A couple of years ago I participated in a letter-writing camapaign to "educate" hatcheries about claiming that their Easter Egg Chickens are "Araucana". Since Araucana are a recognized breed (recognized by the APA), hatcheries, such as McMurray do a dis-service to novices and breeders alike by advertising their Easter Egg Chickens as Araucana. First of all, the novice back-yard-hobbiest thinks she really does have Araucana fowl. Secondly, the breeders are constantly having to explain the mal-practice of the hatcheries to people who don't know any better... that McMurray Araucana aren't really Araucana.
Or maybe they just don't give a jot! I mean, they don't really care about the breed's correct name. As long as they make money they're happy.
re:Murray McMurray and other major hatcheries:: These companies are not really hatcheries (although some have their own strains of layers)that they may breed and hatch, but they largely, they are just a "retail" outlet for many breeds that are in demand, and they ship for the "wholesale" breeders, who supply them eggs (guess what's inside),or may also hatch and often actually ship the chicks. While they market all these breeds, few have ever been involved in showing, studying the Standards beyond looking at a picture, the proper names for the breeds, even the pictures in their catalogs are furnished by collections--you will note that many of the pictures are the same in all catalogs. Their function and a NECESSARY one, is to supply the needed poultry everywhere in the country. There used to be many local hatcheries, but they hatched only a few breeds from locally furnished eggs. One of my friends used to produce Leghorn eggs (about 100 hens with 15 or so cocks) for one of the two local hatcheries. We have no local hatchery any more. The hatchery people usually also produced eggs for the local markets and nearby towns. We have only one egg producer now, and the super markets bring in eggs from anyplace in the West (fresh??hardly!)
We bought some McMurray chicks once and a family member called them when they didn't arrive on the right day (they were a day late). We were surprised to learn that they had been shipped from Texas. McMurray essentially just marketed the chicks for that grower (the grower was a wholesaler to McMurray, but the chicks never set foot on McMurray property).
Hi Info, I discovered awhile back that your "pet" peeve is the spelling of Araucana and Ameraucana. Since then I have taken great care to spell them correctly. I too have finally gotten a pair of true araucana (they are bantams) and am tickled with them. My pullet still doesn't lay the robin egg blue egg I'm seeking though. Do any of yours lay the really true blue color?
Busted ... I confess ... for some reason, language is important to my nervous system. I drove my X-spouse crazy by correcting his English.... and lord, mine isn't perfect either! LOL! Amazingly, he would say something like " ...would you like to go with me?" but as soon as the object of the preposition became compound, he ALWAYS used the wrong case of the personal pronoun ... he would say "....would you like to go with John and I" ... suddenly the presence of "John and" caused him to shift the personal pronound from the (correct) objective case (correct would be "with John and me")! Never mind knowing the difference between "good" and "well" and "who" and "whom"... that's way to complicated! LOL!
Hannah, Please know that all hatcheries do not "broker" their chicks, and there are smaller hatchery businesses that DO hatch their own eggs, not in as great a variety. (A hatchery has approached me for eggs. I would NEVER NEVER sell my eggs to a hatchery of any kind!! I know of only one small hatchery that offers Dutch Bantams and I won't tell who it is! It would be no service to the breed! ) And they may still use an agency to write their catalogs, usually not in color--and still, they are a convenient and necessary source of poultry and supplies (some have specialties, ei. pigeons or quail, etc.). Don't want to run them down in any way. I "shop" all the catalogs for the supplies I need and I read poultry and seed catalogs like novels!! CJR
Sounds like you enjoy the catalogs even more than I do. I read them from cover to cover. I understand exactly what you were saying in your previous post, and I don't think you were running down the hatcheries in any way.
I've actually called McMurray and pointed out to them that the word "Ameraucana" is misspelled. "Americana" refers to collectibles that cause one to think of the United States and its history/heritage. I called a couple of years ago and this year's catalog still has the word misspelled.
Uncle Buddy, Who CAN spell Araucana without checking? But don't expect MMcMurray to correct anything in their catalog. They don't write them and just take the orders. I wrote to Gurney's Nursery, several years in a row, as I noted with dismay that they continually described Pink and Red Grootendorst Roses as wonderfully fragrant. They have no scent at all! Fact is, they don't write their catalogs, either, and apparently do not even proof them before they are printed each year! Someone does it that lives on a top floor apartment with artificial plants--I am sure! Not to worry, can't change some things, even with a fight! But does get annoying and sometimes I will dump a catalog rather than be annoyed by it! Should I write and tell them that? No, it won't make a bit of difference! CJR
Now, on page 19 of the McMurray 2002, the top half of the page is devoted to the McMurray Easter Egg Chicken. But .... there they go again.... they call their Easter Eggers, "Araucana" (please see last sentence: "Araucana chicks are shipped...") And their little historical blurb is wrong as well, but that's just a technicality. Their picture shows a tailbird with ear tufts. I have not found anyone who has gotten ear tufts (beardmuff, yes, but not ear tufts) with their McMurray Easter Eggers (it is to McMurray's interest to NOT breed ear tufts because all the homozygotes are dead-in-the-shell because Et is lethal).
Now there's another issue... THE MOST OFTEN MIS-SPELLED WORD in poultry is "Ameraucana" (Araucana is a close second) ... the breed of blue / green egg laying having beardmuff and tail and thick feathering. Most of the time "Ameraucana" is mis-spelled "Americana", which is a word that means "of America" but is not a recognized breed of poultry as is "Ameraucana".
The McMurray header on page 19 is "Araucana/Americana"(sic) which is really an ad for their Easter Egg Chicken which is neither Araucana nor Ameraucana. I am wondering if McMurray is trying to spell "Ameraucana" and just missed it, or if they're trying to call their Easter Eggers by a new name, "Americana". Does anyone know? Does anyone from McMurray read this board?
By Eggmaster on Sunday, January 13, 2002 - 04:28 pm:
By Cjeanr on Sunday, January 13, 2002 - 05:48 pm:
So the names of the breeds are put in by the Advertising agency that produces their catalogs each year and any information about the breed may have a questionable source also. The people who take your order may not know a bantam from a large fowl or what a pullet is. And the person who mails your box of chicks may not have a clue about the birds being sent! STILL, they want to send you healthy chicks that will arrive safely--that is their business! This they do successfully most of the time!!!
It is a good place to obtain egg producers, and a good place to find birds to start hobby breeding. When you learn how to manage the birds well, then many begin to search for better specimens of the advertised breed (or the true breed, as in the case of the EasterEgg chickens) And still for "backyard pet and eggs", the catalog birds do very well! And they can win for kids at local Fairs. CJR
By Infomaniac on Sunday, January 13, 2002 - 11:48 pm:
I agree that they perform a valuable service to the hobbiests. At the same time, this issue of the Araucanas really makes the water muddy.
It's really rare to see "Ameraucana" spelled correctly, particularly on boards like TPC, PIE, PPIE, and most of those people who have McMurray Easter Eggers actually believe they have Araucana fowl.
By HannahH on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 04:59 am:
CJR, again you've done the COOP a great service in explaining how the hatcheries work.
Thank you.
By Infomaniac on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 12:55 pm:
To me, it is a sad fact that, when errors become common enough, they become 'correct' usage. That has already happened with "sex" and "gender". Using "gender" to mean "male" or "female" is actually wrong. Personal pronouns have "gender" (his, her, he, she) ... male and female are sexes, not genders. But, the error is now so common (driven by society's eagerness to be politically correct) that it isn't considered to be an error anymore. That really annoys me! LOL!
Back to poultry! LOL! Our Araucana actually lay very drab-colored eggs. I wasn't impressed, frankly, with the color of the eggshells from the Araucanas. The F1 pullets in our blue egg project lay an egg that is more blue than our Araucanas lay. Two of the F1 pullets lay a more nicely blue egg than any of our Araucana or Ameraucana. These two F1 pullets lay an egg that is close to a Robin's egg in color. Perhaps just a little lighter than the Robin's egg, but not much. We have only one other bird on the farm that comes close to these F1 pullets with respect to eggshell color ... she's an Ameraucana hen, but her eggshell is poor structurally. It is grainy and weak, so we don't hatch eggs from her. Anyway, our F1s are laying prettier eggs than our Araucana.
By Cjeanr on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 02:53 pm:
By HannahH on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 08:13 pm:
By Uncle Buddy (Ubuddy) on Tuesday, January 29, 2002 - 11:22 am:
Actually, worse still, are folks who enter their birds in shows and think they have Araucanas when they have Ameraucanas and the judges place the birds.
I wish this site had a spellcheck before posting to catch my dumb mistakes.
By Cjeanr on Tuesday, January 29, 2002 - 08:03 pm: