Hatchery quality vs. Breeder quality

[Oregon Blues]

[[[[.......can u tell if u have breeder quality or hatchery quality birds as chicks??......]]]]]

You hope that whoever sold the eggs to you was honest about their breeding stock. You certainly must ask about the parentage before you buy the eggs.

Probably you can't tell what the birds are at hatching time. A clutch from show parents isn't going to give you all top show birds. Only a small number of chicks hatched, even with the best parentage, are going to end up as top show birds.

It's often not possible to tell which bird is top quality until the adult plumage is in. It's really difficult to sort them out when they are day olds.

You might be able to sort out hatchery chicks by leg and comb color or markings. Maybe. Depending on the breed. My experience has been that the hatchery ducklings were high strung and my breeder ducklings from show lines have been fat and calm natured. But that might not be true of every breed from every source.

I could see an enormous difference between the hatchery ducklings and the show ducklings, but I had them side by side and close to the same age. That makes comparisons easier. And again, it is going to vary by source and breed.

 

[chickendales]

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ducks can be lil harder then chickens to tell the diffrence i have seen some nice hatchery birds in some breeds of duck like my white cresteds and my freinds blue sweeds
but in silkies i tell hatchery stock from birth

 

[cgmccary]

My hatchery BO:

 

[lucky123]

I know hatchery barred rocks are smaller, and some have a dirty chocolate colour instead of black. The white in a hatchery seems off white compared to a non-hatchery rock. Rhode Island reds that I 've seen from hatcheries are a hybrid, bred for egg production that looks nothing like a true rir. If its colour is rust, its a hatchery bird. I started with hatchery birds years ago, and now don't have any. Once you pay for birds from a good breeder, it doesn't cost anymore to raise them. I will also agree that some sellers on e-bay are a gamble. I bought many eggs this year and many were not even the breed they advertised. I gave away around 25 birds I hatched out from eggs I bought this year off of e-bay that ended up hatchery stock when advertised other wise..

 

[seminolewind]

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Very nice BO!

 

[Happy Chooks]

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Cool!!

Usually one hears of hatchery Dominiques that look like they have too much Barred Rock in them, here we have a hatchery Barred Rock which looks as if she has too much Dominique! Except for the underfluff, she has a little too much of that. But the tail, the cuckoo markings, even the little half-moon black tips on the feathers - striking. I'd like to see some pics from the side showing her in an upright standing position. Which hatchery is she from?

ETA - NB, the changes in type could have come from crossing in a Leghorn, but Dominiques originally came in both single and rose combs and the single combed birds were assimilated into the Barred Rock population..

Best - exop

My hatchery girl is not quite finished coming out of molt. When she is done, I'll get a side view of her. She was running in that photo.

 

[LOVEIGEE]

How do you find a trustworthy breeder in your area.....anyone know of one in Ga.? I would love to get a couple just to see the difference, but I definitely don't won't to bring trouble into my girls.....this is a very interesting post......All my girls are great, but the two dominiques (sp) seem weaker than the rest.

 

[al6517]

As a breeder of quality birds I make a practice and a promise to only sell adult birds................young pullets & cockrels, that way I and you both know what your getting, I do this so I can raise them, give them the best chance, evaluate them so that what you get is what was promised.
That is why I don't sell chicks, nor do I sell ahtchings egg's, for me this weeds out those who could never afford the real deal, so they think hatching egg's and chicks will be cheaper. and to me this tells me where their priorities lie, not in quality but frugality.

If I were to sell chicks I have to rely on the USPS to deliver the birds live and in good condition, yeah !!! we all know how much of a gamble that can be. And the same goes for the hatching egg's, we rely on the USPS to handle them where they arrive in a hatchable state, and if they do the egg's are subject to the hatchers ability to even have a successful hatch based on their experience and their incubators. All of these factors out out of the breeders hands but somehow we are allways the ones to blame for such things.

I send pic's, bloodlines, lineage, and whatever people think they need to make a proper decision, everything !!!! you couldn't ask for any more. In defense of breeders like myself, if you have an idea of hatchery mutt prices applied to real birds shipped to your door as fine quality healthy POL birds SQ heritage birds, then perhaps you need to be more realistic about your goals and your budget.

 

[Moochie]

Meh meh. Quality doesn't matter so much to me. My birds will get dirty one way or another.

Although I like nice crests on my silkies. My silkie roo has a small one, hackle leakage, and is recovering from scaly leg mites. His growing pullets don't have any leakage, good sized crests (not extremely poofy though), and no scaly leg mites. Will I cull my dear Skippy? Ofcourse not. He is what I like to call a family rooster. I have better quality cockerels, but I'll just get rid of them. I don't want any of them getting into fights with Skippy. Also I believe Skippy is carrying the white gene because one of his chickies came out white!
I would la-la-la love to hatch out some white babies!

The chicks are silkie x EE, if I breed the white one with Skippy what are the chances of getting silkie feathering and the white color?

 

[eggdd]

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some of this is....well, it just isn't true. me, for example, cannot buy adult birds. i am not allowed - to continue an organic program, i must be possession of the chicken by day two of life. there is no debate to be had. that doesn't mean i don't care about quality, nor am i frugal - - not that i even think being frugal is bad (in fact, often i think it's smart). because of this, i hatch. it's one of my two options (the other being buying day old chicks, which i've never done)

your decision to sell only adult birds is in no way a reflection of the market or customer base at large. it's a reflection of you, your goals, and you having control over what your name is attached to. and that is cool. sincerely.

just wanted to point out your misinterpretation of the market at large.

edited for typos - - probably still missed a couple. eh.