Well, while I agree with you that not all hatchery chickens are poor quality or bad chickens. I will say that for the most part in my dealings in my 40 years of chickens I would say that I have bought very nice birds from many different hatcheries. I will disagree with you on where they have obtained their stock. Murray McMurray in particular has had their own closed flocks of almost all of their breeds for years. They have to do that to maintain the consistent quality of what they sell to the public. If they were to add new stock in very often it would open up their stock to being very inconsistent which is not what they want to sell. I would say Ideal is the opposite of that in many ways though. There is always going to be variations within stock from a specific hatchery, it is part of the natural process of reproduction and the variations maintained within.
I have had some nice quality chickens from McMurray in particular but I would never say that any of them were show quality because they are not. If I were to gauge it, I would say they would be about 75% show quality. Which is not bad in my opinion, it is just that hatchery birds do not ever have the size that is required with show birds. I have had McMurray Minorcas before and they were great chickens that laid well and very vigorous but in terms of size and type and stature....they do not even compare to the show quality Minorcas I have raised in the past and raise now.
I am not here to rail against hatchery birds, they are good birds and serve a great purpose in the fancy but there is a BIG difference in quality among birds from hatcheries, breeders and from show people. Each type of bird has its good points and its less than favorable ones, it all depends on what YOU want from your chickens. If you are looking for birds that resemble what you think they should be but are good layers then buy some hatchery birds. If you want birds that look almost like the standard but dont lay as well...then pay some more for breeder birds. If you want birds that look just like the standard and barely lay and cost a whole lot more...then buy some show birds. Its all your choice.
I myself, like breeder quality birds that I can try and raise up as much as I can to the quality that I think they should be like in my own interpretation of the standard.
Will I buy some hatchery birds again? Probably so, they do have value in many regards.
Have a great day!
John
Quote:
Originally Posted by
chickenhawk1982 
@tec27, I'm sorry to hear that your not happy with Mcmurray Hatchery. But please do not miss inform anyone about there quality they have very nice birds and I have always been happy with them. I always laugh at people when they say (OH I HATE HATCHERY BIRDS) that is a load of B.S. where do you people think Mcmurray or anyother hatchery gets there birds from? Um let me answer that for you CHICKEN FARMERS! the same ones that sell you birds locally only on a much higher scale. With all birds and I mean (ALL CHICKENS) you will have culls in the flock which are not good for breeding. But you will have some that are great for breeding that come from hatchery's. I just don't understand where people get there info form hatchery chickens are NOT CLONES PEOPLE! and there not bad quality either like all chickens some look better than others. I raise BLRW and Dan Powell Gold and Buff Laced Brahmas which sell for about$100-200 dollars for 1 day old unsexed chick! and even in these breeds you have culls. Just like some people may be ugly as sin and have the most beatiful child in the world it happens it life. But please people stop down talking these hatcherys just because you have had bad experiances in the past. If your chicks died it's because they got (CHILLED) 90% of the reason all chicks die! Chicks need to be under costant heat 95-100 degees the first week. What temp do you think they stay at traveling for days in a truck and threw post office to post office I can 100% assure you that it's not a constant 95-100 degees infact much lower. I know first hand how it feels to loss chicks trust me I've lost several but it's from getting cold during shipping. The reason why Breeders like myself have such good live ratio's is because our chicks go straight from the hatcher to the brooder which both are set at 90-100 degrees. Please people do a little more research before giving newbie's bad advise. I have seen several people on this forum doing that and personally I joined to help people not give wrong or bad advise to others. But if thats what your want to do there is a Rant/Rambling forum posted on here aswell. I will be posting pics of my Murray Mcmurray Hens and Pullets which I'm very pleased with. And for the record I have been to tons of poultry shows and I have seen uglier chickens than hatchery win 1st place. I have also seen hatchery chickens win shows. So those of you who say there not (SHOW QUALITY) remember that's your opinion other may think differently. Thanks for everyones time and I really hope you enjoy this post.
