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I have ordered like 4 dozen eggs from this guy of various breeds, and they all come with detached air cells, irregular air sacs (signs of being old eggs or improperly stored), or were downright infertile. After spending over $90 on eggs from that guy and still not having even a single chick to show for my money and my trouble, I decided to just order chicks from Ideal.
When I asked Terry Lund about the way the most recent batch of eggs was packed (there was nothing to line the bottom & the bottom eggs arrived smashed), he told me he just uses whatever he has available (the box was filled with newspaper shreds--when I ordered from him previously, at least the bottom was lined with super-large bubble wrap and was filled with packing peanuts) and to just be grateful he spent more on shipping than what he charged me AND put in extra eggs. I thought that was exceedingly poor customer service and would not only never buy from him again, I wouldn't recommend him to anyone, either.
For about $20 less than what I spent in 52 non-hatching eggs from Lund, I got 25 healthy WFBS straight-run chicks from Ideal, 15 of which are pullets & 10 cockerels. Sweet!
I would have rather had heritage stock, but when the only breeder you can find ships out old/inferior quality eggs, ya do what you have to. At least now I have the birds, which makes me pretty happy after a $90 failed egg-speriment from Lund.
I just found out about a woman in Kelseyville, CA, who has heritage stock. I'll be acquiring some of those to breed with the better quality birds of my hatchery stock and continue to work on/improve the breed. They are SO hard to find out here on the west coast, so I'd like to promote a renewed interest in this breed, perhaps show some next year at my county fair (yes, I'm an old broad, not a 4H-er), and breed my stock for the best traits in accordance with the SOP.
Bridgett Riddle, a minorca breeder in Newman, also is starting to work on her WFBS stock. Hopefully, this bird will be restored to its former popularity. They're really quite stately and beautiful & can't wait for mine to be fully grown.
