BJ'S Game Bird Farm ????

[srsmith69]

I ordered from bj. In feb. He told me it would be a couple weeks to ship due to the weather. I live in Ok and it was cold then so no problem. A couple of weeks went by and we had another cold snap. I emailed him and he responded quickly that he would ship when it warmed up. Then I forgot about the eggs until they showed up on March 12. Packed well. Out of 48, zero broken until my fat fingers got a hold of them. The "jumbo jumbo" brown eggs were too big for my turner and I broke three trying to shift them around in the trays. Well I'm on day 18. By lunchtime I've had 27 of 45 hatch. Think there's a few more that will hatch. But right now I've got a 60% hatch on shipped eggs in a homemade incubator after a 5 hour power outage on day 6/7. Don't know if they will measure up or not when they are 8 weeks old but as far as shipping and fertility go I'm very happy with bj's eggs

 

[srsmith69]

Any updates on weights from those that hatched eggs from bj? I'll weigh mine when I get home tonight. The white quail I hatched seem pretty large. The digital scale will tell the truth

 

[frenchblackcopper]

I don't have much to weigh,as not one of the 48 Butler eggs I got was good,,only 25 out of 60 Jumbo Browns hatched and I only had 5 Texas A&M's hatch.Either quail fertility as a whole is very poor,,or the fertile egg quality was not there on these eggs,,but I am fast deciding away on quail,as with my over $120 loss for these few that I had hatch out. I'm considering Chukar Quail instead,heard they don't fight all the time,,weigh heavier when adults,and just are easier to take care of.They also handle confinement well,,so my experience with BJ the Super Quail breeder,,makes it so easy to move on to something more rewarding,,,

 

[Plain_View_Farm]

I don't know about Illinois but In Virginia you need a permit for Chukar.
You might want to check with your local Game and inland fisheries dept.

David

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
I have gotten good fertile eggs from JJ , Shellyd ,David at plainview and DLS down near atlanta all came packed well only 2 eggs were broken out of 4 shipments of eggs first shipment 30 eggs none broke 2nd and 3rd 82 eggs 2 broke 4th shipment 28-29 eggs none broke . my incubator is homemade when ambient temp changes so does the temp in my bator. my incubation technique is steadily improving . my present hatch consist of 17 coturnix eggs I found local 6 coturnix of my own and 15 bob eggs from my birds . that guy in texas has feedback on several forums I have read most of it , it kina sounds like he has really made more then a few folks angry .

 

[srsmith69]

Fertility, shipping, and personality of BJ aside, what size are the birds. You always take a risk with shipped eggs

 

[quailbrain]

I wouldn't order from BJ again. They wont tell you actual size but claim the are the biggest. The eggs didn't arrive for 8.5 weeks although he sold to many folks in the mean time. When they arrived most broke rest in yolk. YUK and didn't hatch well. The chicks that did were small like my tuxedos not near my Jumbo browns. Very few hatched of 60 eggs bought but how could they with dried yolk on them. Some taht hatched were completely brown not Texas A&M white...no white at all. I complained. Stated they would send more and had new packaging method I would like. Led me on for few weeks till 90 days was up and couldn't file paypal complain nor leave feedback. After feedback and complaints were too old to file never responded to another e-mail from me again.

Spent more for his eggs than anyone! and the eggs were nothing but the chicks who grew from them were small little things.

 

[srsmith69]

You need a permit in Oklahoma for chukar as well

 

[frenchblackcopper]

srsmith69,,you do not need to give me any advice for buying shipped fertile eggs,,I spent well over $4000 last year alone on getting in fertile marans hatching eggs here,,,but getting a big FAT 0% hatch rate on 48 eggs,,(Butlers) and not even a 10% hatch rate on the Texas A&M's,,tells me since I DID get a 41% hatch rate on the Jumbos,,,the eggs WAS NOT X-Rayed,,or none would have hatched,,,the eggs could have been old ones,or his males were sitting around smoking cigars all day long,,,
I expect a 30% hatch rate on shipped eggs,,that is why I ALWAYS buy at least 2 dozen chicken eggs at the same time,,or more,,there is no incubator issues,,my Brinsea will hatch a rock if it's fertile,,so since the shipping box was not crushed or beat up,,tore open,,or taped up,,pretty good indicators to me the issue with nothing hatching originates from the farm they came from. There are several states I will not buy eggs from,,Oklahoma is the first one,,New York State runs a very close second,,and there are some E-BAY campers I will never buy from again,,,the examples of their "work in progress" should have been Campbells soup fodder as all that I hatched from them turned out to be,,E-BAY needs to change the feedback policy for hatching eggs,,forget the number that hatches,we all know the shipping venue,,but the ones that do make it,,this tells way more of the inside story of the breeders culling-breeding to a breed standard criteria.

 

[tony30536]

i have not scaled all of mine the few i have the weights on are( jumbo brown girl 7.4 ,girl 7.6, boy 8.0 , boy 8.8 , boy 9.3 , boy 11.5) (a&m 9.0 , 9.7 , 9.9 , 12.5) i have not put them in the breeder pens yet that's when i will weigh them all and cull to the max the grow out pen they are in is 8' long with a door on the end that is why i have not weighed them all i have to take a few screws out and the top comes off , the a&m do look bigger then the jumbo brown