Sigh. We all make mistakes and learn the hard way, right? Right??
I got eggs from
ebay twice, both had problems. First one was a seller who claimed to have pure black turkeys(hard to find actually! Pure black flocks without any off color feathers that is). He had many pictures of a gorgeous black tom turkey shining jet black. I tried asking for pictures of hens, he made up excuses or flat out ignored(I asked several times.. should have realized that was a red flag..) Bid on half of a dozen. 3 hatched. Only one was pure black.. the others showed bronze type feathers mixed on their bodies. I contacted the seller and showed pictures- he was RUDE to me! Got angry at at me and everything.. wow..! He continued to sell more eggs, continued to get bunches of positive feedback from buyers who simply left feedback as soon as they got their eggs. From this lesson I decided it is better to wait until the chicks have hatched to 'prove' more or less they really are what you bid on them. Unfortunately these auctions usually have a limit on time you can leave feedback for them, right?(not a frequent ebayer)
Second time.. this lady on east coast had pure blue naked necks! Oh wow, been wanting them forever.. She had pictures showing hen and rooster, both were solid blue.. matching the standard for NN.. looks good so far... makes claim she had bred them generations.. no off colors, they are pure for naked neck etc etc.. I was very nervous about ordering(this IS
ebay and had bad exerience with the above guy..) but my best friend decided to surprise me by bidding on them for me.. Awesome.
Well.. hatched 5. Guess what.. only two chicks had naked necks! Only one was black(expected.. but why does it have a fuzzy neck?!), one blue(thank goodness it DOES have a naked neck..), one white(OK it has naked neck but obviosly not pure for it.. This one feathered out solid white but turned out to be a splash.. but! with lots of red leaking on wings!) and..... two tan chicks?! I emailed the seller about the chicks.. she was very evasive and tried to make excuses such as 'throw backs' I pointed out she claimed she bred them pure for generations- that was never answered. I also asked if it was possible they were Barnevelder crosses(she also had listing for Barnies).. she denied this but honestly the two chicks grew up looking awful lot like what I would imagine Barnevelder crosses to look like (kept one pullet, she is now solid buff with blue tail and hackles- and she does seem to have different body type from the NN hen. She's very pretty but NOT what I expected/wanted..). As to the last communication she still refuses to acknowledge her stock were not pure/sent me wrong eggs/a rooster jumped a fence or something like that.. To be fair, she did offer to send a few eggs if I would cover shipping- declined because I did not want to waste more time if I was just going to get similar results again. And ME pay shipping/anything for HER mistakes? Um.. nope.