Ideal hatchery Stock

[Alabama ee]

I just got my order from Ideal!!! I ordered 12 and they sent a few extras! They are eatting and drinking. I have 5 BR's, 5 BA, and 5 more EE's.

 

[coloradochick]

 

[yoie]

I just got my 4 ducklings this morning! They are all running around and eating and drinking (splashing

).

 

[Eglyntine]

Quote:
I ordered Buff Orpingtons, Silver Laced Wyandottes, Golden Laced Wyandottes, and Black Australorps from Ideal. They threw in some RIR roos to keep the second batch I ordered warm. Most all of the birds started laying around 16 weeks. I had two go broody last month and I just hatched out 10 cross-breed chicks over this last weekend. So I am pretty impressed with Ideal birds. They lay well, sit well and are super cuddly. Even the RIR roos are super friendly to humans but they are extreme horn-dogs and they have no mercy for my hens. I started butchering them out last week. They dressed out at about 7 to 8lb birds and we're having a Mother's Day BBQ this weekend.

All of the birds are gorgeous and I could probably show a few of them if I was so inclined. The SLW have a bit too much white in them but I am more interested in the food they can produce and their temperament than I am in showing them. Plus now that I know that they are good at sitting and breeding I can fix the colouring flaws. I posted some pictures in this thread but I will repost some pics in this one to save the back and forth.

Here are some pictures:

This is one of my Black Australorp Hens hanging out.

One of my Black Australorp Roosters

This is Roderick, he is the love of Bertha's (my biggest buff orpington hen's life. She just adores him.

This is a closer picture of him, I wish my camera was working like it should, with the sun out he is so gold. It is like watching a gold bullion bar walking across the yard.

Here are a few pictures of the entire flock. I have Golden Laced Wyandottes, Silver-Laced Wyandottes, Buff Orpingtons, Black Australorps from Ideal and 6 SLW , 2 Barred Rocks, 4 Black Sex Links, 2 White Leghorns, 3 White Crested Black Polish hens are from a local lady who sold off all of her flock.

This is Mario (I call him Bo but my boys named him when he was a chick). He has turned into such a gorgeous rooster and he is so nice too. He was in my first order from Ideal. He totally remembers perching up on my wrist when he was a baby and he still tries to do that when he is WAY too big to be doing that. I cannot help spoiling all of them. Mixed with my golden-laced wyandotte hens they are going to make beautiful babies I think.

Here is a quick picture of Breakfast and Dinner, two of my Ideal warmer bunch Rhode Island red roosters that were dressed out last week. They were definitely a lot nicer to raise than those Cross X Broilers.

This was Picard, he was a Silver Laced Wyandotte rooster from Ideal that we were going to keep for my SLW breeding program but he hurt his leg somehow so we decided he would be better off BBQ'd than suffering from a leg injury.

Overall I am very happy, I did not receive one dead bird on arrival and all of the birds were super healthy and grew like rockets. The only deaths came from human intervention and Ideal even went out of their way to replace those free of charge when I totally expected to pay for the replacements. I am very pleased with Ideal and I would definitely recommend them to anyone needing a starter flock.

Here are a few pictures of the babies I just hatched out, they are from my BA rooster crossed with my GLW, SLW, WCB Polish, Barred Rock and Buff Orpington hens.

This is the baby polish:

Thanks for letting me share

 

[Alabama ee]

Thanks for sharing! you have some beautiful birds Eglyntine!

I have noticed with ours that they seem a little laid back. They have energy but are not hyper.

All 15 are still doing great. There are a couple that seem to like being held.

 

[Eglyntine]

Mine were the same way, and they still are. Most of them love the attention and will walk right up to you. Even when they were babies they hardly freaked out when I went to clean out their brooder and they could tell when I was close cause they all started cooing and trilling. It is the weirdest thing but I do love it.

I hope you have the same experience with your babies.

 

[Alabama ee]

The birds we received from Ideal are still doing great. They seemed to grow faster or just be bigger
then ones we bought from other places. The other birds we bought from other places did not reach this size until
about the end of 12 weeks. The only thing we did differently is that we put them outside sooner than we did others.
So they had fresh grass sooner .

I am not sure
if it is because we raised them differently, bought them at different time of year, or Ideal
raises them to grow fast or be bigger. However, they are much bigger . I will post later
and let ya'll know if they are bigger when full grown.