Hello! and welcome to the OEGB thread.

[OtterCreekRanch]

Quote:
I have some chocolates from Ideal. They are sold out but if you get on their "notify" list they will usually get you some in a week or two if you aren't wanting too many. They are pretty well a crap shoot as far as color goes though. I have 4 mature or nearly mature hens, and 2 that are still pretty young. Two of the older ones are so dark they look black, one is a decent shade of dark but slightly milky chocolate and the last is milky but pretty brassy. The two younger ones look like one will be almost black and the other is a sport and will be a nice coffee with cream shade from what I can tell. Out of the 7 I have ordered (had 1 died randomly at 4 weeks old...wasnt sick, just found it dead in the cage one day) I have never gotten a rooster, so I am going to have to cross them with blacks. Most of them are going to be on the large side. I think 1 hen (the one closest to a good chocolate with no brass) is decently small, but the rest are pretty large for their age. Most of them would have been culls by most people's standards, but I am going to keep them all and try to work out some of the kinks and cull harder when I get a few more going. Chocolate is definitely a difficult undertaking.

 

[Whiskey Bay]

Quote:
I have some chocolates from Ideal. They are sold out but if you get on their "notify" list they will usually get you some in a week or two if you aren't wanting too many. They are pretty well a crap shoot as far as color goes though. I have 4 mature or nearly mature hens, and 2 that are still pretty young. Two of the older ones are so dark they look black, one is a decent shade of dark but slightly milky chocolate and the last is milky but pretty brassy. The two younger ones look like one will be almost black and the other is a sport and will be a nice coffee with cream shade from what I can tell. Out of the 7 I have ordered (had 1 died randomly at 4 weeks old...wasnt sick, just found it dead in the cage one day) I have never gotten a rooster, so I am going to have to cross them with blacks. Most of them are going to be on the large side. I think 1 hen (the one closest to a good chocolate with no brass) is decently small, but the rest are pretty large for their age. Most of them would have been culls by most people's standards, but I am going to keep them all and try to work out some of the kinks and cull harder when I get a few more going. Chocolate is definitely a difficult undertaking.

I had actually gotten some pretty nice chocolate pullets from them.But just like you,I ended up with no roosters...lol... I found a chocolate rooster awhile back.He was a beautiful bird,but had some brassing to his wings.The person I got him from said he'd come from ideal,but they got no pullets...lol.

 

[bantiesrule]

I looked into Ideal and between their small order fees, airmail charges, boxing charges, etc., etc. it would cost close to $70 for what I wanted. I just don't want to spend that much money or get that many chicks.

 

[GotGame]

Quote:
I have spent way more on shipped eggs than $70, and out of 110 eggs, I have had ONE hatch....at least for us, we have had horrible luck with shipped eggs...but do what you gotta do, I am one of the only people I know that has blue spangles, and I wont be selling anything for at least two years...good luck...

 

[OtterCreekRanch]

Quote:
Hmm I have orderd 9-12 chicks from them several times and it has never costed more than $30-40. Most times I see eggs they run about $30 with shipping (and I have never seen eggs in any of the varieties you asked about for sell) for 12. I would much rather spend that for 9 guarenteed live chickens than for 12 eggs which have no guarentee at all.

 

[SunnyCalifornia]

Quote:
I have spent way more on shipped eggs than $70, and out of 110 eggs, I have had ONE hatch....at least for us, we have had horrible luck with shipped eggs...but do what you gotta do, I am one of the only people I know that has blue spangles, and I wont be selling anything for at least two years...good luck...

Hey, just checked out your website, you have some very pretty birds!!! Great job!

 

[OtterCreekRanch]

Quote:
I have some chocolates from Ideal. They are sold out but if you get on their "notify" list they will usually get you some in a week or two if you aren't wanting too many. They are pretty well a crap shoot as far as color goes though. I have 4 mature or nearly mature hens, and 2 that are still pretty young. Two of the older ones are so dark they look black, one is a decent shade of dark but slightly milky chocolate and the last is milky but pretty brassy. The two younger ones look like one will be almost black and the other is a sport and will be a nice coffee with cream shade from what I can tell. Out of the 7 I have ordered (had 1 died randomly at 4 weeks old...wasnt sick, just found it dead in the cage one day) I have never gotten a rooster, so I am going to have to cross them with blacks. Most of them are going to be on the large side. I think 1 hen (the one closest to a good chocolate with no brass) is decently small, but the rest are pretty large for their age. Most of them would have been culls by most people's standards, but I am going to keep them all and try to work out some of the kinks and cull harder when I get a few more going. Chocolate is definitely a difficult undertaking.

I had actually gotten some pretty nice chocolate pullets from them.But just like you,I ended up with no roosters...lol... I found a chocolate rooster awhile back.He was a beautiful bird,but had some brassing to his wings.The person I got him from said he'd come from ideal,but they got no pullets...lol.

That is so weird that you didn't get any roosters either. It is almost like a conspiracy. All of the other colors I have ordered have always been a good mix of males and females except the Fawn Silver Duckwings I ordered from them which came all roosters...but it was only 3 chicks so that could just be a coincidence. Strange though. I haven't found a chocolate rooster yet but I do have the FSDW (one sport) roosters and some black hens, so I will be making my own sometime hopefully.

 

[bantiesrule]

Quote:
I have spent way more on shipped eggs than $70, and out of 110 eggs, I have had ONE hatch....at least for us, we have had horrible luck with shipped eggs...but do what you gotta do, I am one of the only people I know that has blue spangles, and I wont be selling anything for at least two years...good luck...

You are right about shipped eggs, it's a crap shoot.
I might have to check Ideal out again. I've heard alot about their birds being big so really didn't want to order from them but haven't seen much variety at other hatcheries and you never know what you will get from them either. As far as that goes, you don't really know what you get out of shipped eggs either.

Thanks to all who gave input!

 

[Whiskey Bay]

Quote:
I have spent way more on shipped eggs than $70, and out of 110 eggs, I have had ONE hatch....at least for us, we have had horrible luck with shipped eggs...but do what you gotta do, I am one of the only people I know that has blue spangles, and I wont be selling anything for at least two years...good luck...

You are right about shipped eggs, it's a crap shoot.
I might have to check Ideal out again. I've heard alot about their birds being big so really didn't want to order from them but haven't seen much variety at other hatcheries and you never know what you will get from them either. As far as that goes, you don't really know what you get out of shipped eggs either.

Thanks to all who gave input!

As far as ordering OEGB from ideal,I would do it again.I got a few that came a lil leggy,but most of them came out really nice.Not show quality of course,but still some really nice birds.My Brown red was beautiful,just overlaced.I paired him with minimal laced females.My Blue Quail,a lil under breasted,but still really nice bird. I have pics of lots of ideal birds I'd raised before starting with the show birds. I've ordered from Cackle,and had a horrible experience.ordered 50,received 18...all died over a couple weeks time.Like 3-4 a night,sometimes i'd go in there and they'd have literally JUST died. Had no other problems with any other orders from ideal or the LF i ordered from mt healthy.Had a huge battle from the start with them.never did get my money back on the 32 i never received. "well ma'am ,it shows they were boxed up and shipped out. Cant help ya. Unless you can get ur PO to verify it...."

 

[Zaxby's2]

Okay, so I went out to the chicken pen this morning and found my BO hen with four little chicks!

One of them is an OEGB chick that's yellow with a brown stripe down it's back. That means it's a BBR right? I've heard that you can tell the gender by it's coloring. Is it true? How can you? I'm just so excited that they all hatched!