacted within what the Sponsor deems to be a reasonable amount of time will forfeit their prize, and the Sponsor reserves the right to select the next most highly rated contest entry as a replacement for that winner.

PRIZES

  1. For each contest, prizes will be awarded as follows:

    1. Each first place contest winner will receive a $100 Murray McMurray Hatchery gift certificate.

    2. Each second place contest winner will receive a $50 Murray McMurray Hatchery gift certificate.

    3. Each third place contest winner will receive a $25 Murray McMurray Hatchery gift certificate.

    4. Each contest will have 10 finalists, each of whom will receive a prize, the details of which are specified above under the contest description.

  2. In the event that there is an insufficient number of qualified entries or if the Sponsor determines in its absolute discretion that no or too few entries meet the quality standards established to award the prizes, Sponsor reserves the right not to award the prizes.

ELIGIBILITY

  1. The contest is open to residents of the fifty United States and the District of Columbia, ages 18 and older. Void where prohibited by law. All state and local restrictions apply.

  2. Employees of Sponsor and its parent company, subsidiaries, affiliates or other parties in any way involved in the development, production or distribution of this Sweepstakes, as well as the immediate family (spouse, parents, siblings, children) and household members of each such employee are not eligible to participate in the Contest.

GENERAL

  1. No cash substitution, transfer or assignment of prizes is allowed. In the event of the unavailability of a prize or prizes, Sponsor may substitute a prize or prizes of equal or greater value.

  2. All expenses, including taxes (if any), related to receipt and use of prizes are the sole responsibility of the winner.

  3. Winners may be required to execute an Affidavit of Eligibility and Release. The affidavit must be returned within fourteen (14) days of notification or winner will forfeit their prize and another winner will be selected. Should the ARV (approximate retail value) equal or exceed $600.00, winners shall be required to provide a Social Security Number or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number to Sponsor for issuance of a 1099 Form.

  4. By accepting a prize the winners grant to Sponsor the right to edit, publish, copy, display and otherwise use their entries in connection with this Contest, and to further use their names, likenesses, and biographical information in advertising and promotional materials, without further compensation or permission, except where prohibited by law.

  5. By participating in the Contest and/or accepting the prize, contestants release Sponsor, its parent, subsidiary and affiliated companies or the agencies of any of them from any liability, injury, damages, cost or expense, including reasonable attorney's fees, arising out of or connected to participation in this contest or the acceptance, possession, use or misuse of any prizes.

  6. Any dispute arising from this Contest will be determined according to the laws of the State of Iowa, without reference to its conflict of law principles, and the entrants consent to the personal jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Hamilton County, Iowa and agree that such courts have exclusive jurisdiction over all such disputes.

  7. These rules are subject to change. The current rules will be available at: http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/images/photo-contest-rules.html.

WINNERS LIST

For a copy of the winners list, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope by December 31, 2011 to P.O. Box 458, 191 Closz Drive, Webster City, Iowa 50595. Attention: 2011 Chicken Photo Contest.

SPONSOR

Murray McMurray Hatchery
191 Closz Drive
Webster City, Iowa 50595