Sapphire gem or Plymouth blue rock

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Hoover's Hatchery, where my Gems came from, shows Sapphire Gem as a trademarked name and says that the Czech breed is "very close to the Old Andalusian." There is no mention in the Hoover's catalog about what breeds were used to produce the birds.

However, Townline Hatchery offers a Czech-bred Plymouth blue rock that sounds quite a bit like the Gems, complete with great foraging abilities and climate hardiness. So, are they the same bird? Seems quite possible.

But, whatever their heritage, mine have survived temperatures of minus 23 degrees -- and that's without the wind chill -- and are the only members of my flocks who are continuing to lay. The eggs are large and lovely; each girl produces a slightly different shade of brown eggs. They are also quite friendly and docile -- unless they are competing for grape treats!
 
Don't you just love all the BS in advertising? They are as "Close to Andalusian" as my left foot. Yellow legs not white, poor blue lacing, red leakage, brown eggs not white. Yeah, real close relation. Are they blue or lavender? Have some lace so seem blue but they don't mention any black or splash so may be lavender as in all self blue and no other color excepting that awful red leakage.

Not blue plymouth. No barring what so ever, not barred and blue cross. It is what it is, a grey laying machine.
 
Whatever it is, it is a delightful chicken. Mine have black markings over their yellow legs and I can't see a bit of "awful red leakage." But if they did have it, I would still adore them. I guess I shouldn't have weighed in on something when I didn't know the answer. I was just citing sources. Sorry if you were offended, Egghead_Jr
 
Oh no, I'm not offended by you at all. I'm offended by the advertisment saying they are closely related to Andalusian. Certainly not. And I looked at the photos from hatchery, red leakage on a bird. Blue needs guarding against brassy color and red is way out.

So I suppose I come off like a snob. I simply like honesty in advertising which will never happen. And I simply want a variety to conform to the variety. It's a lot to ask from hatchery birds I guess. But then I'm one of those nit picky people that call Hatchery RIR production reds as they certainly are not Rhode Island Reds.
 
Egghead_Jr said:
Oh no, I'm not offended by you at all. I'm offended by the advertisment saying they are closely related to Andalusian. Certainly not. And I looked at the photos from hatchery, red leakage on a bird. Blue needs guarding against brassy color and red is way out.

So I suppose I come off like a snob. I simply like honesty in advertising which will never happen. And I simply want a variety to conform to the variety. It's a lot to ask from hatchery birds I guess. But then I'm one of those nit picky people that call Hatchery RIR production reds as they certainly are not Rhode Island Reds.
Click to expand...

In the Sapphire Gem thread they tracked down their origins. Sapphire Gems are created by breeding a splash Andalusian male to barred Rock female. No one in that thread seemed to see the leakage.

There was a lot of variety in how dark or light the resulting offspring was. The barring in the male chicks is light enough that it can be hard to see until the rooster feathers come in. Alot of the hens had nice looking lacing.

ETA: Truthfulness in advertising is a problem across industries unfortunately.
 

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