What are Ideal pullets??

[Andaloosa]

Back story:
I have 17 free range chickens (14 Americaunas - 2 of which are roosters, 2 Red-Del hens and one unknown Bantam rooster). I found a "free chicks" ad on craigslist and called for them since we had room. Turns out the lady hadn't bought them yet, so she'd get what I wanted - providing they were yellow. All she wanted them for was to take Easter pictures. *sigh*
I thought Buff Orpingtons would be perfect and found a feed store that was getting some in today.

Here's her email to me:
"I picked up 5 baby chicks today but the Orpington ones were all brown... not yellow and I specifically wanted yellow baby chick for the pictures we will be taking. So, I have 5 Ideal pullets... do you still want them or should I re-post a Craigs List ad?"

So I know pullets are girls (thankfully she was willing to buy them and not straight run), but what are Ideals? Are they egg layers? Meat birds? Can anyone direct me to a picture?

Thanks!

 

[HorseFeathers]

Ideal is a hatchery. The chicks could ba any one of the numerous breeds Ideal carries.

 

[fowltemptress]

Brown Buff Orpington chicks? I wonder what those actually were. Maybe the chicks she got are buff orpingtons . . . since you know the feed store was getting some BOs in, I would think the odds of them turning out to actually be BOs could be pretty good.

Unless, of course, she got Ideal 236, which looks like a white leghorn to me and lays white eggs. From the picture on Ideal's website it looks like some of those chicks have black spots on them, though, so I don't know.

 

[NellaBean]

Could it be these?

https://secuservices.com/ideal/newideal/selectproduct.aspx?qty=1&ID=236P&Product=199

 

[Andaloosa]

I did call the feed store that sold the chicks. They said they remembered the lady requesting yellow chicks and said they sold her Ideal 236s. I suppose that's good since they sound like they lay well. Now I'll have greenish, brown and white eggs!

Thanks for your help.

 

[CovenantCreek]

Quote:
Ideal 236s are a Leghorn hybrid that supposedly lays like there's no tomorrow (read: profusely prolific egg layers).

 

[Andaloosa]

We get an egg a day out of our Red-Del sexlinks and they're only listed as a 4 egger. Can a 'prolific layer' lay more than one egg a day?

Also, anyone know at what age Americaunas start laying? We have 7 'babies' hatched Nov. 3rd and they haven't started laying yet but they were checking out the nesting boxes yesterday.

 

[CovenantCreek]

They're still pretty young. Don't be surprised if some haven't started laying till 6 months or so.

 

[ArizonaDesertChicks]

Quote:
One of my barred rocks laid her first egg 21 days ago and hasn't missed a day yet - 21 eggs in 21 days. I think she's listed as a 5 egg per week layer. I'm guessing the egg numbers they have listed are an average. The hens are laying very well now in the spring, but may miss more days when winter comes. My other barred rock and the 2 leghorns haven't missed a day either, they just haven't been laying as long.

I'm not sure if you mean purebred americaunas or EE's. I have 3 easter eggers (sold as americaunas from the feed store). One started laying olive green eggs at 22 weeks old, the second one started laying at 24 weeks (mint green eggs) and the third hasn't started yet. She's 25 weeks old now and should start soon (she's been squatting for at least a week now).

 

[Andaloosa]

I got them from McMurray's.
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/product/araucanas_americanas.html

I was told that Araucanas were very rare and rumpless, and that Americaunas were also called Easter Eggers and were more common. Is this not correct? When people ask me what kind of chickens I have, I want to be telling them correctly. It doesn't help that McMurray's lumps them all together.

I did get at least 2 eggs out of my 'babies' yesterday and they are 21 weeks old.