Show Quality chickens vs pet quality chickens

[9SpiceyChickens]

Yes, most of the birds I got from a hatchery were NOT show quality.
I finally ordered some from a hatchery that sells them to 4H kids and I got a few good ones.

What hatchery?

 

[DarJones]

Only rarely does a hatchery have birds that are up to snuff for show quality and even then rarely more than 10% are good birds. As an example, Glenn Drowns (sandhillpreservation.com) started several of his breeding lines with show quality lineages, but he has made very little selection since that initial start. Glenn has some excellent birds and I have nothing negative to say about his operation, but his efforts are directed toward genetic preservation, not toward producing show quality birds.

IMO, you are almost always better off finding a breeder who has put some time and effort into selection and culling. They have put in the time required breeding to maintain show grade birds. Please note that part about "culling". Very few pet chicken owners are willing to hatch 300 chicks per year and pick out the best 10% (30 birds) and cull the remaining 270. The most important aspect of show quality breeding is maintaining good records on the birds that are retained so you can pair roosters with hens to combine complementary traits.

 

[Hawks93]

Only rarely does a hatchery have birds that are up to snuff for show quality and even then rarely more than 10% are good birds. As an example, Glenn Drowns (sandhillpreservation.com) started several of his breeding lines with show quality lineages, but he has made very little selection since that initial start. Glenn has some excellent birds and I have nothing negative to say about his operation, but his efforts are directed toward genetic preservation, not toward producing show quality birds.

IMO, you are almost always better off finding a breeder who has put some time and effort into selection and culling. They have put in the time required breeding to maintain show grade birds. Please note that part about "culling". Very few pet chicken owners are willing to hatch 300 chicks per year and pick out the best 10% (30 birds) and cull the remaining 270. The most important aspect of show quality breeding is maintaining good records on the birds that are retained so you can pair roosters with hens to combine complementary traits.

Please correct me if I’m wrong but do some show breeders often choose to sell their pet quality birds opposed to having to cull so many?

 

[M-H-Fielding]

What hatchery?

I can't exactly remember, but I ordered with a bunch of local 4Hers.

 

[M-H-Fielding]

I think if you wanted to you could probably breed your own line of show chickens

I could but I'm not too interested in raising a show quality strain.

 

[DarJones]

Please correct me if I’m wrong but do some show breeders often choosers sell their pet quality birds opposed to having to cull so many?

I can't speak for other breeders, but consider this. If I raise 300 chicks to adults and in the process identify 30 that are up to snuff for further breeding work, do you think I am going to readily sell very many of the 30? Now take the remaining 270 chicks and pick out the best 30. These birds have many show quality attributes but perhaps one or more defects that puts them just below standard. If these 30 birds are sold, the buyer has high potential to combine traits to produce a round of birds some of which will be show quality. What I have seen in the past is that many of the birds sold by the best breeders represent these second tier breeding stock. I make no judgements on this score. You are purchasing birds from a person who often has years and thousands of dollars invested in a breeding program. If they choose to sell second tier birds, that is their prerogative. Keep in mind also that the best breeders have to do massive amounts of culling to maintain a show quality strain. If you do due diligence and purchase a 3 way ( rooster and 2 hens) you should get hens that are similar and a rooster that is complementary. This is what an ethical breeder can and should do.

I purchased straight run Silver Laced Wyandottes from Jerry Foley to produce my blue egg laying Silver Laced Wyandottes. What I got was perhaps 1 show quality bird out of 16 purchased. The rest were easily good enough for my cross breeding effort to introgress the blue egg gene into a Silver Laced Wyandotte background. I have given away and sold a few hundred birds over the last 8 years. All were sold as "egg layers" with no differentiation on whether or not they had particular traits.