Hatchery quality vs. Breeder quality

[cashdl]

In my case with the breed I have there is an obvious difference in birds. Here is a hatchery quality chicken I bought as an araucana

and here is what I now have and what they are supposed to look like. This is something you can only get from a breeder.

Can you tell the difference. LOL!

Lanae

 

[galanie]

I have hatchery buff orps and breeder quality black blue and splash orps.

As for general appearance, here is my best hatchery buff. This picture really makes her look better than she does usually:

And my breeder black, who always looks like this:

Size. The buff was around 18 mo and the black, 6 months:

Size again. The ones on the left are 4 months old here. On the right, 7 months. The buffs are all 18+ months:

While buff orps and black orps have different origins, at this point their size and appearance should be the same other than color. As you can see, the breeder birds are enormous compared to my hatchery birds, and much more to type for the breed in general.

 

[aoxa]

Quote:
WOW! I love the last one! So pretty! Never found a pure ameraucana I liked to look of before

 

[aoxa]

I don't have a single chicken from a hatchery..

Here is a SQ or BQ RIR

Here is a hatchery quality RIR (they often are just production reds)

 

[galanie]

Quote:
lol I know next to nothing about RIR but I saw the difference immediately in that top picture, even without scrolling down to the other. Pretty girl!

 

[aoxa]

Quote:
lol I know next to nothing about RIR but I saw the difference immediately in that top picture, even without scrolling down to the other. Pretty girl!

Thank you!

I really adore her dark colours. She is almost a cherry brown colour.

Hoping to get her a cock in the spring and another pullet from the same breeder

 

[galanie]

I hope you get her a nice roo! I love that color too. I would be happy to have RIR if they all looked like her. Most around here think a production red is a RIR and I just keep my mouth shut on that.

I hope to see more examples here of other breeds BQ vs Hatchery side by side. It'll be a good reference.

 

[galanie]

Quote:
Absolutely! There's nothing wrong with a hatchery bird if all you want is some nice chickens to lay some eggs or give you some meat. But if you do want to keep the breed pure, or want a good dual purpose (since "dual purpose" hatchery birds are usually too small for much meat), then breeders are the way to go.

 

[aoxa]

**Insert hatchery quality BO here**

My pullet from SQ stock

Note: I think SQ BO's are less friendly

My girl is one of my most skittish.

 

[galanie]

She's really pretty! I thought my SQ orps were less friendly too. Then I gave one to my neighbors grandchild who promptly started picking her up and carrying her around. Now she'll sit in everyone's lap and loves the attention! Her mom wants no more chickens now unless they are "the fluffy ones." LOL

ETA: the pullet was already 6 months old when she got it.