Great Hatcheries?

[patandchickens]

I dunno... it seems to me that Sandhill is basically doing what *you* would like to eventually become, equibling (although they are oriented more towards chick sales than hatching egg sales). They may not be a big commercial hatchery but really they *are* a hatchery as I understand it, albeit one that raises/selects many of their own birds and does make some reasonable effort to breed for quality.

I just don't see that you're likely to get as genetically stable lines from Sandhill (for most breeds, anyhow) as you would from private breeders who've been continually honing a particular line for some decades.

I'm looking to better the breed, as well as to perserve it.

Unless you have the facilities to hatch and raise a WHOLE LOT of chicks of EACH breed yourself EACH YEAR, and then cull very vigorously, I'm just not seeing how you can possibly "better the breed".

The best you can hope for, without raising/culling in large volume, is to have as slow as possible a descent towards mediocrity and non-SOP-ness in your stock. And to do that I think you would need to start with the VERY BEST and MOST UNIFORM stock (like, selected from a long line of consistent birds). Which is to say, good longtime specialist in each breed you wanna carry, whose lines have been stable and fairly closed for many many many years.

JMHO,

Pat​

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Quote:
Unless you have the facilities to hatch and raise a WHOLE LOT of chicks of EACH breed yourself EACH YEAR, and then cull very vigorously, I'm just not seeing how you can possibly "better the breed".

The best you can hope for, without raising/culling in large volume, is to have as slow as possible a descent towards mediocrity and non-SOP-ness in your stock. And to do that I think you would need to start with the VERY BEST and MOST UNIFORM stock (like, selected from a long line of consistent birds). Which is to say, good longtime specialist in each breed you wanna carry, whose lines have been stable and fairly closed for many many many years.

JMHO,

Pat

I agree...although I do not want to do this on a large-scale. I would rather have just a few trios of awesome birds that I sell eggs from. I'm willing to INVEST in some GREAT stock as I've already spent more than I care to mention on the 15+ breeds I have now as well as on the birds I'm picking up from Holderread's this spring...so I do want to get birds that are as near perfection as I can possibly get. Eventually, I'll taper down my stock to probably under 10 breeds & specialize in those. I do have some that are not considered rare or whatever--so depending on how I do next year, I may trim some more of those out of the program.

Last spring/summer I hatched out over 80 chicks & ducklings. There are plenty of farms around my area, lots of 4-H kids and FFA programs so that giving away extras & those birds not suited to my breeding program won't be an issue when it comes down to that time (which it almost is, again). Of course, I'd like $10+ per bird but realistically, I'll either be stewing them or giving them away.

Luckily, I have my foundation birds pretty well established, with the exception of a few here & there so I won't have to be hatching too many more in the near future--although I do have two 4-H groups who have asked me to hatch out birds for them next spring...so we'll see.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
Thank you! I've heard bad things about their Faverolles, though...

That's good to know. I'd ask on here for anybody who has gotten (fill in the breed) from them, before ordering. I don't think they sell eggs, just chicks, and they're not cheap. They might sell mature birds as well, I'm not sure.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Yeah, I just remember seeing/hearing about some very poor Faverolles which came from them...I can't remember if it was just their colors that were off or if the entire bird(s) also were faulted...

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Quote:
Yes. I have also heard that.