My hens age

[bigz1983]

Ok I emailed the owner of the hatchery that sold the ameracuana pullets to the seller I bought from at the small swap. He said he only sells chicks. So the guy I bought them got them as a reject batch of chicks from a hatchery in Brighton Michigan. Oh boy

 

[lazy gardener]

Quote: Bigz: "Ok I emailed the owner of the hatchery that sold the ameracuana pullets to the seller I bought from at the small swap. He said he only sells chicks. So the guy I bought them got them as a reject batch of chicks from a hatchery in Brighton Michigan. Oh boy"

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Her feet in that pic look like she might either have scaly leg mites (a super easy fix) or be an older hen. Either way, I suggest that you give her a bit of oil (any kind will do) massaged into her entire legs and feet. Repeat again in about 10 days.

After reading your response from the breeder, I'd not be at all concerned about his statement re: the buyer "buying and re-selling his culls", as long as the buyer/re-seller was honest and gave full disclosure.

When a breeder produces a season's worth of chicks, he very well may produce hundreds of chicks. A very few meet his standard for "keepers". These will be birds that possess all or most, or even some of the traits that he intends to breed into his flock. A good breeder is always striving to improve his flock.

What does the breeder do with the rest? Some/a lot of the chicks meet the SOP, and will be sold at a premium price as "show quality". Others have flaws that would eliminate them from being show quality. It might be as simple as a bit of off color in the feathers, comb or feet not being exactly the right color, size of bird. These birds rival any hatchery birds in quality, and may very well be superior to hatchery birds. They will be sold at a reduced rate as "pet quality". The breeder may need to keep a lot of birds through their first adult molt before determining that they will enter his breeding flock.

A breeder with integrity may choose to cull all chicks that are not show quality. (B/C he doesn't want to have those chicks entering the gene pool in some one else's flock, and further degrading the over all SOP for that breed.) Or he may sell them as "pet quality" birds to re-coup some of his operational costs. If he sells them, he runs the risk of people proudly pointing to the culls they bought and stating, "These are pure bred birds I bought from a breeder by the name of John Doe!" The knowledgeable person would look at those birds, and assume that John Doe is producing crap!

As long as there is full disclosure, I'd be content to receive culls from a breeder. Some birds may not be SOP, others may be breeding project birds in F1 generation. All good birds... just not show quality. It would not be ethical to buy culls, and set myself up as a breeder, and sell everything I produced, stating that my birds are from John Doe line (even though technically, they would be.)

 

[bigz1983]

Her feet in that pic look like she might either have scaly leg mites (a super easy fix) or be an older hen. Either way, I suggest that you give her a bit of oil (any kind will do) massaged into her entire legs and foot. Repeat again in about 10 days.

Yes I will do that.

 

[lazy gardener]

I edited above post.

 

[aart]

Agrees about the scaly leg mite, a clearer closer pic would tell the tale.
Not a good sign about the seller if a bird that young has leg mites that bad.
Death of the other bird could have been a disease it came in with,
or a latent disease in your flock the new bird wasn't able to fight off.
Might want to buy directly from the hatchery next time instead.

Cool you could contact the hatchery, and got a response.
Curious, which hatchery it is?

 

[lazy gardener]

It was a private breeder I believe.

 

[bigz1983]

Agrees about the scaly leg mite, a clearer closer pic would tell the tale.
Not a good sign about the seller if a bird that young has leg mites that bad.
Death of the other bird could have been a disease it came in with,
or a latent disease in your flock the new bird wasn't able to fight off.
Might want to buy directly from the hatchery next time instead.

Cool you could contact the hatchery, and got a response.
Curious, which hatchery it is?

Its a private hatchery owned by John W. Blehm down in Birch Run, MI. Yes I e-mailed the owner and he responded.

 

[bigz1983]

I treated my buff amerucana hen for scaly leg mites.

What are the chances if she is only 6-12 months like the seller at the swap told me that she could get scaly leg mites at that age?

Are scaly leg mites something a hen 6-12 months old could show and have it that bad or is it something that takes time meaning she is a old hen?

 

[aart]

What are the chances if she is only 6-12 months like the seller at the swap told me that she could get scaly leg mites at that age?

It's possible, especially if other birds there have them bad.
They move slow, but do spread.

 

[bigz1983]

I decided I'm just going to sell that hen. I don't want a big giant hen that's not a good layer