Can You Get A "Mutt" From A Hatchery?

[rabitrun]

On the "mutt" issue....I love my chickens, every one....(and my friends are beginning to be a bit alarmed

), but I do take a bit of issue with the "hybrid vigor" idea. The only way you may have hybrid vigor is if you have two good parents to produce the offspring. If you breed a lab with bad hips to a poodle with a bad bite, your resulting labradoodle will most certainly not be a better animal, even if people pay good money for a "labradoodle"!

I'm relatively new at this chicken stuff, but being advised by a friend who has many, many years of poultry experience. I don't like it when he says "this one is not a good example of a RIR" -- but hey, he's right.

I love my mutts, but that doesn't make me not want the "perfect" bird (or dog)!

So, mutts, unite! But give me a five generation pedigree with health screenings any day. (whoops, dog talk here...)

I thought the thread on production vs. beauty was very interesting and enlightening.

Will it ever stop raining here in O-hi-o???

Susan

 

[Fred's Hens]

Allow me to post in again on the original topic.

Folks have posted photo's here at BYC of chicks they've gotten from hatcheries, asking, "What's this?" essentially. (conceding the same thing happens from private breeders, hatching eggs, etc)

Frankly? In some cases, to my eyes, it isn't merely a sub-standard example of the breed, it is NO BREED and no recognized, long standing hybrid either. I know folks react negatively to the word "mutt", but it is in the dictionary and a perfectly useable term. I got four of these chicks this spring. After growing them out for 3-4 weeks, I gave up. To my eye, they were some weird concoction of Black Australorp and EE. They might have been awesome layers. I don't know and I'll never know. The $2.50 each I paid for them was a waste. Not that $10 is any big deal. To me? They were mutts. Just mutts.

I simply gave them away. They were not something I wished to keep.

 

[samouw]

Quote:
X2

I would just like to add that, over the last 30 years, I have bred, raised, and shown Champion Arabian horses and several different breeds of dogs. I have "owner-handled" many of my dogs to their AKC Championships and have a multiple Best in.Specialty sweeps winner lying at my feet as I type this. So I know the difference between pedigree and non-pedigree and when I went looking for chickens, I knew I was not going to be packing them in crates in my car and rolling off down the road to a chicken show. I wanted healthy chickens from a reputable source. I wanted good meat and egg birds and if my Reds don' t have the perfect brick-shaped bodies and my Barred Rocks don't have crisp, well-defined barring, that is fine with me.
I did not put down my neighbor's backyard breeder Lab and I don' t expect to be snubbed for my hatchery bred chickens. But if I am, I won't let it stop me from enjoying my breakfast of freshly laid eggs.

 

[speckledhen]

I did not put down my neighbor's backyard breeder Lab and I don' t expect to be snubbed for my hatchery bred chickens. But if I am, I won't let it stop me from enjoying my breakfast of freshly laid eggs.

I don't see snubbing here. That isn't the subject of the thread. It's getting what you paid for from a business.​

 

[schellie69]

I got all my chickens except for one from feed stores. I know that they are not SQ but for right now for my needs they work. My rooster is a mutt he came from a byc member (I knew he was mixed when I paid $50 to have him shipped) Do I care nope I am going to breed him with my hens that I have check out my signature line. I can't wait to see the mixes I get. I think breeders and hatcheries each have their good and bad points. Now when I get my farm and start my true breeding program I will be getting hatching eggs and chicks from breeders. I might use some hatchery chicks to help with blood lines. I am also going to have a flock of barn yard mixes just for the fun and see what I get. Here is a picture of one of my barnyard mixes I get a pink egg from her ever day

This mutt lays a really dark brown egg I think she has some wellsummer or Marans mix get an egg a day from her also.

I also give all my girls the winter off, since I have read speckled hens post about her problems with hatchery hens I figured that giving them a long break might help with any egg laying issues.

 

[hippiehen]

I'm pretty sure most people are missing the point.

It's not pure breed vs. not - which is better, which is prettier, which is "perfect" to standard.

The point is that if I paid $2.20 for a specific chick, or perhaps a larger investment like $9.00 for a specific poult, I would like to receive what I asked and paid for.

It's like going to an eatery and ordering an advertised special on a hamburger, but instead they serve you a hot dog. It's not what you asked for! I knew what I wanted - beef patty, 2 sourdough buns, lettuce, tomato, cheese. These are the specific requirements I was wanting to be satisfied with my meal. I can be satisfied with my hot dog, but it's not what they advertised or what I paid for.

I don't think anyone is snubbing anyone else on here. Most people are just trying to educate, not offend. I thought my hatchery chicks were great until I truly started listening and researching then I realized that while they serve a purpose, perhaps there are better ways of getting the healthy, long lived birds that I desire. Hatcheries are great and run some of the nicest people (at least the one's I've talked to) but it's just like all the other big businesses out there - it's about volume. Bless them for making money! I'm glad someone is. But I think it's ok to sit back and reflect on the benefits of buying "local" from small farms and businesses.

 

[Pathfinders]

FWIW, the birds that most hatcheries sell as "Dutch" are all crossed with Old English Game Bantams. I discussed this with the owner of one of the largest hatcheries in the US, and he told me "After 4 generations we consider them purebreds."

At that point I knew I was not going to get anywhere with my suggestions, and politely ended the conversation.

Bottom line, if you want birds that adhere to the Standard, buy from a reputable breeder. If you want birds just to run around the yard, or to take to a small county fair (although some do get great judges who will know the difference!), or to get an assortment to try to figure out what breed you want to focus on later, go with a hatchery order.

This does not include meat birds, fwiw, which are best ordered from hatcheries IMO. I am very partial to the Mount Healthy meat birds, we always order them for the 4-H kids and have had great results over the years.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Some county fairs have categories for "production" birds, not just the recognized breeds. I'm not sure how they judge them since there is no SOP. I'd imagine general health and appearance of the chickens and the knowledge of the person showing them. This is mainly for 4-H kids and they often have separate categories for certified judging by the SOP.

It is not that unusual for very good breeders to introduce some outside chicken to their flock to work on a specific trait. After a few generations, they are again considered purebreds. If they know what they are doing, four generations is probably enough to get back to purebred status, but some of those recessive genes can be hard to eliminate.

 

[miraclz5]

Samouw....kuddos to you! Well said....to each his/her own and no one should be judged for the choices they make that work for them!

 

[Oregon Blues]

If a person wants to buy hatchery birds and they understand the concept of hatchery quality, but what they want is happy, inexpensive, little, feathered beings who lay eggs and follow them around begging for treats, then I have no objection.

However, I think it is completely fair to let the beginner know that the hatchery birds might not look like the lovely photos that they have found while searching on the internet, trying to decide upon a breed. If they know that and they are OK with it, then that is fine.

If they have fallen in love with the appearance of a breed of chicken, or any other type of poultry, and they have done a lot of research and looked at a lots of photos and they expect to get birds that look like that, especially considering that some of the hatcheries are showing photos of birds that they can't possibly own and that certainly aren't their breeding stock, then they are going to be disappointed.

It is not knocking the hatcheries to make sure that innocent consumers understand what they are buying.

You want an illustration? Almost every hatchery is using the exact same photo of a Swedish Blue duck. That particular duck can not possibly be the breeding stock for a dozen different hatcheries. That particular photo is lifted off an educational site about ducks.

I've seen hatchery Blue Swedish ducks. They do not look like the duck in that photo. In fact, some of them are very obviously not even purebred Swedish.

After I tell you that, if you still want to buy Swedish from the hatcheries, you will get lovely little clowns who are decent egg layers. They might have splotchy markings and green heads and neck rings, but all ducks make great pets.

On another topic, I don't understand why anyone with Easter Eggers feels they need to get offended if their Easter Eggers are called Easter Eggers. After all that's what they are.