Bad Experience with Bresse Farms in Pontotoc, MS

[ChristinaH18]

 

[ChristinaH18]

I’m sure there are, but I was trying to avoid exactly this situation. Everyone seems to “make their own”, and I wanted guaranteed pure.

Re: Bresse

Justin, before I even ordered, told me my Bresse would have lineage papers. I asked for them and he said they came with the birds. They did not.
Just now he told me he’d send them on my next order- but I have the 2015 lines.

That was the final straw. I just demanded a refund.

Here’s some of the communication.
He’s straight up lying.

 

[NatJ]

I mean there’s two with zero face fluff at all- so those are for sure not even amaraucana, and one is black with a red mask. so that’s going to be a redhead.

So what would you do? Wrath or write off?

I feel that wrath is too much effort, but I probably would try to get a refund for them.

If he insists that they will change color, I don't know if it would be easier to follow up right now and argue that point, or try to get a refund at a later date when they have had time to "change color" (but probably didn't!)

Then again, I don't know if the amount of money is worth your time to fight him about it-- that is something only you can decide.

If you're going through the credit card company instead of trying to get a refund directly from him, it will definitely be easier to do it soon instead of later.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

Bresse is a meme breed that just entered the US recently. I would assume that the vast majority selling them here are inbreeding heavily. Personally I would never buy meat chickens created by the cruel farming practices of France. The "unique" meat is created by caging and crazy dieting

 

[ChristinaH18]

He responded and sent me a video of his amaracauna pen. They aren’t pure and you can see as much. Not a single one was the color represented in the website.

The white toe on the svarthona he says is spray paint. (Huh?) he marks those he treats. But I ordered unvaccinated chicks, day old.

As for France and how they’re treated there, I’m not debating that at all, ask I can do is treat mine better HERE. But parentage was an important factor to me. I wanted to do my part to preserve the breed.

Sadly every single chick is going to be hopefully given away. I don’t know what the hell they are, so I can’t breed or sell them.

 

[erkme73]

We were lucky enough to find a bresse breeder in our own state (TN). They're now almost a year old, pure white (with blue/green legs) and wonderfully pure. The original "bresse" we got from Justin were sick (nearly half died within two weeks) and his replacements were not pure. I cannot believe this guy is still in business.

Originally when we got our order, my wife left a really bad review on Google (I think). Right away Justin offered to send us 20 more for free if we removed or toned down the review. We accepted the deal, but the review still stings. I'd post a link, but she's not home and I don't know where it was.

The point is, he's actively doing damage control.

Found the review. This is the after...

 

[ChristinaH18]

He just tried again to convince me to take legbar because they have blue eggs like the amaracauna.

I just said- I have a farm. I know what a legbar is. If I wanted legbar, that’s what I’ll order. I wanted blue and black amaraucana because that’s what I already have.

The Bresse, he said now that the paperwork is stuck to the box. I’m like dude, that’s NPIP. I asked about parentage. Playing games with me.
I can’t even get a straight answer on if he did or didn’t treat the svarthona. I don’t want them vaccinated. Ugh.

He said he’s going to refund, so let’s see.
He straight up asked me not to leave a bad review. I’m so not the person to play games with.

I am sorry you had the same experience. How is he in business still?

 

[ChristinaH18]

Just got off the phone, he refunded the whole order.
He said he could send the receipt for his Bresse… from greenfire. Not important at this point but I appreciate the offer.

Spoke about the amaraucana and he’s told me he’s going to call them Easter eggers. Can’t understand how the original birds are producing these other colors.

I pointed him to a couple breeders that I know of, what their birds look like, etc and we spoke about colors, breeding true, etc. I think that’s just new for him and color genetics can be wild in birds.

Was nice enough. Hopefully he really does change what he’s calling them.

 

[ChristinaH18]

Another update: we talked about his ameraucana (man my phone hates spelling that word, sorry if I inadvertently messed it up a dozen times above) and he agreed to stop calling them ameraucana and call them Easter eggers instead. Said he’d change his website info. He has not yet.
This, after he sent me a video of the pen and SAYS this one rooster is his number one. It’s not ameraucana- and the hens you could tell some weren’t full either.

I can’t tell if he’s just a really convincing liar or if he really doesn’t understand that he can’t do that.

Didn’t really explain the white toes on my one Svarthona either, but I can guess.

If he doesn’t fix the info at least on the ameraucana, I will spend time publishing everything everywhere I can.

 

[NewRiverChickensHatch28]

I had a terrible experience with Bresse Farms (bressefarms.com) in Pototoc, MS. I ordered 20 Swedish Flower Hen chicks @ $9.99 each on 2/9/21 totaling $259.80 (including $60 for shipping.) I contacted them about a shipping date and Justin (owner) said they were shooting for shipment on 3/8/21. All good! The chicks actually ended up shipping two months later on 4/6/21. So shipping got delayed by a month. That's okay, I know things happen. They were received on 4/8/21. There were 21 chicks - 1 deceased on arrival, 20 others active and healthy. Shipping box was great. Two heat packs and four cups filled with growgel. I thought everything was great until I started inspecting these chicks more carefully. I soon found out my order was completely wrong. Here's what I received:

11 Rhode Island Reds
6 Swedish Flower Hens (2 with vaulted skulls)
2 Blue Laced Red Wyandottes
1 Blue Bresse
1 Mystery Chick (Deceased, did not examine)

Once I realized I had a bunch of Rhode Island Reds in the order, I contacted Justin (owner). I sent him high quality photos of the chicks and asked politely if there was a mistake because these look like Rhode Island Reds. Keep in mind this farm also raises Bresse (black, blue, white), Rhode Island Reds, and Blue Laced Red Wyandottes. He reassured me there was no mistake and that I had 20 Swedish Flower Hens. However, contradicting himself he did say there should be 4-5 RIRs there for additional warmth. Well, I only received one extra chick. He said to let them develop and if they made a mistake they would make it right. I left it at that for the time being, but started speaking with Swedish Flower Hen breeders. All of them said these were definitely not Swedish Flower Hens. I then examined the chicks further and found two Blue Laced Red Wyandottes in the group. Their flat combs made it obvious. Lastly, I realized a blue chick was growing larger than the others and had blue legs and beak. Swedish Flowers legs/beaks should be yellow or white. It is definitely a blue Bresse. There were also two chicks with vaulted skulls. I believe these are Swedish Flower Hens. However, this is a trait culled for, but normally you would not get these in the first place as it comes from breeding crested to crested. Only non-crested should be bred to crested so you do not have this problem. The remaining four chicks appear to be Swedish Flower Hens.

After learning all this, I contacted Justin for the second time and called him out on it. He finally admitted that they were Rhode Island Reds. He claimed my order got messed up from a computer system error and that I instead received 9 RIRs and 11 SFHs. Well that was not correct either. He forgot to explain why there are 11 RIRs, 2 BLRWs, and 1 BB chick as well. When I sent him photos clearly showing BLRWs, he admitted that they definitely were BLRWs. He did not comment on the blue Bresse chick. Not only did he reassure me the first time I asked (and sent photos) that there was no mistake, but the packing label on my box also says 21 Swedish Flower Hens. I do not believe this was an accident. I believe he did not have 20 Swedish Flower Hens to fulfill my order, so instead sent what he had on hand. My order had been delayed one month and he also told me in March that they had poor hatch rates at that time due to weather. I have since be made aware that I'm not the only one who has had this same issue from other customers of Bresse Farms.

Bresse Farms has refunded me $120 of the $259.80 I paid them, as of now. Only 6 are the breed I ordered and 2 of those have vaulted skulls (culls). So I should get back at least $140 for the 14 I did not receive. Justin said he would send the remaining $20, but as of now has not. To say I'm disappointed in my experience with Bresse Farms is an understatement. I'm now left to care for and find homes for almost my entire order, along with being out $140!

They where the first hatchery I used also a terrible experience