"Mystery" chick sent in MPC order

[okiehen]

Your andalusians are both blue, one light one dark.
The other chick is not a BLRW.
My pet chicken dont have BLRW.
I think you got a Easter egger. Very cute post more pictures as they get older it will be interesting to see how they feather out.

 

[JestersEye]

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?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

If there is a breed club. find their website and ask the question there--"could this be..." My guess is that the answer will be no, but sometimes chick down is funny.

 

[okiehen]

I'm a Blue Andalusian Breeder I have hatched out lots of chicks and I can tell you black is black blue is blue splash is splash.
If any other color its not a pure Andalusian I have yet to find a breed club but if there was one I would be a member.

This is a picture of one of each color Andalusian chicks.

 

[JestersEye]

Quote:
Yup, that's exactly what I thought! There is NO WAY this chick is a pure Andalusian chicken!!! Thanks for confirming the facts for me, Okiehen. This was the first time I've ordered chicks from MPC, and I understand mistakes happen... but seriously! They either believe it's acceptable to produce birds with the wrong coloring, or they think their customers are complete idiots. Either way, not very good business practices.

I ordered my first Andies from Meyer, and at least those birds are the right colors. I just think they could be better looking, with regard to lacing of the feathers and the rooster's cape. I will be hatching eggs from BYC members from now on!

 

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

Don't know the breed but that little one with the red sure is pretty.

Please keep us updated with pics as she grows.

 

[ZepChick]

hi, I don't think MPC sells fayoumis, but our fayoumi looked like that, kinda red/purply as a chick, but maybe a little more black/white on back. Anyway, what a little cutie you have

here is a link to feathersite, the baby pics are at bottom of page http://feathersite.com/Poultry/CGD/Fayu/BRKFayoumi.html#FayuChix

 

[JestersEye]

I will definately keep taking pictures as they grow. If nothing else, I'll need to keep posting pics until we figure out what breed she is. Plus, it's so much fun to look at chicken pictures... and I MUST show them off to you all! ;D

The red one will probably end up being my favorite, since she'll be so unique here. My son already said she could be "mine", since the rest are actually his for the 4-H. (I love and take care of them even more than he does, though.) He can still show her in the 4-H fair, but I'm gonna adopt her as my own. I'm thinking of naming her "Mystery" and calling her "Myst" for short. (That's also the name of my favorite computer games.) What do you think?

 

[kittykorat]

I don't know what kind of chick she is, but she sure is pretty. I'll be watching the thread to see how she turns out.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

I would call MPC and refer them to this post and see what they do then. I bet you get a new chick without much hassle.

Go for the supervisor on the first call, not employees.