Is This Ameraucana Chick A Pullet or Cockerel?

2chicksagain said:

pullet.

Click to expand...

What do you mean? Are you saying Blue is a pullet? If so, I'm almost positive he is not. I can get a picture. He already has saddle and hackle feathers coming in and his comb is bigger and redder than his brother who is 2 months older than him. Thank you for the input.

And now that I think about it, I really should get new pictures of him up here...

Just wondering, were you saying pullet to the first pictures I posted, or??

can u get some new pix? that would help

2chicksagain said:

can u get some new pix? that would help

Click to expand...

It turned out he was a rooster, and he sadly passed away about a month ago. The breeder I got him from said that all the birds I bought were pullets and they all were vaccinated. Boy do I hate her lying guts. She doesn't vaccinate, and doesn't even sex the birds. I have never had mareks on my property before. And the people who owned the land before us had chickens everywhere. All over the barn, in the milk house(which is now MY chicken coop), in the old garage and old house, and in our tack room. So if it had been on my property prior to me getting chicks from her, I think I would have known, since none of my 40+ chickens(from a feed store) had been vaccinated for mareks. Out of the 24 chicks I bought from her(all supposed to be vaccinated and pullets, except for one roo), I have 5 left. The rest had to be culled/died from mareks. And out of the 23 'pullets', 12 were boys. That means that I had only 11 girls out of what was supposed to be 23 pullets. I specifically bought one rooster, but the other 23 were supposed to be girls. I have 2 roosters and 3 hens left. But I have lost a good chunk of my original flock. I had 45 in the coop this past winter. I'm down to 25, counting 2 of the 5 from that breeder, and a few I got from a different, trustworthy, truthful, and reputable breeder.

And for anyone who is skeptical that the mareks came from that breeder, 4 other people that my parents know who got chicks from them lost most or all of the chicks to mareks, and some of their own flock, just like me. And one of them had chickens for 40 years. None of her birds were vaccinated, and she never had a problem with it. But after she got 4 chicks from 'them', she lost 3 of the chicks to mareks, one lived, and I'm not sure about the rest of her flock. So, it was from 'them'.

I don't want to get in trouble for saying who this nasty breeder is, but I think I'm just going to say it. I don't think they go on BYC anyways...And I guess I shouldn't be afraid to put who they are out there...The worst they can do is cyberbully me, and say bad things bout me, but I don't care. They already said a ton of **** to me in a facebook chat. She was really harsh to me, just because I told the other lady that I had taken the one chicken to the vet and the vet said that he had classic symptoms of mareks. I will add pictures of what they said to me on facebook. None of this is fake. I have been wanting to share my 'experience' with this breeder for months now, but i never had the right opportunity I guess. But now I do. And just to let you know, I am a lot younger than the two ladies, and they said this to me. I then apologized to them, and they were still very rude. And then they had the nerve to accuse me to my own mother that they thought I was lying about taking my chicken to the vet. But my mom was the one that took me to the vet in the first place! They were extremely rude to my mother as well. And what they said to me, was said just hours after I found out that, later that night my favorite chicken out of my entire flock had to get his neck snapped since his legs were paralyzed and he was slowly dying of dehydration and hunger...That sure made we feel better, huh?

Here's the pictures of the Facebook chat. I had to log in to BYC on my phone to send the pics.





First of all, she does not vaccinate. That is a lie. If they did vaccinate, I wouldn't have lost so many of the chicks to what looks like mareks. Second, I did not want the vet to put him down. I was too emotional and needed time to part with my beloved pet. Third, necropsys cost a ton of money, and frankly we don't have enough money to get one done. Fourth, the one lady that my mom is friends with that had chickens for forty years got chicks in the same month as mine. They were also the same breeds. So yeah...probably from the same hatch as our chicks were the same age...fifth, I have spend the last 3 years studying chickens. I know more about chickens then most people around my area. Sixth, you can see some types of worms in the stool. So she 'has no idea what she's talking about'. I looked up what worms in chicken stool looked like a year ago when I suspected mine had some. And I was right. Seventh, how could she tell every bird at my county's fair had lice without holding them and taking them out of the cages, which isn't allowed. Plus almost every freerange chicken will end up with lice. It's just a matter of keeping it under control. 8th, I never accused them of anything! And finally, it's unfair of ME to make HER UPSET?!!! Did she not here what she just said! Jeez...

So yeah, I guess I'll say who it was, even though you can tell by the picture. Never go to Edgewood acres poultry. They have tons of reports on them from the last few years. I am one of them. So yeah, that was my experience with Edgewood Acres Poultry. I hope this will help keep other people from having the experience I did. Oh and by the way, the vet I took Rory to was an avian vet from Florida who had moved here. So I think he would know what mareks looks like. And even if it wasn't mareks, they have some other deadly virus similar to mareks on their property. Just, be warned.

I'm so sorry you've dealt with such losses I can't even imagine. All of mine come from places that supposedly vaccinate, but I worry about things happening. I've heard that even though vaccinated sometimes they can still get sick (but it's highly unlikely). I'm NOT saying the person vaccinated. I don't know the situation, and I'm not going to speculate on it because I don't. I'm only into my 2nd year with chickens of my own now (I grew up around them, but only recently have purchased my own), but definitely have learned a lot. I went to a presentation with my son this spring just for the fun of it. It covered vaccination information (along with other important things to know about chickens). It was pretty neat even though I had already learned everything they talked about (it was something free to do this spring with my son).

Again, I'm so sorry for your losses. I would be so frustrated.

chickmomma03 said:

I'm so sorry you've dealt with such losses I can't even imagine. All of mine come from places that supposedly vaccinate, but I worry about things happening. I've heard that even though vaccinated sometimes they can still get sick (but it's highly unlikely). I'm NOT saying the person vaccinated. I don't know the situation, and I'm not going to speculate on it because I don't. I'm only into my 2nd year with chickens of my own now (I grew up around them, but only recently have purchased my own), but definitely have learned a lot. I went to a presentation with my son this spring just for the fun of it. It covered vaccination information (along with other important things to know about chickens). It was pretty neat even though I had already learned everything they talked about (it was something free to do this spring with my son).

Again, I'm so sorry for your losses. I would be so frustrated.

Click to expand...

Thanks It was pretty upsetting. And since none of my original flock was vaccinated, I'm still losing birds from it, plus one of the five chicks I have left from them is sick...

And I know a little about the vaccine. At first I was told by Edgewood that basically it only worked like half the time, and birds that were vaccinated still had a good chance of getting it. But I obviously know now that they were lying. I was finally told by someone else who breeds chickens that I trust and actually vaccinates their birds(I watched them do it and they vaccinated some of my chicks that I hatched out) that that was false, and that them getting mareks when they are vaccinated is very rare.