Meyer Hatchery rip off

[janiedoe]

So legbars can lay white eggs?

Yes. I had one that laid white. Disappointing, but she was my favorite hen ever. Her sister looked almost just like her but laid blue. They both looked like CCL with crests and floppy combs.

 

[Mimi13]

I’m not certain, but with any “cross” there can always be that chance. Here is what My Pet Chicken said about the Super Blue Egglayer chick I ordered. This may explain it a little bit better than I can.

“The Super Blue variety is a custom cross, bred exclusively for My Pet Chicken. On average, 15/16 pullets will lay blue eggs when they mature. Because these are first generation crosses (F1), statistically, 1 out of 16 birds will have a single comb and will not lay blue eggs. Please also keep in mind that your blue eggs may be anywhere from pale blue hued to a more intense, aqua blue. There is no chicken to our knowledge that lays sky-blue eggs!”​

 

[Mimi13]

I ordered 22 various chicks from Meyer Hatchery in 2018. I was completely satisfied except for the NHR pullet than mysteriously turned male overnight. Yep, I hate it, but it happens.

This year I ordered from My Pet Chicken simply because I wanted a breed that MH did not offer. These “specialty” breeds are going to vary quite a bit, I believe. I ordered one Cream Legbar and two Partridge Olive Eggers. As day old chicks I could easily tell the two breeds apart, but as they got a little older their feather coloring somewhat merged. I never saw a crest of feathers on my CL’s head, and if not for the color of their feet and shanks I would never have been able to tell the pullets apart. Today, at almost 6 months old, my two Partridge Olive Eggers do not look alike. One of them looks just like my Cream Legbar, except for their leg color. But remember, my POE is a cross, bred from the CL.

Below are my pullets’ pictures. You can easily see what I’m saying.

My original CL hen, Fancy. She has a crest and yellow legs and her comb drastically lays flat to the left and then flops back to the right.

In the foreground is my new 6 month CL. She has the same feather and leg coloring as my original, but has no crest. *These are hatchery birds so I don’t expect perfection. Her comb lays exactly opposite of the other CL.
(FYI, the bird in the back is a Penedesenca. I have two and they are beautiful, but both are strange little creatures to say the least.

I was lucky enough to capture the different breeds in the same shot. At just a glance they look like the same breed, but they aren’t. (I say breed, but actually the POE is a mixed breed.) Can you tell which one is which? The one in the foreground is my CL, yellow legs, wishy-washy comb. The pullet in the back is my POE, with white legs.

Two closeups of my POE that looks like my CL.

Now for my other POE. She looks completely different, but she is one STRIKING pullet and honestly is my favorite. Everything about her is striking, color, stance.

Just another shot of the darker Partridge Olive Egger out in the open. She is a stunning addition to my flock.

As for the color of their eggs, I am pleased. This picture doesn’t do the Olive color justice, but I’m in love. I haven’t figured out which girl lays the darker of the two eggs yet. (Of the two blue eggs, my CL laid the one in the front row and my Super Blue Egger laid the one in the back. My two Ameraucanas, a black and a splash, mature a little slower so I don’t have one of theirs to show.)

I’m sorry you paid a premium price for your girl to only get a white egg, but I hope she makes up for the absence of the blue color in personality.

 

[imneva]

Thanks for the replies. Elsa is a flighty and unfriendly sort at the current time. I love white chickens but she is not at all what I paid for. If I had wanted a white egg laying chicken that was white I would have gotten a leghorn for 2 bucks at tsc

 

[aart]

Thanks for the replies. Elsa is a flighty and unfriendly sort at the current time. I love white chickens but she is not at all what I paid for. If I had wanted a white egg laying chicken that was white I would have gotten a leghorn for 2 bucks at tsc

Did you notify them?

 

[Shezadandy]

View attachment 1892461 View attachment 1892461 View attachment 1892462 View attachment 1892464 View attachment 1892464 View attachment 1892465 View attachment 1892466 1st let me say this was my 2nd year getting chicks from Meyer. A total of 16 chicks. All strong and healthy. This year I decided since last year’s were so good that I would splurge and get that frost white legbar I had my eye on last year. Over $50 for that 1 chick. Everything I had read she should have a crest and lat blue eggs. I’d have been happy with out the crest as long as she laid blue eggs of some sort. As you ha e probably guess by now no crest and no blue eggs. I get WHITE! I sent them photos they accused me of using a filter! With!

Here's what I would do. Take a video of your hen laying an egg. Mark that egg in the video with a distinct mark (black ink) of some variety or another, then I would package it in a 12 pack egg carton cut down to 4 cells, and mail the egg to them, wrapped carefully.

 

[Shezadandy]

Have you ever peeled back the interior lining on one of her eggs after you crack it? i.e. so you can see the bare shell on the INSIDE? Sometimes you'll see a hint of color that isn't as easy to see on the exterior side of the shell. I'm not saying that egg isn't white - I had the same bit of fun with the Super Blue Egg Layers - one laid a really light light blue, the other you could see maybe a hint of the blue if you really really looked- very frustrating, and unlike the other poster above, both of mine had the pea comb.

Edited to add charts:

A quick rundown on egg color genetics.

There are 2 eggshell colors, white and blue. Think of the egg shell like a Rubbermaid container- no amount of cleaning or rubbing will lighten the color.

Each chicken has 2 egg color genes. In the case of blue layers, it's reasonably simple. The below is how you get 2 blue-egg-gene carriers to produce a white egg.

In chart form, from https://scratchcradle.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/gms2-breeding-for-blue-eggs/:

​

As for the crest issue, what I saw indicated that crests have incomplete dominance.

In flowers with incomplete dominance, for example, if you cross a red flower with a white flower, the first generation will all be pink.

If you then cross those pink flowers back on each other, 1/4 will be red, 1/2 will be pink, and 1/4 will be white.

As below, taken from https://www.askiitians.com/forums/Botany/define-incomplete-dominance-with-are-example-1-1_196725.htm

So if you take a crested bird and mate it with a non-crested bird, the first generation will all have crests, albeit, smaller crests.

If you mate the smaller crested birds (heterozygous for the crested trait) to each other, you'd then get 1 big crest, 2 smaller crest, and 1 no crest.

I don't know if there's a link between the blue egg gene and crest, or if you ended up with the bird who laid white and didn't have the crest.

Some genes travel together, i.e. the blue egg gene and a pea comb, for example - not every pea comb bird will have the blue egg gene - but it's often true.

BUT: Per Meyer's own description: "Frost White Legbars are crested, have a floppy comb, and yellow legs." Your bird is not crested. So regardless of the egg color issue- they sent you a bird that doesn't match their own description - no crest- that's indisputable.

If they refuse to see that the egg isn't white... again, I would video that bird laying her egg, and mark that egg with a distinctive mark WHILE TAPING- and send them THAT egg.


​

 

[Fishkeeper]

You should contact them, politely. Maybe they just accidentally sent you the wrong one. Big place like that, lots of orders, I'm sure things get mixed around now and then.

 

[Shezadandy]

View attachment 1892461 View attachment 1892461 View attachment 1892462 View attachment 1892464 View attachment 1892464 View attachment 1892465 View attachment 1892466 1st let me say this was my 2nd year getting chicks from Meyer. A total of 16 chicks. All strong and healthy. This year I decided since last year’s were so good that I would splurge and get that frost white legbar I had my eye on last year. Over $50 for that 1 chick. Everything I had read she should have a crest and lat blue eggs. I’d have been happy with out the crest as long as she laid blue eggs of some sort. As you ha e probably guess by now no crest and no blue eggs. I get WHITE! I sent them photos they accused me of using a filter! With!

I would focus on the lack of a crest as their description indicates a crested bird - get really good pictures of where the crest should be ...

 

[Farmgirl1878]

I had two chicks that sickened and died shortly after I picked up my order from Meyer last year. When I called the customer service number, they were very helpful, courteous, and sympathetic. They refunded the purchase price and offered to send two chicks to replace the sick ones. Not sure why the dramatic difference...