Blue Andalusians

[draye]

Who has the best Blue Ansdalusians?

These are the hatcheries that I know that sell them:
Murray McMurray ( Worried about this one because of shipping isses). Do they offer Overnight or Next Day?
Ideal
Meyer
Privett

Thanks,
draye

 

[draye]

Anyone

 

[Josiah Woodfield]

Anyone but a hatchery... lol I always try to buy my birds from reputable breeders. If you can afford it, thats always the way to go.

 

[OwlLover]

What if a breeder is too far away? Mine charges $20 a bird. That's a little high.
I got mine from My Pet Chicken. She's a freak and is noisy, but is a really good layer considering that she first started 2 weeks ago. She takes the heat and the cold well.

 

[Josiah Woodfield]

Like I said, IF you can afford them. Thats always the key. And too, if just looking for ornaments for the backyard, it matters little when it comes to quality.

 

[Oregon Blues]

If you want good quality birds, there is no if you can afford them. For the exact same money, you can buy fewer quality birds and start hatching. Chickens lay a lot of eggs. You can turn a high quality trio into 200-300 quality birds in the first year.

If you start with a box of chicks from a hatchery, you have hatchery quality chicks and you can hatch out a bunch more hatchery quality chicks, and unless you purchase and add some top quality birds to your flock, you will never have anything but hatchery quality chicks. That is not the way to get a good quality flock.

 

[Illia]

$20 a bird?! That's pretty darn cheap if they're actually quality birds. Most hatchery hens sell for $15 each. Good quality Andalusians that look like this are very rare.

If the Andalusians your source (hatchery, breeder, whatever) do not have the most important and missed trait, the serious black lacing, then I'd skip them.


Oregon Blues made a very good point.

Personally I've never seen any hatchery with Andalusians that don't look like a typical solid blue chicken but skinny with white earlobes.

 

[BuddhaOmGarden]

wow, that is a beauty

 

[UllaBee]

Yes that is one fine chicken! We just ordered from a hatchery (just starting out), and while I can see how beautiful that specific chicken is, it resembles the silver laced wyandotte to me (and we ordered some of those too), so I would be perfectly happy (actually happier) if our andalusians just look blue/grey all over. I am not looking to show, I just want some pretty birds with a nice variety in my flock. We ordered from McMurray and so far they have all been very healthy (we had one, out of 27 chicks, that had a deformed leg, but they sent us an extra chick on top of the free "rare" chick), and so far they are the cutest sweetest things! They are only a little over 2 weeks, but even with the little feathers they now have, they are beautiful! I even look forward to having the full grown splashes (which obviously won't have any lacing at all).