First, let me thank all of you thus far for your replies. It's exactly the kind of responses I was hoping to get. I don't want to go purchase some expensive chicks, spend the time, money and effort and not end up with what I was looking for. To all who honestly try to steer people in the right direction on the site, and others, you have my thanks and appreciation.
I'll be a little more to the point on what I'm looking for. I was a little vague but knew exactly what I wanted in my head.... sorry for that.
1. Highest quality of the breed I can find. Goal being to maintain the breed and produce winning show birds. I want to get involved at the local/regional level with 4-H and other groups and give back to my community, as I can, as well and the poultry community in general. I intend on only breeding the best and culling the rest.
2. Chicks I understand will be where we'll need to start, most likely. Not a problem as it'll give my wife a project until I get home. I'm in Afghanistan (5 and a half years now) but hope to be home by the end of summer. So if we get her some chicks to raise and when I get home I can pick up at that point and move things along. She can get the head start for us. So sources for top quality birds, figuring I'll probably have to pre-order or whatever with delivery late-winter or early spring, is fine with me. I don't have a problem waiting if I'm getting the best I can find.
3. I don't have a problem working with others to improve their line if someone was interested in such a thing. I have 20 acres, room to build/etc additional structures as necessary. No problem doing what I need to.
4. We have somewhat settled on RIR's, which I and the wife both like but that's not in stone.... We can change or add something rare, exotic, etc if something came our way that was of interest. I don't want to get too many breeds going at one time, choosing to focus in on 1-3 breeds. Our original choice was/is single comb, large fowl. Again not in stone.
Trying not to ramble but still get what I have envisioned across. I'd like to get things rolling as I expect it to take some time to find and obtain some quality chicks, just trying to get things moving forward. If anyone has additional more specific questions or queries, don't hesitate to contact me. Again, thanks to all for the replies.
Dave
