"Surprise Chick" Identification Has Me Beat

[Folly's place]

So sorry about your Fayoumi hen. My cockerel moved to another home, and also was lost the same way.
Someday I might try a few of them, but not for now.
Mary

 

[Kessel23]

Someone on another post was arguing with me about MMM free exotic chicks. I said in my experience they were usually males... like 19 of 20! And he/ she said no, they were unsexed and just as likely to be female...I am highly skeptical for 2 reasons. 1, I think they sex everything but bantams and 2, if it was a 50:50 crapshoot I should get more than 1 pullet of 20...right?

I said you can not judge percentages off of such small numbers. McMurray sends out so many orders every year and we were talking about orders taking place over a decade of time. For me it was 10 in the past 17 years and for you it was 20 in the past 12 years. You said you had 20/20 cockerels not 19/20 (did one switch genders or something?) I had 1/10 cockerels.

Basically it is kinda ridiculous to pull 20 birds out of thousands and then say that sex percentage holds true for all the others. You told me that if I ever received a hen from MMM's free chick it was a sexing mistake.

 

[MontanaChickDoc]

Now now, there is no need to get worked up about it. Really it's just individual's experiences. You could totally be right. Until we get a bigger pool, we can't say. I may just have bad luck!

 

[Kessel23]

Until we get a bigger pool, we can't say. I may just have bad luck!

that's what I have been saying this entire time. Glad you finally figured it out.

 

[agedog1]

Hey all -

I have 4 week old chicks from Murray McMurray Hatchery. I'm having a hard time identifying the mystery/surprise chick. Maybe someone has seen this breed at 4 weeks and can easily identify it.

Rose comb, maybe? Darker, almost greenish shanks. Blackish Fluff and Hocks. Gold Wing Bow, Gold/Maybe Reddish wing barring over black to black and white in the flight feathers.

Chick is very large winged and generally large for 4 weeks. Brooding with mix of Barred Rock, Salmons, and some various rare breeds. Is almost double the size of Salmons at 4 weeks.

I honestly have no idea. A real cutie and get it will grow up to be beautiful

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

Easter Egger

Post pics of the comb at 8 weeks for the gender.

 

[paneubert]

I think they sex everything but bantams

I also vote Easter Egger. Super pretty.

Don't want to derail the thread, but I gotta!

The fact that they sell straight run of the majority of their varieties, and that they list on their forecasted availability charts how many female, male, and straight run they expect to be available for each hatch date means they do not sex everything. Otherwise why say they are forecasting being sold out of males when they still have straight run available?

For example, right now they say for the Ancona hatch on July 8th, they have....

Female (8 available) / Male (no numerical order limit at this point based on what they expect to hatch) / Straight Run (16 available).

If they sexed them all, then the Straight Run would not even be a category, and certainly would not have a specific number associated with it.

 

[MontanaChickDoc]

So I fully admit I was totally wrong I just didn't think it through. But in case you need further proof, I emailed the company:

Hi Alba,

Our Free Rare Chicks come from a Straight Run or Unsexed bins of ours. Thank you and have a great day!

-------------------------------------------------------------

Sincerely,

Murray McMurray Hatchery

So there you go - I am just the unlucky receiver of a crap load of free roosters But that makes me a little more hopeful that the polish I got is she and not a he...I'll let you know!

 

[paneubert]

So I fully admit I was totally wrong I just didn't think it through. But in case you need further proof, I emailed the company:

Hi Alba,

Our Free Rare Chicks come from a Straight Run or Unsexed bins of ours. Thank you and have a great day!

-------------------------------------------------------------

Sincerely,

Murray McMurray Hatchery

So there you go - I am just the unlucky receiver of a crap load of free roosters But that makes me a little more hopeful that the polish I got is she and not a he...I'll let you know!

My issue is that with all the weird extras the sent me in my order, I don't even know which one was my "Free Exotic". I had to guess. Pretty sure I gave mine away before I determined gender. Unless I got an Easter Egger like the original poster of this thread did.....I do have one white bird (Easter Egger) in a sea of otherwise dark breeds. Problem is I ordered Easter Eggers as part of my normal order as well....

 

[IowaChickChick]

Someone on another post was arguing with me about MMM free exotic chicks. I said in my experience they were usually males... like 19 of 20! And he/ she said no, they were unsexed and just as likely to be female...I am highly skeptical for 2 reasons. 1, I think they sex everything but bantams and 2, if it was a 50:50 crapshoot I should get more than 1 pullet of 20...right?

Actually they are truly unsexed and it is the luck of the draw what you get. The chicks used as Mystery Chicks never see the sexors.