Can You Get A "Mutt" From A Hatchery?

[Fred's Hens]

Curious, has anyone gotten a chick mixed into their hatchery order that was, well, for the lack of a better term, a mutt? Clearly something less than breed standard, as in, really below any breed standard? How about from a feed store, which re-sold hatchery chicks?

 

[hoppy]

Fred's Hens :

Curious, has anyone gotten a chick mixed into their hatchery order that was, well, for the lack of a better term, a mutt? Clearly something less than breed standard, as in, really below any breed standard? How about from a feed store, which re-sold hatchery chicks?

I guess they could use them for packing peanuts although I'm sure with all the purebreds they stil would have plenty of pure packing peanuts.
some hatcheries sell easter eggers and they come in many colors.​

 

[crazyhen]

None of the hatchery chicks are pure anymore. all of them are mixed. They do not meet the sop for their breed. IMHO Gloria jean

 

[Chris09]

Fred's Hens :

Curious, has anyone gotten a chick mixed into their hatchery order that was, well, for the lack of a better term, a mutt? Clearly something less than breed standard, as in, really below any breed standard? How about from a feed store, which re-sold hatchery chicks?

I believe 100% you do and or will.
Example would be the birds that hatchery call "Ameraucana", "Wyandottes" with single combs, "Polish" with 5 toes etc.

Chris​

 

[crash0330]

Quote:
I agree with you on the not meeting the SOP part, but that doesn't mean that they are all mixed, they are just not bred for exhibition, that doesn't not make them mutts tho as they will breed true. Now easter Eggers is other story, but for the most part you will get Backyard quality Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, Brahama etc.

 

[kathyinmo]

Fred's Hens :

Curious, has anyone gotten a chick mixed into their hatchery order that was, well, for the lack of a better term, a mutt? Clearly something less than breed standard, as in, really below any breed standard? How about from a feed store, which re-sold hatchery chicks?

Clearly something less than breed standard, as in, really below any breed standard?

They are ALL below breed standard, and are most likely 100% not pure bred. Hatcheries are about quantity not quality.​

 

[Chris09]

Quote:
I agree with you on the not meeting the SOP part, but that doesn't mean that they are all mixed, they are just not bred for exhibition, that doesn't not make them mutts tho as they will breed true. Now easter Eggers is other story, but for the most part you will get Backyard quality Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, Brahama etc.

most part you will get Backyard quality Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, Brahama etc

.

Most of the hatcheries Barred Rocks are a Barred Rock Dominique cross.

Chris​

 

[al6517]

Fred's Hens :

Curious, has anyone gotten a chick mixed into their hatchery order that was, well, for the lack of a better term, a mutt? Clearly something less than breed standard, as in, really below any breed standard? How about from a feed store, which re-sold hatchery chicks?

That is pretty much the entire definition of what the hatcheries do sell, I have rarely seen a hatchery bird that even remotely came close the the breed SOP IMO. Hatcheries breed for egg production not breed characteristics which means they are all mutts. their main customers are sold and marketed to folks who don't know or care what their chickens are supposed to look like, as long as they are cute................

AL​

 

[provocativename]

Quote:
Clearly something less than breed standard, as in, really below any breed standard?

They are ALL below breed standard, and are most likely 100% not pure bred. Hatcheries are about quantity not quality.

I have to disagree a bit. I bought some Americana from McMurray and showed them at our county fair, and the judge there said they had some of the best type he'd seen in a while....now I'll say she didn't lay blue eggs, and she wasn't a show pattern. But she was a beautiful bird and he was very impressed with her...

. Sadly all my birds were eaten a few weeks later

. But that was years ago.

 

[Illia]

Quote:
Clearly something less than breed standard, as in, really below any breed standard?

They are ALL below breed standard, and are most likely 100% not pure bred. Hatcheries are about quantity not quality.

I have to disagree a bit. I bought some Americana from McMurray and showed them at our county fair, and the judge there said they had some of the best type he'd seen in a while....now I'll say she didn't lay blue eggs, and she wasn't a show pattern. But she was a beautiful bird and he was very impressed with her...

. Sadly all my birds were eaten a few weeks later

. But that was years ago.

Exactly! No blue eggs, not a recgnized color, and honestly - County Fairs are not APA judged, they're just judged for the fun of showing w/friends and family. People enter "Easter Eggers" there all the time, even Sex-Link hybrids, and win for "prettiness."

Hatcheries are known to sell mutts all the time. Not only in the Easter Egger department but also even things like Brahmas. . . I got a bunch from Murray McMurray and one of my girls clearly wasn't purebred. Single comb, small body as usual, very high set tail, very little leg feathering, completely different behavior from there others, who naturally were far from the standard anyway, I could go on.

Even their "Rhode Island Reds" are so far from the original I'd consider them mutts.