Recent content by Syerf

There is no license to hatch ISA browns, a hatchery just has to shell out the money for breeders from ISA or buy eggs from someone who has.

They look Gorgeous!

About 5 months for laying sounds about right, so she should start any day now.

Given that they are dealing with multiple sources its unsure whether or not they are infected. If you were planning on eating their eggs you can cook them fully (no runny eggs for breakfast and no eating raw cookie dough despite how tempting it may be) and it should kill anything lurking...

I think thats for having birds butchered.

Seriously? Three years running? How are they still in business?

they won't breed true, no.

The fact is that most hatcheries have to have decent to large sized breeder flocks to meet the demand for chicks which makes it obscenely difficult if not impossible to achieve show quality breeding. They are just aiming for utility quality, if someone wants birds for eggs and/or meat in...

I think I might know what happened then, in 2005 Hendrix Genetics bought ISA, they must have consolidated breeder operations.

I'm not sure that is correct as the ISA website (http://www.isapoultry.com/en/breeding/research-and-development/) states that its breeding facilities are in Canada, France and the Netherlands. In fact on its contact information page it does not list any locations in the US.

A Welsummer with barring would be a Welbar, I'm not sure where you pulled Welsummers from discussion about Rhodebars. While the breed is autosexable the barring gene itself is sex-linked which is part of the mechanism that allows for autosexing if I understand correctly.

Going through their website I found this in a statement about salmonella: "Providing safe, healthy chicks for our customers is our top priority, and we will continue to work with our many suppliers of chicks and hatching eggs to ensure we can do so." Which indicates they have multiple...

If you keep the eggs between 60-70 degrees fahrenheit you can save them for up to 3 weeks but hatchability starts to drop off sharply after 2.

Touring is likely out of the question if the hatchery is at all serious about biosecurity. 1) Its really a quality vs quantity deal. Either sell tons of chicks or take the Greenfire farms route and charge obscene amounts of money for rare/semi-rare breeds. 2) Line quality is obviously...

The amount of light per day has a big impact on their laying. If the days get too short egg production drops off unless you have alternate lighting (nothing fancy, just a light hooked up to a timer perhaps)