Blue Andalusians - Ideal/McMurray?

[carousel]

I would like to order some Andalusians in the spring.
can anyone share experience, with Ideal or McMurray's stock?
thanks!

 

[NYREDS]

I expect that both will provide birds that to some degree resemble Andalusians but neither will provide good examples of the breed.
If your goal is simply to have blue chickens that lay white eggs they'll do fine. If you're interested in showing or just in having quality stock you should probably look elsewhere.

 

[lauralou]

I ordered 4 Blue Andalusians from Ideal this spring. I really like them. Of course, I wouldn't know a show quality chicken if it bit me on the behind.

But the quality does seem to vary among my 4 girls. To my eye, Storm is a better specimen of Blue Andalusian than is Smoke. In fact, Storm is one of the prettiest chickens ever! But I'm biased...

Anyway, here are some pics of my girls, to judge for yourself.

This is Smoke. She's a great forager - note the bulging crop.

And Silver. She has already gone broody this year. I never saw that coming!

And Shadow. A face shot and a body shot.

And Storm.

 

[jossanne]

I have a black andalusian from McMurray, and she's beautiful. I don't know the standard, but she's gorgeous in my opinion. She's the boss of my hen house, and orders the other girls around, but she is friendly to me and likes attention.

My mom has blue, black and splash andalusians from McMurray. I haven't seen them since they were chicks, but I'll be down there in a few days... I'll check them out.

 

[austinhart123]

those are beautiful

 

[lauralou]

Mine are really friendly, too. They BEG for attention - always pulling at my pantsleg, or flying up on my shoulder. I read that they "avoid human contact", but that hasn't been the case here. They're so curious and outgoing, they were the running to my hand in the brooder from Day 1.

Now, here's something curious: I got mine from Ideal, and they are all blue. Jossanne and her mother got theirs from McMurray, and got blacks and splashes as well. Did I just get lucky? Or are they getting their eggs from different breeders? I had expected that I would get blacks and splashes along with my blues. Ideal's website said it was possible. Then when I didn't, I assumed that the breeder had crossed blacks with splashes so all the chicks would be blue. I don't know though, 4 chicks is a very, very small sample size, and it could have been luck.

Maybe we'll get a better idea if more people chime in.

 

[AtRendeAcres]

They breed splash & black you get 100% blue!



Matings:
Blue (Bb) X Blue (Bb) = 50% Blue (Bb), 25% Black (BB), 25% Splash (bb)
Blue (Bb) X Splash (bb) = 50% Blue (Bb), 50% Splash (bb)
Blue (Bb) X Black (BB) = 50% Blue (Bb), 50% Black (BB)
Splash (bb) X Black (BB) = 100% Blue (Bb)
Black (BB) X Black (BB) = 100% Black (BB)
Splash (bb) X Splash (bb) = 100% Splash (bb)

Joanne

 

[coloradochick]

My two from McMurray are pretty white with a tad of blue splash. Maybe not even splash but a few spots. And they look nothing like the birds posted above. Mine are smaller and skinnier and they are pretty distant and flighty. Out of all my girls they're the only ones that won't even come up to me and at least pull on the shirt I'm wearing let alone let me touch them.

eta: and yes, they are Blue Andalusians

 

[carousel]

Thanks everyone!
I have mostly ordered from Ideal.
I think I will be happy with chickens that look like the ones on the pictures!
Not showing, just like some "eye" candy in the flock!

 

[AtRendeAcres]

I was WRONG

I found this on feathersight!


Blue Andalusian genetics. This means that if both parents are Blue Andalusians, then the offspring will be 25% White, 50% Blue, and 25% Black.