I just got off the phone with MPC (who never called back, so I had to call them AGAIN). The woman I spoke to
this time didn't know. She was very nice and talkative, but didn't seem to understand how the blue gene works. At one point she said, "Well, now that I look at the chick again, I think it
could be a blue andalusian because of all the blue it has on it." HUH?! Just look at it!!! Blue Andalusians don't come in red?!
During the conversation, she got an email from the first person I had spoken with this morning (who handles calls in another state) that said the hatchery that had filled the order "doesn't know what it is" but will not reship the order just for one chick. I never expected them to, but I still think they should take a bit more responsibility for an error in which 1 out of 3 chicks was the WRONG breed! That's 33% of the total order... granted it was the minimum order size. And they don't even know HOW it happened. I'm wondering now if the other chicks are the proper breed, as represented. I don't think I will order chicks from online hatcheries anymore, because the birds don't really look like they're supposed to. I love my other andalusians, but they don't have ANY lacing, and Cobalt's top coat of feathers looks brown instead of black. Something just doesn't seem right with their breeding programs.
Supposedly an "expert" will be in the office tomorrow morning, and she might be able to tell what breed the chick is. I'm thinking I'll have better luck with the people on BYC than I will with anyone at MPC, at this point. I'll probably have to wait and see how her feathers come in, in order to know for sure.
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Okay, hold on -- Now the first woman called back, with a totally different, albeit
interesting story. She says the hatchery told her that 1% of Blue Andalusians are born with "color", but that they feather out to be "typical" blue andalusians. Since all the information I've read says they only come in 3 colors: Black, Splash, and Blue; I'm not sure what "typical" is supposed to mean.
Evidently, they never used to send the "colored" chicks to people, but they started to because one of their employees took a bunch home to see how they turned out, and determined that they feather out "like they should".
I've never heard of this at all! Obviously, the hatchery and MPC are satisfied that I got what I ordered. I'm not interested in fighting over one chick, anyway, and will love her either way. What I really want to know is, could any of this be true???
Could andalusians actually come in other colors, or does this indicate that the flock it came from has gotten cross-bred somewhere along the line?
