McKinney and Govero????

[Chickndaddy]

Several years ago that is where I received my Blue-laced Red Wyandottes from. Someone asked me a qestion that made me go look for their website. And I can't find it. Are they no longer in business anymore? If I remember correctly they had some awesome birds.

On a side note: I was also very sad to see where Rocking T Ranch was no longer selling birds. When I very first got my birds in the 8th grade Pete and Justine helped me so much with any little problem I had. They were alsways quick to reply to an e-mail I sent them. I didn't even know about BYC back then.

Anyways, through reminiscing now...

 

[smith2]

I could be wrong, but I thought Govero sold to McMurray?

 

[EweSheep]

They went out of business and sold their Wyndottes to MMurray hatchery.

They had beautiful birds! I think it was three or four years ago they decided not to raise anymore chickens.

 

[Chickndaddy]

Oh....well that explains how MMH got the BLRW then... Their birds were gorgeous.

 

[Blisschick]

Yes, they sold to MM, but the stock is not the best. My original breeding stock came from M&G. Gold laced was bred into the flock at some point, which messed up the red coloring, making it a brassy, undesirable color, and causing issues with the lacing. If you buy from MM, they're okay if you just want some for eggs, but as far as quality breeding stock, they're not really you want. Not only is the coloring off, but the body type is way off standard. I've been working with mine for a few years now trying to get the gold out, and have nearly succeeded. I've found getting stock from independent breeders has been much better than anything you can get from MM. Yahoo has a BLRW group that has been a great help.

Whereabouts are you in East Texas? I'm between Livingston and Cleveland.

 

[Chickndaddy]

I lived in Palestine when I had the birds and I live in Tyler currently. I wasn't saying Murray McMurray had gorgeous birds, and a few of the blue BLRW did have more of a gold red than the red you should see. And one of the splash BLRW pullets from the original bunch had a straight comb. But some Wyadottes were very type-y.

I remember when the birds very first came out in the US breeders were recommending you breed GLW into the BLRW if you didn't have enough blood. I never did though...

Edited to say: The color will be off in some of those pics because they are scanned copies of the originals.

 

[Blisschick]

My dad lives near Palestine. I know I have an uncle in Tyler, but I've never been there.

One of my splash has a single comb, but I was told that having a single comb wasn't any big deal, that they pop up in a group occasionally. They're also good to breed back into the group if it's a roo, since it helps with the low fertility issue in Wyandottes. Roos will throw less single combed chicks than hens. I've been selling off any single combed offspring, though. I haven't had one that was of good type worth keeping. I keep my hen because she has good body type.

The breeder I got my chicks from last year lives up near Dallas, and the ones I got from her are very nicely colored with good form. The red is very deep, deeper than the red from my M&G flock. I have my blue M&G roo in with 10 splash and 2 blue girls. I hatched out a bunch for a local guy, but haven't really hatched any for myself this year, so I don't really know how nice the color has come out yet. Of the 4 from my last hatch (which was miserable), two appear to be black laced, so I'll sell those as culls. I can't tell yet with the other two because they're still too young.

I was told that SL was the best to breed with for form, because they're the easiest to find with good quality, and that the color comes out sex-linked. (I don't remember exactly how, though.) I've yet to even begin looking into that, since I'd have to sell off birds to make room for them.

 

[exop]

Wyandottes aside, does anyone know where I can get in touch with either Mr. McKinney, or Mr. Govero? I would love to interview them about their experience running their hatchery and what they went through when sourcing some of their rare breeds. This is from a "poultry historian" point of view, I was never a customer of the hatchery. Please PM me if you are able to help!

Best - exop