|Mikaela Nadeau|
We’ve all heard of mystery bags, mystery boxes, and other surprise mystery items for marketing gimmicks. Some of us love them, and some of us hate them. However one unique marketing ploy was a free mystery chick in my spring chick order from Murray McMurray Hatchery. It’s a way for them to highlight breeds of chickens (90% of which will most likely be roosters) to individuals across the country as they enter the realm of backyard chicken keeping.
It’s a risk and a gamble partaking in such a mystery chick program because you don’t know what you’ll be getting. Will the bird be docile? Flighty? Cold weather hardy? Larger or smaller? Despite the unknowns of what breed I would be receiving I still checked ‘yes’ to receiving a mystery chick in my order.
The cute little balls of fluff arrived in July, and the others were exactly as expected for the breeds we ordered — black australorp hens and a buff orpington rooster. I had no idea what breed my mystery chick was at the onset but I had some hypotheses due to the feather colouring. It took until he was around four weeks old for us to get more of a definitive guess as to his breed, and it was this time when he received his name Tornado for his constant escapes from the brooder box and utter destruction of the living room as we had to run around to catch him and put him back in the box.
Our chicks grew up and moved out to the coop when they were eight weeks old and developed even more personality as they figured out the pecking order. Tornado has become the highlight of the flock, and ironically the one we never knew we’d love. A mystery chick added on at the last minute, and yet a favourite for my son and I.
Tornado has become a handsome addition to our backyard flock, and he’s stepped up to the plate as a harem leader. He diligently protects the girls, alerts them when my son and I bring treats, and even brings the girls treats before he indulges in them himself. So a mystery order for chicks has now been a wonderful lesson for us in the unexpected beauty of blue Andalusian chickens. It also makes me wonder how much another mystery order from Murray McMurray Hatchery and Metzer Farms would teach us in learning about different breeds in the future.
