performance Poultry

G Williams
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performance Poultry

Post by G Williams » Mon May 02, 2016 11:29 am

It's human nature that if every thing meets or exceeds expectations that most people are quiet. If the experience is less than satisfactory they complain even if it is satisfactory, but not perfect.
I had a referral to a phrenologist (pain doctor) My wife looked on the internet and the reviews were horrible. He was nothing like the reviews. I had the most comprehensive exam ever for my condition and have received competent medical care.
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Brebis
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performance Poultry

Post by Brebis » Mon May 02, 2016 9:03 pm

Sorry to hear about the Spithaubens WWW. We got some 2 years ago from him and they were really vigorous but all turned out to be roosters! We got Dorkings too and again they were all roosters, but boy did they grow well and were nice and meaty when they went to the freezer!
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Former dairy shepherd and owner of a menagerie of chickens and Pencilled Turkeys, now owned by three cats and a border collie x Australian shepherd pup.

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windwalkingwolf
Poultry Guru - pullet level
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performance Poultry

Post by windwalkingwolf » Wed May 04, 2016 1:50 am

Lost the other one today, the one I thought would make it *sigh* 6 left, and they better NOT be all boys! It's OK if the Dorkings are all roosters, but not the Appenzellers, hoping for at least one healthy girl, and certainly not the Anconas, since those I ordered as pullets lol.
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Robbie
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Post by Robbie » Sat May 07, 2016 12:28 pm

My Performance poultry chicks are a week old today. Out of 29 chicks (I got 4 cornish males instead of 5 but the bill was adjusted) I lost 2 Barred Hollands in the first few days, they just got weak, stopped eating and faded away :-(. But I haven't lost any other chicks, the rest are healthy and vigorous and are growing in wing feathers. I gave them a new clump of sod to play with today, and I briefly thought one Cornish chick was having an epileptic fit or got squashed or something- then I realized she was just taking her first dust bath :-) So cute! And it's so funny when one finds a worm and starts racing around with it cheeping loudly. You'd think they would want to keep it quiet and to themselves.
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windwalkingwolf
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performance Poultry

Post by windwalkingwolf » Mon Jun 13, 2016 2:34 am

Thought I'd update on my (picked up April 29) PP order. To recap, judging by lack of egg-tooth and growth of feathers, none of the chicks (and goslings) I received were actual day-olds, and indeed the Anconas were a good week old at least. Not complaining, I'm happy to have received well-started birds. The Spitzhaubens were clearly the youngest, and had likely been in the mail a little too long before Jason, and then I, received them.
The Spitzhaubens continued to be problematic, but hopefully I've seen the last of the problems with them :xfingers: . Besides the 3 that arrived so backed up and dehydrated that I couldn't save them, recently three just suddenly stopped growing, even though eating and drinking great, running around, seeming healthy, and then within three days of noticing that they were falling behind, got thin and died, very quickly. Four are left, so far no issues but I will be watching VERY closely. They LOOK good, but so did the last two just before they suddenly lost weight and died. I'm wondering if the pasty butt toxins damaged inbred organs that just couldn't keep up as they grew. They were straight run, no idea yet on genders I have left, but I'm not going to bother trying to guess until I'm reasonably sure they'll reach adulthood :speechless: Crested breeds are particularly hard for me in any case, just not enough experience. Plus, all the crested breeds seem to have abnormally long toes--in single comb breeds, long, lanky toes (especially middle toe, and easiest if you have several chicks the same to compare) almost always indicates a boy in my experience. But my silkie crosses, and now these Appenzeller Spitzhaubens, all have loooong toes. Could it be a consequence of the poofy head gene? I don't know, but I've got an enormous 3 month old silkie cross that I'm *almost* sure is a pullet, except she's got Ronald McDonald clown shoes for feet. But I digress.
I still have all the rest of the breeds I ordered, all seemingly fabulously healthy. All PP chick order (except goslings) were raised/brooded/penned together, so ithe Spitz deaths are unlikely to be a contagious disease issue. I didn't necropsy any of the Spitz that died, because very little experience disassembling a bird that young and small. But if it happens again, I will.
I ordered 5 Ancona chicks sexed as pullets, wonderful, zippy but friendly (VERY forage-oriented which helps, offer one a bug and she's your new best friend!) little birds...ONE of them is looking suspiciously male to me. Probably isn't, it's been a looooong time since I tried to sex young mediterraneans (you want the challenge of a lifetime, try to sex a young Leghorn/Silkie cross by comb shape and size, OMG) , and I really don't mind if one or more Ancona is male, just mentioning it because that wouldn't be what I ordered. But even vent sexing isn't 100%, so you roll your dice and take your chances. Anyways, everything good in the Ancona department. Very happy with them so far, they aren't as spazzy as the production leghorns I had. Not by half. And they're mottling in nicely, which is what I wanted them for among other things, so they get to stay LOL
Next, 5 Silver Grey Dorking chicks, ordered as straight run. All fabulously healthy and growing well. Personality wise, they remind me of my Giants--big, round, quiet, bowling ball chicks that roll rather than run (not fat, just round lol) to my hand, climbing in, hoping against hope that I have delicious treats even though the feeders are full. The Anconas hop on my knee or shoulder and check from afar, but the Dorkings climb right in and peer closely, JUST to be sure. Maybe they're shortsighted, but they crowd legs first too, so I think they're just pigs lol. I am 99% sure I've got 4 pullets and 1 cockerel with the Dorkings. If so, BEST STRAIGHT RUN RATIO, EVER! I originally bought these because I like their reported large-dual purpose-white egg-laying reputation, AND their adult colouring. With the PP catalogue out, I felt like a kid in a candy store, always wanted some silver dorkings, so got some. I WAS also considering using them in a breeding project that is making mottled birds with red barring. But, seeing their chick colouring (so very partridge), I'm re-thinking that last reason, and if I breed them, it will just be to their own kind. I have enough birds carrying partridge, and I've found with the aforementioned project that I'm having to breed to suppress Pg somewhat, so I don't want to add it back again in spades. Though I may try a test cross or two. Just to see what happens :tongue: AND, I am waiting with baited breath to see if these birds actually lay white, or at least close. But so far, I'm VERY happy with them.
Now, last, but not least, I had ordered 7 Embden goslings, straight run. They have been outside in a coop/run since day 5 that I got them, and completely free-ranging since middle of May. They are RIDICULOUSLY robust (the reason I turned 'em out and then loose so early) as waterfowl generally are, but these have exceeded my wildest expectations so far. At approximately 6 weeks old, they are as large as many of my adult Chinese geese, and as heavy as one of the adult female Chinese (my only SOP girl), at least. Starting to get feathers now, and four are feathering in white, and three are feathering in grey barred in primaries and tail. If conventional wisdom (anybody else think that's an oxymoron??) hold true, this means that three are female and four are male, which would be PERFECT for my needs. I don't feed them. I don't have to!! They wander around on my lawn, clipping grass and weeds and eating bugs, all day long and part of the night. Ok, I do give them a handful of soaked cat kibble once a day, but that's mainly so I can have a chat with them and check them over. They are easy to herd and direct, mostly come when called, avoid the road. I got a scare today (yesterday now) when I had to go out grocery shopping for an hour, came back and counted only six. Where's number seven? Ran and called, circled, checked the ditches and long grass, checked the Chinese goose area because one of the girls was trying to "recruit" them yesterday, checked the stock tanks because there's puddles around them and I was worried one might've gotten stuck in the mud, Richard checked in the barn and cover-all and cow pastures even though theoretically they couldn't have gotten in there. Looked and called EVERYWHERE. Walked down the road ditches with a stick to move the long grass aside in case one had wandered to the road, got hit and catapulted far into the ditch, even though I saw no blank pr bent-over spots in the tall grass. Resigned myself that I lost a young gander to god-knows-what, but probably a fox. Came back to the house defeated, and then here comes a young gander running and peeping for his 6 lost compatriots, from under the front garden shed, where he had apparently decided to shelter from today's cool north wind and take a snooze while he was at it. I snatched him up thinking he might have been dragged under there by a predator, but nope, no dirt, no injuries. I gave a stern lecture and then took him to his hatchmates, where THEY gave him a stern lecture (or that's what it sounded like) while he sat there and blissfully shortened my lawn.
ANyway, sorry for the book. I ordered from PP I think about ten years ago I think, and the whole experience was a s**tstorm start to finish, and then last year I ordered some chicks, got what I ordered, but was very unhappy with them for several reasons, none of them the middleman's (PP)fault so decided to give PP another go. And, I'm happy to report that so far with this order (except for the Spitz, again, not likely the middleman's fault unless he was late getting to his cross border P.O.) I am exceedingly happy. I will take pictures soon, but in case you're not familiar with my photographic ability or lack thereof, I'm warning you the pictures will be bad.
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Poultryprincess
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performance Poultry

Post by Poultryprincess » Mon Jun 13, 2016 9:17 pm

EXCELLANT REPORT!!!!
So glad to hear that you are Happy with your order.
( I was happy for too. I would have NO problem ordering from Jason again )
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:PTO: My NEW Life Motto for 2020 "DREAM BIG ~ SET GOALS ~ TAKE ACTION" :PTO:

VagabondFarm
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performance Poultry

Post by VagabondFarm » Wed Jun 15, 2016 3:29 am

I placed an order for 100 chicks from pp back in March, and received them yesterday. They had to make a few small substitutions as two breeds I'd wanted 5-10 each of were not available. They called to offer a few alternatives the day before shipping. I was very pleased with customer service, Jason was helpful and promptly replied to email and phone inquires while I put together an order he could accomodate (I ordered late being March so some breeds were already sold out for the season).

My chicks shipped into bc, and 99/102 survived shipping and look healthy and strong after two days here. A few pasty butts on arrival but cleaned those up and everyone looks good. Wing feathers suggest some may be a few days older than the hatch date suggested, but who knows. Vitamin water for everyone. Happy so far :)

Breeds are:
Ameraucana
Wyandotte (silver laced and gold laced)
Partridge plymouth Rock
Delaware
Salmon Faverolle
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Robbie
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Post by Robbie » Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:26 pm

At six weeks, I'm very happy with the buff rocks, barred hollands and dark cornish I got from Performance. The best surprise was the barred hollands, I'm really, really liking that breed. At six weeks I have a cockerel starting to practise his crowing.
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Poultryprincess
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Post by Poultryprincess » Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:34 pm

Oh I luved PP's Salmon Faverolle ~ such pretty birds & "one" of my favorites from Jason.
Can't wait to see pics Vagabond Farm!
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:PTO: My NEW Life Motto for 2020 "DREAM BIG ~ SET GOALS ~ TAKE ACTION" :PTO:

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Doug The Chickenman
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Post by Doug The Chickenman » Thu Jun 16, 2016 10:08 pm

VagabondFarm wrote:QR_BBPOST I placed an order for 100 chicks from pp back in March, and received them yesterday. They had to make a few small substitutions as two breeds I'd wanted 5-10 each of were not available. They called to offer a few alternatives the day before shipping. I was very pleased with customer service, Jason was helpful and promptly replied to email and phone inquires while I put together an order he could accomodate (I ordered late being March so some breeds were already sold out for the season).

My chicks shipped into bc, and 99/102 survived shipping and look healthy and strong after two days here. A few pasty butts on arrival but cleaned those up and everyone looks good. Wing feathers suggest some may be a few days older than the hatch date suggested, but who knows. Vitamin water for everyone. Happy so far :)

Breeds are:
Ameraucana
Wyandotte (silver laced and gold laced)
Partridge plymouth Rock
Delaware
Salmon Faverolle
just be aware when we ordered Ameraucana's from him 6 years ago they were Easter Eggers wrong color of legs and feet. Non Recognized colors so My wife was disappointed.
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