Hi there everyone. I've had an interesting phenomena going on recently. It's actually been a bit of an argument between my boss and I, but being that he's, you know, my boss, and he wants to chalk it up to "hatchery quality", then that's what's gonna happen. But the differences have been very marked lately.
A few months back, we had a big order of chicks come in, as happens when you work at a chicken store. We had, I don't know, maybe 100 Barnevelders in the order. No rocks except the Barred variety. However, even the very first day, I noticed some oddities among the chicks - some of them were a very basic chipmunk, some were darker and had nearly black heads, and others were a very light chipmunk. I ended up taking home three of the chicks, as I was running low on layers this season and hadn't had a Barnevelder before. I took one of each "color".
Since then, two have been maturing into perfectly normal Barnevelders. A dark brown feather with black lacing, yellowish legs, single comb. It's actually been a pain to distinguish them from my hatchery Dark Cornish pullets - they're both so wiley it's a pain to get close enough to distinguish the comb and body types! Anywho, the third one - the lightest chick - has matured into, well, from what I can tell, a Partridge Rock.
I've also been working with this same stock of Barnevelders at work, as only a few sold as chicks and the rest were taken to the barn for growing, and returned to the shop at 8 weeks old. And I'd say... about 1/4 of them look(ed) exactly like Partridge Rocks.
My boss is convinced they're just a poor hatchery quality. And at first, I was inclined to agree, but... although the rest at work have sold, the way my girls are growing... the "Rock" looks nothing like her sisters.
Opinions?
A few months back, we had a big order of chicks come in, as happens when you work at a chicken store. We had, I don't know, maybe 100 Barnevelders in the order. No rocks except the Barred variety. However, even the very first day, I noticed some oddities among the chicks - some of them were a very basic chipmunk, some were darker and had nearly black heads, and others were a very light chipmunk. I ended up taking home three of the chicks, as I was running low on layers this season and hadn't had a Barnevelder before. I took one of each "color".
Since then, two have been maturing into perfectly normal Barnevelders. A dark brown feather with black lacing, yellowish legs, single comb. It's actually been a pain to distinguish them from my hatchery Dark Cornish pullets - they're both so wiley it's a pain to get close enough to distinguish the comb and body types! Anywho, the third one - the lightest chick - has matured into, well, from what I can tell, a Partridge Rock.
I've also been working with this same stock of Barnevelders at work, as only a few sold as chicks and the rest were taken to the barn for growing, and returned to the shop at 8 weeks old. And I'd say... about 1/4 of them look(ed) exactly like Partridge Rocks.
My boss is convinced they're just a poor hatchery quality. And at first, I was inclined to agree, but... although the rest at work have sold, the way my girls are growing... the "Rock" looks nothing like her sisters.
Opinions?
