hatchery oriental game breeds

You have to remember, the folks that are set up to produce eggs for the hatcheries are not going to supply very many eggs if they use the real deal gamefowl. If you crowd a bunch of hens together, they aren't going to lay good, and if you provide them with a place that they feel comfortable laying, they are going to lay 12 eggs and set on them. Some of them will quit laying if you take their eggs. I have a few that won't lay in a pen, turn them loose and in four weeks they show up with chicks. The same thing that makes the males super aggressive makes the females super maternal. This comes with quirks., but there really is no comparison.

Even though the hatchery prices are high, if you raise real gamefowl, you would have more than those prices in them. If you raised more than just a few it would be a constant struggle dealing with a bunch of individually penned birds. Hard to get people to cough up what they are really worth, though. People will go out and buy an incubator that will only hold 20 eggs and pay $150 for it. You can buy a good game pullet for half that and she will last about as long and doubles as a brooder. But they want that pullet for 10 bucks.

The hatchery suppliers may very well have the real thing on their place, but I doubt very seriously that very many of their best lines go to the hatchery. Not when they can command more for them than the hatchery prices. If I put my Asil chicks in a box, without a hen to keep the peace, people would be picking up a box of parts at the post office. I doubt that would go over well. So the hatchery birds do well to provide birds "for the masses" and give people a taste of what it's like to have gamefowl.

Anyone order recently from Ideal? Has there been any improvements in the orientals?

I have a order coming 3/23 just a few of each. I'm not experienced in gamefowl and just love chickens in general and the idea of a little "raptor" or two in my yard. I ordered 1 male saipan, 2 pullets, 2 sr each of malay, thai and shamos. I figure what doesn't work gets moved on.

Now even though they are hatchery should I be feeding those saipans fish and other proteins? I thought I could set up a few culture buckets of mosquito fish. My sultans loved fresh minnows lol.

I have some hatchery saipan (from Ideal) that are 6 weeks old. I will try to get some photos but I haven't figured out yet how to post them from my new cell phone. I think the pullets have really pretty feathering and long tails compared to my other chickens. We will probably be eating all the roosters in a few months. I'm going to try and see if the hens will be good for raising baby chicks of other standard breeds. This is my first time trying them. I just feed them regular crumbles.

I ordered a few of each of the breeds I was interested in from Ideal. Saipans were the most interesting to me so I ordered 3, 1 male 2 females(got 2 males 1female). I also "thought" I ordered 2 each of malay, thai and shamo. I have 3 malay, 1 shamo and 2 or 3 thai. They stay so busy and are with other chicks it's hard to keep count.

I know they are probably mutts and crossed willy nilly but I actually LIKE them. It was surprising. I hoped I would like them, that's why I bought them. But I really, really like them.

They definitely do not look like normal chickens except the saipans, they do look almost normal. The shamo is most aggressive and it's a male. He's also the most friendly when I have the bag of meal worms out. 2 of the 3 malays are the largest so far and they are monkey's who like to jump on top of everything. The saipans and malay are the least friendly. Both the shamo and 2 of the Thai's are always trotting along behind me when I'm near their coop. I try to spend time with them every day and the shamo and 2 Thai's will even allow me to pet them.

All of the breeds are pretty fearless compared to the normal breeds they are with. They are also great foragers and first ones out of the coop when I open the door for them to free range. They are only about 1.5 months old but I took some pictures.

Saipan girl



Shamo boy, notice he's getting purple sheen


Shamo? boy (I think) he's also getting rainbow sheen


Shamo, he's my favorite so I took lots of pics


Saipan boy



Shamo





Chick horde (orientals, serama, sultans, polish and standard cochins)



Malay are the dark browns, Saipan behind, shamo behind I think.


2 Saipan (both boys I think) and a Thai


Malay to the far right, it's the tallest chick.