My Pet Chicken / Gabbard Farms Hatching Eggs BEWARE!!!

[MrsBachbach]

I don't think Gabbard Farms sells Araucana anywhere on their website. That is a rare breed that is very difficult to raise. Araucana do lay a blue egg and they are a tailess bird with ear tufts, not muffs and beards.
What Gabbard Farms does claim to raise is Ameraucanas which are different from Araucanas. Ameraucanas are a recognized APA, ABA breed that come in recognized colors and are known for their blue egg color and their muffs and beards. Anything that claims to be Ameraucana that doesn't fit the standard description and variety is known as an Easter egger or mutt. I had both. I now raise Ameraucana however.
I inquired from Gabbard farms once regarding their Wheaten Ameraucana variety, but they would not answer a few basic simple questions that anyone interested in true Ameraucanas would want to know. Specifically, do they keep their varieties separately penned? If they are running their blue breed with their wheaten variety the customer would end up with an easter egger. Many hatcheries do that and do not keep the colors pure. At the price they charge, I would be a very disappointed customer if I ended up with a mixed color EE, I don't care how pure the parent stock is. As I said, they wouldn't answer my inquiry, so they didn't get my business. Just to note, EE's can also be chickens that have Ameraucana and another variety chicken breed in the bloodline.

 

[OrpObsessed]

I don't think Gabbard Farms sells Araucana anywhere on their website. That is a rare breed that is very difficult to raise. Araucana do lay a blue egg and they are a tailess bird with ear tufts, not muffs and beards.
What Gabbard Farms does claim to raise is Ameraucanas which are different from Araucanas. Ameraucanas are a recognized APA, ABA breed that come in recognized colors and are known for their blue egg color and their muffs and beards. Anything that claims to be Ameraucana that doesn't fit the standard description and variety is known as an Easter egger or mutt. I had both. I now raise Ameraucana however.
I inquired from Gabbard farms once regarding their Wheaten Ameraucana variety, but they would not answer a few basic simple questions that anyone interested in true Ameraucanas would want to know. Specifically, do they keep their varieties separately penned? If they are running their blue breed with their wheaten variety the customer would end up with an easter egger. Many hatcheries do that and do not keep the colors pure. At the price they charge, I would be a very disappointed customer if I ended up with a mixed color EE, I don't care how pure the parent stock is. As I said, they wouldn't answer my inquiry, so they didn't get my business. Just to note, EE's can also be chickens that have Ameraucana and another variety chicken breed in the bloodline.

Yes very true...I even spelled the name wrong! Yikes! Thanks for straightening that out!
Question: I have crossed my Cream Legbar roo to a Buff Orpington hen. The hens from that breeding should lay a greenish colored egg, or at least that's what my research tells me, so would they be EEs since somewhere down the line they have Auracauna in them and lay pretty eggs?

 

[MIKEBD2]

I purchased from MPC simply because they had "fertile BCM hatching eggs" that could ship in my time frame. Within an hour of making the purchase I found twice as many and half the price on BYC. I ordered them as well. I couldn't have asked for a better hatch, as I got from the eggs from BYC. Some things in life you just half to chalk up as lessons learned and go on.

 

[OrpObsessed]

I purchased from MPC simply because they had "fertile BCM hatching eggs" that could ship in my time frame. Within an hour of making the purchase I found twice as many and half the price on BYC. I ordered them as well. I couldn't have asked for a better hatch, as I got from the eggs from BYC. Some things in life you just half to chalk up as lessons learned and go on.

Agreed!

 

[MrsBachbach]

Yes very true...I even spelled the name wrong! Yikes! Thanks for straightening that out!
Question: I have crossed my Cream Legbar roo to a Buff Orpington hen. The hens from that breeding should lay a greenish colored egg, or at least that's what my research tells me, so would they be EEs since somewhere down the line they have Auracauna in them and lay pretty eggs?

I'm not familiar with the history of Cream legbars. All I know is they also lay blue eggs. I don't think EE's have a standard that has to be met to be called an EE other than being able to lay colored eggs so I guess you could call it an EE. I think most people do expect to see some muffs and beards on their EE's, although I know some EE's do not.

 

[realsis]

I have been checking around for silkies, planning my spring chick order, I noticed that gabbard farm and meyer use the exact same pictures on their websites. Is that a coincidence? Or an
implied connection? Or did they both just buy their
photos from some stock photo place? I guess I
thought that hatcheries put pictures of their own
chickens on the website to show you what your
getting. I don't know that it means anything but it
does make me uneasy.

your checking around for your spring Silkies? May I suggest looking into buying them from breeders?
For only a couple of dollars more you can get some very nice quality chicks from silkie breeders. You can search online and find some breeders near you. They don't even have to be near because most breeders ship out with very reasonable shipping costs.i live in California and recently had some 9 week old and 5 week olds shipped from Illinois to me. They are beautiful birds and shipping was very fair. they arrived safely and healthy. Most think breeders are a lot more expensive when in fact they are only a few more dollars than hatchery birds and with silkies especially the breeder quality is generally a lot better than the hatchery quality and litterly only a few dollars more. With silkies if your looking for a nice big crest and fluff you will find that much easier with a breeder than with a hatchery and you might be suprised how affordable some breeders can be. It all depends on what your looking for.with the hatcheries and mainly silkies the birds are not close to the beautiful pictures that the hatcheries use. Some folks don't want the crest and perfer hatchery silkies but some folks do want that crest and fluff and they are shocked to see that their hatchery silkies usually don't have that. It just depends on your personal likes and what you want. However if you are looking for the big crest and fluff a silkie breeder might be the way to go. As I was saying you might be suprised at how affordable they can be. Just a few extra dollars and it will make a big difference in the look of the bird. As I said some perfer the look of hatchery silkies over the larger crested birds. It just depends on what you like.but if your looking for a larger crest and more fluff I would try a silkie breeder. I hope this helps. Best wishes to you.

 

[Blue CopperHen]

~~I just wanted to share my experience with some email correspondence with Gabbard Farms. I had emailed them because I live in Arkansas and wanted to find Partridge Rocks. I did a search and found that Gabbard Farms was a mere 20 minute drive from me. I emailed them and asked when they might have chicks or hatching eggs available and asked if I could pick them up since we were so close. She responded by telling me that they do not currently offer local pick up, but they would be happy to ship to me. I declined, as I thought the idea to ship to me was a tad ludicrous. I thought it might be a biosecurity issue, so I asked if I could meet her in town to pick up. She responded by telling me that her chicks were hatched out of state for them. What?! Does anyone know what the heck is going on with this farm?

 

[OrpObsessed]

~~I just wanted to share my experience with some email correspondence with Gabbard Farms. I had emailed them because I live in Arkansas and wanted to find Partridge Rocks. I did a search and found that Gabbard Farms was a mere 20 minute drive from me. I emailed them and asked when they might have chicks or hatching eggs available and asked if I could pick them up since we were so close. She responded by telling me that they do not currently offer local pick up, but they would be happy to ship to me. I declined, as I thought the idea to ship to me was a tad ludicrous. I thought it might be a biosecurity issue, so I asked if I could meet her in town to pick up. She responded by telling me that her chicks were hatched out of state for them. What?! Does anyone know what the heck is going on with this farm?

That's just messed up....if picking up locally is something they would do then customers would have a better chance hatching their eggs. The one chick that hatched for me, was a cull but I did my best to help her grow normally. She died at about 8 weeks of age. I think she was missing a ligament in her leg. So sad...I paid $60 for those eggs!

 

[Blue CopperHen]

That's just messed up....if picking up locally is something they would do then customers would have a better chance hatching their eggs. The one chick that hatched for me, was a cull but I did my best to help her grow normally. She died at about 8 weeks of age. I think she was missing a ligament in her leg. So sad...I paid $60 for those eggs!

I agree and I am so sorry for your experience. Due to having done some research here on BYC and my own personal experience, I will not be using Gabbard Farms. If I have to have local eggs shipped to me and she cannot accommodate her local customers by meeting at a location close to her, I will not conduct business with her. Bad feedback and the fact that she uses third party hatcheries are not what I am looking for.

 

[ImpulsiveFarmer]

I had thought about buying some hatching eggs from them last year, but instead ended up buying from someone here on BYC. Glad I did. Every single egg developed and my hatch rate was around 90% if I remember correctly. There are so many reliable personal breeders both here and on ebay I don't see why anyone would buy from these large companies that only care about profit. You may not be able to buy only a couple eggs of this and a couple eggs of that if you buy from a small breeder, but at least your eggs actually hatch.