I ordered from MM twice two different periods. Both times the birds were runty and unthrifty. I sold all of em, both times. Dumb to waste feed on birds that don't do well.
My birds from Ideal were healthier from the instant they arrived and turned out well for production partridge rocks - including going broody!!! I have had three broodies from them so far this year. And my next generation is on the ground. I culled from 25 to 8, bred those and the next gen is on the ground, doing well and looking even better.
Most hatchery birds will be incomplete pg and have some stipling where they should have solid black pencilling and it was a primary cause for first cull here. Hopefully this next generation is complete, if not I'll have to bring in a complete Pg roo for next year. But the odds are good. I'm fairly sure George was complete from his proper coloration including the proper mahogany addition. Almost every bird that showed mahogany was also well pencilled. Lighter birds more often displayed stipling and orange hackled birds were nearly all stipled.
The MM birds were also significantly lacking mahogany. I didn't wait to see the full pencilling on the pullets they just weren't good enough.
This generation is already bigger at hatch in general and in each weigh in, some are showing heavier down, longer down, I'm hoping that translates into the better feathered birds in the bunch as well. I've some crossed to BRs, so I also have blacks and black/reds and barreds coming up. And man the black reds are screaming huge animals. Should be interesting - I'm holding a few of the largest blacks or black/reds for the next set of pullets.
It's early days but I'm keeping my eye on a few particularly typey cockeral babies. Very dark, very large. And that's better. In the first group, the darkest tended to be the middle and smaller chicks but they grew out just as large. I'm hoping for another 1/2 to full pound at six months with this group.
My birds from Ideal were healthier from the instant they arrived and turned out well for production partridge rocks - including going broody!!! I have had three broodies from them so far this year. And my next generation is on the ground. I culled from 25 to 8, bred those and the next gen is on the ground, doing well and looking even better.
Most hatchery birds will be incomplete pg and have some stipling where they should have solid black pencilling and it was a primary cause for first cull here. Hopefully this next generation is complete, if not I'll have to bring in a complete Pg roo for next year. But the odds are good. I'm fairly sure George was complete from his proper coloration including the proper mahogany addition. Almost every bird that showed mahogany was also well pencilled. Lighter birds more often displayed stipling and orange hackled birds were nearly all stipled.
The MM birds were also significantly lacking mahogany. I didn't wait to see the full pencilling on the pullets they just weren't good enough.
This generation is already bigger at hatch in general and in each weigh in, some are showing heavier down, longer down, I'm hoping that translates into the better feathered birds in the bunch as well. I've some crossed to BRs, so I also have blacks and black/reds and barreds coming up. And man the black reds are screaming huge animals. Should be interesting - I'm holding a few of the largest blacks or black/reds for the next set of pullets.
It's early days but I'm keeping my eye on a few particularly typey cockeral babies. Very dark, very large. And that's better. In the first group, the darkest tended to be the middle and smaller chicks but they grew out just as large. I'm hoping for another 1/2 to full pound at six months with this group.
