Golden Campines

Surprising henWe received one of these as our "mystery chick." I had no idea what it was. Fortunately, someone at MM was able to identify it for me. I had my doubts about it surviving a Minnesota winter, or holding her own among the other, larger chickens we own. But she has done just fine! She kind of reminds me of a pheasant in the way she runs (very fast) and the pretty feathers. She lays tiny eggs, but her personality is outsized.

Great breed of chickens!I love this breed but I've got to be honest here. The first batch I was sent clearly had trouble in the incubator. Out of the six I got, one had spraddle leg, two had deformed feet, and one has a very very tiny eye and a normal eye. 3 of them died, two on arrival and the one with the spraddle leg died about 3 hours later. I've never had a batch of chicks with such bad pasty butt either. I paid for fast shipping so they would have less stress too. They sent me another batch and they were much larger and a lot healthier looking. However one was dead on arrival again. I've not had such issues with other hatcheries. I'm very disappointed in McMurray themselves but not this breed of chicken. It's a wonderful breed and this is the only hatchery with golden campines at this time. I will reluctantly end up buying more if any of the roos I ordered were the ones that didn't make it or if the roo is the one with the small eye (big comb for it's age) because he won't be able to breed. I give the breed 5 stars but the hatchery gets a 2. I have special needs chickens to raise now away from their main flock and that's just sad but they do deserve a life.