***Crevecoeur Thread***

[cluck-cluck]

Hi, thank you It's so hard to take pictures of a moving target! LOL Poor boy has such a diaper butt too He's such a love though!

 

[CibolaChooks]

here is my best boy.

 

[cluck-cluck]

Aww, he's handsome! Does it get hot in Albuquerque? My son is hiking at Philmont with the boy scouts right now (N/E of Sante Fe) It's his second time, the first time, 4 years ago, made him addicted to hiking, LOL.

Anyway, your boy is handsome, how old is he?

 

[CibolaChooks]

Ive never been up to philmont but that whole area is just gorgeous. I love to hike here also. There are some really nice places and the diversity of climate zones is so amazing. you can go from desert prairies to high desert mountains and be into lush mountains with ferns and everything else in just one hike.

My boy is around 3 and half months old . this guy was the first to start crowing in my grow out pen.

 

[cluck-cluck]

He really is good looking, could you share where you got him?

 

[CibolaChooks]

www.privetthatchery.com/Home/prdDetails.aspx?id=CS

this hatchery is in my home state. they have everything you can think of and they don't do all that bad of a job like some hatchery's. Id say if you got 10 of any kind of breed they have you would probably end up with around 3-4 nice examples of the breed.

 

[cluck-cluck]

Ah, nice!. I've got to check them out ;-). . Have you weighed your boy yet? My boy is extremely small, he's from Ideal and was the largest bird. At 9 months old, he's just over 4 lbs! Anyway, I do have some chicks growing out from him under the most optimal conditions and they do seem to be growing better than their parents did. If this isn't illusion, the reason may be that the offspring never had to endure traveling by mail, or being brought up by humans. Plus, I got my creves in the month of mid October, which I've since learned is not a good time of year for chicks to start out at :/

My current chicks also had the advantage of going outsjde since day 1, and mama worked very hard at finding bugs for them to eat. So I won't be surprised if these chicks end up larger and healthier

my legs are giving me trouble this week, so I can't get to my computer. But when I can, I'll be showing some comparisons of my ideal chicks from last October and the McMurray chicks I got last week. They are so different, it's like night and day! It's very interesting!

 

[cluck-cluck]

Here is a comparison of my Ideal chicks that I got in October 2012 and my McMurray chicks I got about 2 weeks ago.
These are my Ideal chicks when they arrived. There is a lot more white on their bellies and their skull protrubance wasn't as large, I don't think.


Here is another picture with a bantam sultan chick. The Crevecoeurs were only very slightly larger, by only about 15 grams tops average. The sultans turned out to be slightly large for their size, but are still around 2 lbs, the Crevecoeurs, well my girl is about 3 lbs soaking wet and my boy is 4.8 lbs soaking wet. Super small, way out of scale to the SOP. My boy has about half red earlobes, I did get one boy that ended up with full red earlobes and I kick myself that I didn't keep him. He was almost the same size as Bouillon, but I gave him away to the feed store before he fully developed the color, and I visited him 2 weeks later, and there were the red earlobes! Oh well....


Unfortunately, I couldn't find my scale, still can't, so I didn't get weights on my McMurray chicks. But anyway, they look much darker, with black or charcoal all over. In these pictures, I think I got some flash in there that makes them look lighter, but they were quite black. Their shanks are much darker as well as their beaks. These are all females (or are supposed to be) and so I won't be able to see how large a male gets with these. But here are some pictures:






So anyway, there is a comparison that I can post at this point. Hope to post more comparisons as this batch grows

 

[cluck-cluck]

poking in to report, and now this is not subjective (is subjective, LOL), I could be biased, but it seems this McMurray batch of pullets have more heft to them (though I've been feeding them extra scrambled eggs, and a bit of olive oil in their feed (I also make it a bit wet, because I find less is spilled and the oil also helps it "clot" together for easier picking out if it is spilled) Their tails, though the chicks are quite young still, look like they're coming in wide with a wide tent shape so far. If I get any pullets with red ears, I'll be so happy!

Although I really like the people at Ideal poultry, So far, if anyone is thinking of buying Crevecoeurs from a hatchery, I like McMurray better. Their legs seem the right length, good coloring, good shape so far (but they're REALLY young, just over 2 weeks old) Cute and curious, though. When I open the door, they come close and hop on their nesting box to look out the door, and they get very close to me. I can just take one off the edge, but then Belina attacks me... LOL. She's seriously Rabid Mama!

Anyway, Just reporting because when I was looking for birds, I couldn't find any objective information and I hope this helps someone in the future. I'm hoping to get Duane Urch or exop chicks/eggs next winter/spring. Then I can make another comparison exop's birds are from Duane and Sandhill. I think Sandhill gets their stock from Duane, but I'm not sure, just what I heard?

 

[auntie tee]

nice looking chicks, Cluck-Cluck. Can't wait to see the pics of them as they grow! How many did you get?