Chronic egg issues in hatchery stock breeds

[DonyaQuick]

I am going to need to get some new pullets soon to better balance out my flock. Ideally I want to minimize risk of losing birds to chronic/terminal reproductive issues but most likely will have to get feed store hatchery pullets. For folks who have gotten loads of hatchery birds, are there some breeds that would be a better choice with that goal? Or is it more like an across-the-board risk? Or is it a hatchery-by-hatchery thing? I doubt I'll be able to be choosey about hatcheries with everything being sold out...so probably just have to take whatever's in a local feed store stock tank and just keep an eye on what comes through.

For context, when I got my first chickens, I got 6 hatchery buff Orpington pullets from a local feed store; I lost one to cancer and one to chronic calcium and egg laying issues (and likely bone density problems as well). I know cancer is just one of those things; it was a weird one too so I think that was just bad luck and know I could see something weird like that again from just about anywhere. But the egg laying and calcium issues the other hen had were chronic and honestly worse - I really, really, REALLY want to avoid seeing that again if I can; I had decided I wouldn't be breeding that one bird very early on because of that, long before I lost her. The other four original hens seem hard as nails. I had a barred rock roo for a while that let me hatch some mixes. I also have a couple mixes from someone else. So far my mixes seem hard as nails in every respect, so I am kind of paranoid now about going back to getting hatchery birds...but I just don't see many other options to get sexed chicks easily. My other options would be local sexlinked chicks (hard to get) or quarantining started pullets or older hens (not sure I can deal with that whole process again...).

(Also, I'm not trying to dump on hatchery stock quality with this question; I know careless smaller breeders can produce strains with health issues too.)

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

I would hatch from your survivors and just cull extra males. That way you can keep breeding the rigor into them.

 

[nuthatched]

Pick unpopular colors/breeds. They're not so heavily bred

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

The breeds and hybrids that most commonly succumb to this are those that have been the most selected for heavy egg laying. Many red sexlink hybrids (these go by many names; ISA Brown, Golden Comet, and Red Star are some common names for them) and Leghorn hybrids (like California Whites), hatchery Rhode Island Reds and production reds, hatchery White Leghorns, and some hatchery Barred Rocks seem to be the most susceptible in my experience. Especially the red sexlinks. There are no guarantees, and a hen of any breed can develop egg laying issues, but your odds are better to avoid those issues with the breeds and hybrids not touted to have high egg production.

Continuing to breed mixes is another good option as well because you can select for the healthier and more vigorous birds, but of course you won't get just pullets and will have to deal with cockerels going with that route.

 

[DonyaQuick]

I would hatch from your survivors and just cull extra males. That way you can keep breeding the rigor into them.

Originally I was going to do purely that and spin up a bachelor flock, but I ended up in my first hatch with two brother roos who are doing the co-management thing with the flock - but that has made it double the roo to hen ratio I wanted. I don't want to break them up because they have gotten really good at cooperating to keep the flock together and in safe areas when everyone is out. Then I thought ok, I'll hatch some more with a small broody and was really hoping for 2-3 pullets and instead it looks like I have at least 3 boys LOL. I might have 1 pullet out of that. I knew that could happen so still ready to do a bachelor flock for them but I also kind of need a quick fix for the ratio in the main flock. I'm not really set up right now to hatch a large enough batch to ensure I'd get enough pullets.

Pick unpopular colors/breeds. They're not so heavily bred

That is a really good idea...I will keep an eye out and also ask if my local store has anything a bit less usual on the list.

The breeds and hybrids that most commonly succumb to this are those that have been the most selected for heavy egg laying. Many red sexlink hybrids (these go by many names; ISA Brown, Golden Comet, and Red Star are some common names for them) and Leghorn hybrids (like California Whites), hatchery Rhode Island Reds and production reds, hatchery White Leghorns, and some hatchery Barred Rocks seem to be the most susceptible in my experience. Especially the red sexlinks. There are no guarantees, and a hen of any breed can develop egg laying issues, but your odds are better to avoid those issues with the breeds and hybrids not touted to have high egg production.

Continuing to breed mixes is another good option as well because you can select for the healthier and more vigorous birds, but of course you won't get just pullets and will have to deal with cockerels going with that route.

Ah bummer, that's what I was worried about...and of course my local store is like leghorn week, then ISA brown, leghorn, RIR, leghorn - then one week of of crazy stuff where I was really upset I couldn't clear space for my brooder fast enough - and then right back to the usual rotation for a while.

I take it "black star" would be another high production one?

Actually I also see Marans reasonably frequently. Maybe that is the way to go.

Meanwhile my husband also keeps asking if I need any turkeys. My biggest roo is quite big but not that big, so I don't think so lol.

Oh & if I had known earlier you could have just added to the order I got last week, I think I’m pretty close to where you are!

Oo that's something I didn't think about, splitting an order. I did see the place where it's 10 birds minimum seemed to have a bunch in stock compared to others I looked at (I can do 4-6 pretty easily...but 10 would be chaos). I should probably look around more at what's listed online different places.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I take it "black star" would be another high production one?

I have no experience with the black sexlink hybrids like them, but it doesn't seem like I see much about them having issues... I'm not honestly sure on that one.

Oo that's something I didn't think about, splitting an order. I did see the place where it's 10 birds minimum seemed to have a bunch in stock compared to others I looked at (I can do 4-6 pretty easily...but 10 would be chaos). I should probably look around more at what's listed online different places.

There is also the option, if you don't have someone you know to split the order with, of getting the minimum and listing the extras for sale to get your numbers down to the right spot. That might be a little bit of a gamble because you don't know for sure how soon someone will come along to buy them, but if you get extras of breeds that are popular in your area it could work out nicely.

 

[DonyaQuick]

...so I went out for supplies and groceries and came back with....um....

Earlier in the morning I had the conversation with my husband that if I saw the right thing in the next few weeks we agreed I should get some to avoid having winter house chickens like I did last year (I hatched a couple way later than was wise then). I really did just go out for dry goods and groceries but some of those dry goods were at the local TSC. The person I talked to said they were unlikely to get anything else in the set of things I was interested in and might not get much else at all because of the time of year; they already have some older pullets piling up. I was always a bit iffy about mail ordering chicks because I've been having a some packages end up getting diverted to wonky places when going to my PO box, and just have this persistent worry that if that can happen to something inert then chicks could end up re-routing to Syracuse or something and getting delayed and bad things, so...now I have six olive egger pullets.

 

[Iluveggers]

Marans and Wyandottes have been super hardy, along with Sussex. They are mostly bought for looks and not production, maybe that’s why? Mt Healthy still has stock and Ideal might…I’ve also heard good things about Naked Necks and health, so we added one this year. They both have low shipping requirements (3 and 8 I believe). Keep us posted!

 

[Iluveggers]

Oh that is not bad at all! Somehow I had a lot worse numbers in my head for that.


I just saw them for the first time this week; had never heard of them before that. Of course, I may never see them in the chick bin again this year now I've had a ponder about them, luck being what it is. I wasn't able to find much about them generally except that they are BR crosses which made me wonder if that would be kind of like the barnyard mixing I'm already doing...but if it's a cross between two high production lines then maybe not.

They are production breeds. We got 3 two years ago. Only one is left. Not sure what they were mixed with, but they were from Tractor Supply.

 

[DonyaQuick]

They are production breeds. We got 3 two years ago. Only one is left. Not sure what they were mixed with, but they were from Tractor Supply.

Oh no! That's really sad. I guess they're not really like a sexlinked barnyard mix then. TSC is also where I saw the ones earlier this week.