The theory that most have been working on to improve the hatches - is that the gene pool for the Isbar -- which we are now calling the Silverudd's Blue (Isbar) to match Sweden's official name change - is very thin, and that the bird is so inbred that the gene pool isn't robust. When people get good quality Isbars from different locations* there has seemed to be an improvement in the hatch rate.
Add to that, a couple of years ago there were hatches that didn't live past the 1-week old mark.
Now I think several owners are successfully hatching beautiful Silverudd's Blues with the luminous dark eyes -- but it is still a rare breed. My understanding also is that they are not easy to mass-produce - so maybe hatcheries have less interest in them.
There is an effort underway to import some new authentic Silverudd's Blues from Sweden to provide a more varied and healthy gene pool.
* That is to say that often a group of these chickens bought together are brothers and sisters. There are some of the people raising them that are careful not to breed siblings together.
Have to add also -- that the effort involved in increasing the numbers of this breed is definitely worthwhile. HTH
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