Declining Hatchery Quality Birds?

[BirdsBeesTrees]

My husband and I were talking last night about our chickens. Before this year we've always purchased our chickens through hatcheries. We've noticed the longevity of the chickens has declined. We've had some chickens for 8 years or more but then the 1 year old's are dying? We don't want to buy chickens every year, and we wondered if anyone has questioned the current quality of their hatchery birds?

 

[sandesnow]

You are not the only ones.
Hatcheries breed for money, they don't care about the SoP or anything. Even auto-sexing breeds are totally under attack at commercial hatcheries. I know someone that purchased some Legbars and their autosexing traits were pretty much Nill. I'll put it this way - The chicks were sold straight run... that is how bad the markings are on them were.
I just thank the heavens that there are breeders out there that are trying their best to preserve certain traits and healths, otherwise, we would all end up with birds that last 2-3 years.
It also is bad, because new to birds people are getting bad quality and are paying top dollar for it.
Not to mention the intentional name confusions to sell something that is a mix, not a breed.
Ameraucanas come to mind..

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

One order last year I ordered 25 pullets and 2 males. Ended up with 13 males from MacMurray and 5 polish I didn't order. This year ordered 15 Silkies from Cackle got 16. Only 5 are female. 2 are crossbeaks and 3 or 4 have some nerve damage problems. I'd never even seen a crossbeak chicken before this and have caring for chickens for over 25 years!