Breeder Sold Me Mixed Chicks?

[Chicken_overlord]

Hello all!

I just hatched out 10 beautiful baby chicks. However, some were not what I expected, although they are precious nonetheless.

A little background: I'm trying to put together a Silverudd's blue breeding flock so I've been working on sourcing chicks from different breeders. This is a rare breed so its been some work.

I came across a local breeder who was advertising some silverudd's blue hatching eggs for sale. She answered my questions and seemed very nice and forward at the time. I do know that she has some hens that are marans and welsummers crossed with silverudd's blue but she was advertising the hatching eggs as silverudd's blue hatching eggs so I had assumed she would only include the purebred eggs in the batch. I guess shame on me for assuming.

The eggs all appeared like proper silverudd's blue eggs, green with speckles, but some of the chicks hatched out with chipmunk markings, and one with some brown on its face, and one that looked splash until it started drying and now looks like a chipmunk (duckwing/partridge) pattern with splash. Clearly not pure silverudd's blue chicks. Some of the other chicks do appear purebred.

I attempted to reach out to the breeder to ask about what I could have ended up with and she has not responded and I noticed that her ads have also disappeared. A little concerning.

I guess my question is, should I now assume that none of the chicks are pure and start from scratch? Or can I go by the ones that grow to the correct type and assume those are pure?

 

[Debbie292d]

Where did you find this breeder? If Facebook, you can search the forum for the breed and see if her ad comes up.

You’re never going to be able to say you’ve got pure breed with those. I’d sell the chicks and try find a breeder online. One sure way to tell a scammer is if they won’t take a credit card and only want you to pay as friend/family on PayPal.

 

[Chicken_overlord]

I found her on some local classifieds selling her chicks and hatching eggs. Her ad was gone right after I confronted her about the mix chicks and I can't remember her name to look her up. Oh well, lesson learned.

I did end up selling the chicks as olive eggers. We ended up keeping one that looks like a splash partridge so we were curious about what it's adult plumage would look like, just for funsies.

I ended up finding another breeder who was happy to show me pictures of her flock and answer my questions. I had to drive another 2 hours, but it was totally worth it as I can now confidently say I have 8 little pure silverudd's blue chicks.