Any one else having problems with Cross Beak from Ideal & Welp?

[chickenzoo]

I got some chicks from Ideal Poultry, and I normaly have good chicks from them. This time though I had Blue & Golden Neck D'uccles with bad cross beak. Plus I ordered two separate orders of D' Averngers and lost all but one.............
This was the first time ordering from Welp and some of my Russian Orloffs had cross beak.

Any one else experiencing problems or is it just my bad luck?

 

[lotzahenz]

Last October my order of 25 RIR's had two crossed-beaks, from Ideal. Neither made it. I am also very disappointed in the Cuckoo Maran's from them. Their eggs are very pale brown, not even dark at all. Maybe it's my feed? The Murray McMurray's Cuckoo's had very dark red eggs, almost as dark as BC Marans mid-cycle. Maybe the McMurray's were the exception. Not sure. They were healthy and very active otherwise.

 

[GardeNerd]

I had a group shipment of 45+extras in early Feb. and a shipment of 15 at the end of Feb. from Welp come to my house. There were no cross beaks in either group. The order included speckled sussex, buff orpington, barred rock, black australorp, red sex-linked, salmon faverolle, and easter eggers.

 

[cariboujaguar]

my 5 cucko marans hens from Strombergs, one has a slight cross beak (doesn't seem to bother her) and only 2 lay dark eggs, the rest are light brown one is pink....

 

[EweSheep]

Quote:
The cuckoo Marans from hatcheries, yep, you got what you paid for and they dont always get the egg color you would expecting. And it is so common in hatchery Marans and its a joke! Same for the Welsummers, and their egg colors are a joke too!

The two hatcheries I can recommend for above average hatchery bred stock are:

I think the MM Marans came from a private breeder that went out of business and they got some good ones I heard. I believe they came from McGovero's stock.

The Estes Hatchery got their Welsummers from Harry Shaw's Calicowoods Farm when he suddenly passed away and they were the exceptional for hatchery bred birds.

Remember not every one would get the expectations of those stock and your best bet is to get your stock directly from breeders and that includes the cross beaks, inherited traits and lack of vigor that plagues the hatchery chicks to no end.

I have ordered chicks from various hatcheries like these hatcheries you mentioned and its a luck of the draw when something wrong pops up. It happens.

 

[houndit]

I do not like Ideals birds. We ordered 4 mallards from them. One died soon after arrival. One never had its wings grow through, the other was a cross of some sort. I know this because of her shape and color. She took forever to fledge. So we got one reasonable duck out of 4.

 

[mfuchs]

Howdy All,

If you are having problems, please inform us. Sometimes, we have a male or a hen that has a minimal crossed beak that becomes dominate in the F1 progeny. If we know there is a problem, we can look for it and correct it.



Thank You,
Mikaela Fuchs
Ideal Poultry Breeding Farms, Inc.
Po Box 591
Cameron, Texas 76520
800-243-3257 ext. 5411
254-697-2393 Fax
http://www.idealpoultry.com/

 

[silkieluver_07]

SunAngel and I placed an order with Ideal for 76 chicks (give or take a couple). None arrived with cross beak, but we had problems this time with chicks failing to thrive. I say this because ours were 3 days in shipment when they usually arrive in one day. Ideal credited to my account all the deaths. They have EXCELLENT customer service!

 

[McSpin]

So far, my only cross beaks came from show lines. Any line that is inbred and not carefully selected, can have such problems. It is certainly not limited to hatchery birds. It's likely a recessive gene, possibly multiple genes involved. In about 50 chicks, I've found two cross beaks in one line (that line is gone). Any trait involving multiple recessives or possibly environmentally triggered, will be difficult to eliminate. My choice was to get rid of the line.

The other option is to keep a cross beak as a breeder and test cross with other breeders to see if they contain the undesirable genes. If none of their offspring contain crossbeaks, the test bird may be safe as a breeder.

 

[cluckychick]

I got 25 chicks from Heartland Hatchery and 1 came with a crossbeak and I should have culled her from the flock but she has the greatest personality. She greats us every morning by the barn door and hops on the food sack. She's rather spoiled to be honest. She gets to go wherever she wants but always returns to the correct pen for the night.