Ebay offer by T-Mike

[rick54]

I've seen many offers by T-Mike for Jumbo Pharoah Quail eggs. He has a good track record for feedback and number of sales, so I was wondering if anyone has taken up his offer and how the birds finished off for you. Since there are Jumbo birds, what were the finished weights by chance?

 

[rick54]

Well it appears no one has purchased eggs from T-Mike. Has anyone purchased "Jumbo" eggs on ebay that indeed hatched and grew to a "Jumbo" size (16 oz.) ? I'm interested in raising some "Jumbo" meat birds for my freezer. So if you have a source of supply for such birds, and are will to share the source, I'd appreciate it. Thank you.

 

[Dinx]

I just ordered some eggs on ebay from capitalcitypoultry. He has blended several lines (including JMF, A.Coker, and XLD1) and selected for not only size, but egg production and personality. So I'm sure these will be nice birds.

Robby at James Marie Farms advised me last week on the phone not to hatch eggs over 17 oz. because the super jumbos tend to have leg problems. (His waiting list for eggs is until October, btw.)

And super jumbo males have dislocated hips of females. Big is good, but bigger isn't necessarily better. Moderation in all things, I guess... even when in the world of Jumbos.

 

[rick54]

Dinx, thank you for the information. Yes, Robby does seem to have the best in eggs around. Unfortunately as you said, he always seems to be sold out. Thus my inquiry into other good sources of supply. I think it would be a good thing to have other sources of good birds so as to not be inbreeding so close all the time and able to interject new blood lines. Although I'm not so sure that all the lines didn't originate at the James Marie Farms at one time or another. Again, thank you for the information.

 

[kingmt]

Monarch use to be with this forum. I'm not sure if she is still here but I got nice birds from her.

I've been out of it for a few years but want to get back so I returned to see who had nice birds at good prices.

 

[rick54]

kingmt, I'm afraid as a person new to quail myself, I can't help you out on Monarch. I am interested in any answers you get to your question about Monarch though. As for myself, I'm interested in meat birds for the freezer. I am not interested in breeding for color, pets or egg laying. JMF does have a Meat Maker (MM) strain that he claims meets my requirements, but eggs are not available until Sept. Then again as a sole source of supply, when he's sold out it's a waiting game. I know also that he doesn't ship during the hot summer weather either, which isn't a problem for me here in Michigan. So I'm trying to compile a list of breeders that meet my requirements that I might be able to use when sold out or weather conditions play a part. I know that there are many eggs for sale on ebay, but not all meet my requirements. So those that do sell a true "Jumbo" are of interest to me.

JMF does sell a

Pharaoh XLD​

which I asked Robby about the last time we talked. He said it was just a standard brown in size bird, not what I'd be looking for. He doesn't seem to advertise his Meat Makers, at least, I can't find them listed on the website. They are coded as MM.

 

[kingmt]

Thanks for that info. I'd just looked at his site & seen Pharaoh & A&M advertised as meat birds. Those are usually small birds.

I wasn't actually asking a question about Monarch. I was just letting those interested know about her. I sent her a email but it doesn't look like her business is still going since everything I've found seems dated. She had really big birds. The ones I hatched from her was twice the size of anything I'd gotten from anyone else around here.

I don't trust eBay for eggs so I'll wait to see what offers there are around here.

Edited: Typos

 

[rick54]

When I talked with Ronny, he said his Meat Makers were the birds that I was looking for. Unfortunately he's sold out of those eggs at the moment. Yes, the Pharaohs and A&M's are smaller birds from what I understand. Ronny also told me that the MM eggs may produce some white birds or off colors and not to keep those birds for breeders. As I mentioned previous, I'm not interested in colors, so as long as they're the biggest, I don't care if they're white or purple! LOL I suppose the white birds may not produce the largest birds in the future, which is what I'm after. So I'll keep the best and biggest of the brown birds for breeders as he advised. Which according to Ronnie is only a year. At nine months, you start raising your next batch of breeders which will be ready by the time your existing breeders hit a year old. Cull the existing and move on with the new.

Now I'm not into genetics by no means. But I'd think if you kept new breeding pairs from the old strain and introduced a male from an outside strain with old strain hens, you could see how the two lines produce.

Well as far as ebay goes, no education is "free". One always pays a price in some way, if it's not by getting skinned knuckles working on a car, or a bad ebay deal. We all hope the price paid is no steeper than we are willing to accept. LOL! All my adventures into raising quail will require mail order eggs, as no one in my area raises quail that I know of. So it is nice to know who provides the best "Jumbo" strain, and is a pleasure to deal with. These are the folks worth putting on your "go to" list when it's time to get a new batch of eggs. This is what lead me to my original post asking if anyone had purchased eggs from T-Mike and how the hatched birds turned out. He could be the first on my "go to" list, but it seems no one has purchased his "Jumbo" eggs.

 

[kingmt]

I'd add to my breeders with every hatch. Why wait a year? You can call as you go & work in your bloodline. You can line bread Conturnix. You might get a mutation every so often that you might wasn't or cull it. I'd you start losing your size then you might need to bring in some new blood.

 

[rick54]

Well that's certainly one option I can explore too.