Freedom Rangers out of buisness

[adoptedbyachicken]

I spoke extensively with Barbara before she got going on this project and the breeding stock had to be imported from the UK. The cross is common there. So it's not based on the hubbard and if we have lost the base stock she imported in this we have lost a breed. Hopefully she did manage to share it with some other hatcheries.

The reason they started up in the US was that the import regulations into Canada from the UK were too long and expensive. The plan was to get the breeding stock into the US, get started and then be able to expand back into Canada by shipping chicks there.

I have not contacted her to see what is happening yet. I just hope all this genetic diversity she achieved has not been lost.

 

[greyfields]

Quote:
My thoughts exactly.

~Phyllis

IP theft as in internet IP? Don't be absurd.

As far as patent infringment, they certainly bought their breeding stock from Hubbard. The point of buying breeding stock is to breed and sell the offspring. How on earth could this be considered patent infringement?

 

[greyfields]

Quote:
Well they were using photos on their website identical to the Hubbard catalog; and of course Hubbard is a very large supplier of breeding stock in the UK. Perhaps they all worked together in creating the niche since for a long time the industry was only producing jumbo CC's.

 

[UncleHoot]

Quote:
"Intellectual Property"

Quote:
I agree with you, but there have been a few cases in the GMO arena where this is taking place. In particular, I remember the poor farmer that bought the Roundup-Ready(TM) canola, and figured he'd grow from seed the following year. He did, and Monsanto filed a lawsuit against him for patent infringement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto_Canada_Inc._v._Schmeiser).

Nevertheless, there are many differences between the two situations, most notably the lack of anything patentable.

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Got a hold of Barbara this am and she says they still plan the Canadian launch for this year. So they must have breeding stock, but she did not go into why the shutdown in the states.

I don't have the website from the UK anymore that she gave me, sorry, have changed computers since then. They were not related to Hubbards I don't think, but to be honest that was years ago so I could be wrong.

 

[kstaven]

If they are selling up here this year let me know!!!!I am interested.

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

I corresponded with Barbara. She confirmed that they were not closed due to lawsuits, health issues, etc. It was due to a supplier problem. When you are a small business person, one major problem with a supplier can shut you down fast.

 

[blue90292]

Quote:
that is a shame. i can see it being a supplier problem. i've spoken to a lady who lives in bastrop. her orders were completely different from what she had asked. it was like the box was filled with whatever they could put in there. and the order she had made a month prior, she had asked for 50 gold, 50 red/bronze and she got 90 red/bronze and 10 gold.

 

[SimplyAbundantFarm]

Quote:
that is a shame. i can see it being a supplier problem. i've spoken to a lady who lives in bastrop. her orders were completely different from what she had asked. it was like the box was filled with whatever they could put in there. and the order she had made a month prior, she had asked for 50 gold, 50 red/bronze and she got 90 red/bronze and 10 gold.

Bear in mind, though, that many of us had order problems -- not from a supply perspective, but from a communications perspective and lots of mistakes with our orders. I know of at least two people, in addition to myself, who were emailed invoices for orders that were completely different from what we had ordered -- not only were the types of birds off, but so were the numbers of birds. The paperwork and communication were a huge mess.

The other thing that is curious about this response is that we were initially told by people -- and Barbara alluded to this same thing in an email that she sent to me when I opted to cancel my order after all the problems they had filling it -- was that it was an issue with a big customer who had bailed out and that they and their growers were left with thousands of birds on the ground.

I know that the Amish suppliers who were growing for them are pretty upset -- and now are trying to find ways to recoup some of the losses they have from growing these birds for them and now they are out of business.

The stories have just changed and changed so much over the past week -- and even in the weeks before that as some of us were having such trouble getting the birds that we ordered -- delays, no communication, no chicks, stories changing...I don't know...this whole thing has a very funny feel to it.

 

[greyfields]

I have a hunch they ramped up production, then had to dump employees or suppliers when the orders fell through. In the end, they were probably doing the work of 10 people... if it's anything like my typical farm chaos, anyway.