Whiting True Blue from McMurray

[ackie]

I ordered 6 WTBs with 9 RIRs eighteen months ago from a Murray McMurray. All chicks were healthy and thrived. BUT, it took 5-6 weeks longer for the WTBs to start laying, the eggs are a little smaller and a very pale blue (I expected a bit bluer), and they don’t lay nearly as many eggs as the RIRs. Of the six girls, I was lucky to get 3, maybe 4 eggs per day when they were in full production and now that the days are short, I get maybe one per week. The RIRs are still laying, despite molting, and I get 7-9 per day from the nine red hens. When it’s time to cull the flock and get replacements, I won’t get WTBs again. The novelty of blue eggs quickly wore off.

Thank you for the stats!

 

[jolenesdad]

The breed is Ameraucana bred to Leghorn. Then, bred together. They were test bred to eliminate the white egg gene. The leghorn gives the better egg production, but, they’re far from bred to a standard level of production. You’ll have some that still retain more ameraucana traits and lay less. The only thing that was really standardized in their creation was that they were double blue egg gene carriers.

mr. whiting actually attempted to create as many color combinations as possible, so there really is no standard and they come in all colors. They are essentially an egg-gene-tested Easter egger that is guaranteed to lay you a colored egg.

many have small beards so they’re not all clean faced. There are some really beautiful blue variations.


edited to add: see later posts after reading a recent interview from Dr Whiting. tl/dr: he calls the WTB a "commercial leghorn with blue egg genes, a pea comb, and varying colorful plumage."

 

[Liz Field]

I'm considering these. Allegedly they lay large blue eggs, are "best" layers and can free range.

Does anyone have thoughts on this breed, hatchery or specifically this breed from this hatchery?

I'm not sure yet how many I would order. I'm aware of their minimums.

The only reason I chose McMurray is that they sent us a catalogue so I'm not locked in on that if somewhere else is way better.

Anyone know their sexing accuracy? I'm not fussed about extra roosters in terms of having them but I'd prefer to not pay extra for girls and end up with boys, yknow.

Anyway. I've never ordered from a hatchery before so I'm all ears.

The only hatchery I’ve experienced is Ideal and that was more like third party - a few local people buy a number of day old chicks from Ideal because they ship here to HI and then sell them at 3 or 4 weeks on Craig’s List - so far I’ve gotten 3 Austrolorps and 2 Easter Eggers that have been totally healthy, beautiful and all pullets!

 

[henden]

I have 10 whiting true blues from macmurray. I have high regard for this hatchery. Macmurray has the license on the whiting birds.I have gotten very healthy birds from them and not much die off. I did order 20 straight run (sr) on Americana Arecanas one year and got 2 hens. Don’t order straight runs if you want hens!
My whiting true blues are lively and even a bit friendly. They lay quite well. I am happy with this bird.
Other hatcheries I have ordered from have sent sick and dead chicks, and chicks that have signs of close breeding.

 

[BLDietz]

The last batch of Whiting TB we got from McMurray did not impress us (ordered 20 I think). We had 1 die soon after shipping, ended up with 1 rooster (but we kept him and he actually turned out to be pretty good), and I'm fairly certain quite a few have eye issues- cloudy looking eyes, at least one seems to have a depth perception type problem (in my very unprofessional opinion). We had at least 2-3 that died randomly when they were about 6-8 weeks old. Now this was back in April of 2019 so they could have better stock by now but we've decided to not order from them again. (Our free exotic breed from that order ended up with cross beak and didn't survive long either).
The eggs aren't bad but I don't feel like we ever got as much as we should have.

 

[ackie]

The last batch of Whiting TB we got from McMurray did not impress us (ordered 20 I think). We had 1 die soon after shipping, ended up with 1 rooster (but we kept him and he actually turned out to be pretty good), and I'm fairly certain quite a few have eye issues- cloudy looking eyes, at least one seems to have a depth perception type problem (in my very unprofessional opinion). We had at least 2-3 that died randomly when they were about 6-8 weeks old. Now this was back in April of 2019 so they could have better stock by now but we've decided to not order from them again. (Our free exotic breed from that order ended up with cross beak and didn't survive long either).
The eggs aren't bad but I don't feel like we ever got as much as we should have.

 

[MarcyG]

We have one WTB in our flock, she’s a real sweetie, and we named her “SweetPea”. She was 7wks old when we got her in late July, so we’re expecting some eggs soon -maybe January? Here she is (on the left), with her flock mate,”Maple”.

 

[Old-clucker-55]

I ordered 1 of each this past spring and they have been great layers and very friendly. I wish I had 2 of each. As far as Mcmurray goes they were great also.

 

[brahmamama415]

I'm considering these. Allegedly they lay large blue eggs, are "best" layers and can free range.

Does anyone have thoughts on this breed, hatchery or specifically this breed from this hatchery?

I'm not sure yet how many I would order. I'm aware of their minimums.

The only reason I chose McMurray is that they sent us a catalogue so I'm not locked in on that if somewhere else is way better.

Anyone know their sexing accuracy? I'm not fussed about extra roosters in terms of having them but I'd prefer to not pay extra for girls and end up with boys, yknow.

Anyway. I've never ordered from a hatchery before so I'm all ears.

Hi, I ordered from Mcmurrays, I ordered 6 Buff Brahama ( we live in Vermont so they are great for colder weather) we are first time chicken owners. we ordered 4 girls and 2 roos. we did in fact get what we ordered (our dog killed one of our roos) we had 5 older girls already from another hatchery of the same breed. All of our chicks were healthy and we have had no issue. And thank goodness the accuracy was correct. Good luck with your flock, we are thoroughly enjoying ours and they are just like kids with their own little personalities.

 

[ackie]

We have one WTB in our flock, she’s a real sweetie, and we named her “SweetPea”. She was 7wks old when we got her in late July, so we’re expecting some eggs soon -maybe January? Here she is (on the left), with her flock mate,”Maple”.View attachment 2463791

omg omg they're so cuteeeee