Hatchery quality vs. Breeder quality

[chickened]

When you ship live birds do you insure them or give some sort of live guarantee? I ask because I have been asked to ship live birds before and was asked if I would guarantee the delivery. I do purchase my SQ birds in person myself as I have been mislead earlier in some purchases and delivered birds that were not what was sent to me in pictures.
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Yes it is in a way, the difference being young adult 6-8mo old birds can survive a rough handling shippment much better than a very young few day's old chick. Never had a bad experience getting or shipping live adult birds.......... now chicks that's a whole different ball of wax.

I can also ship them in confidence after the buyer has seen pic's of the very birds they are getting, they can see that there are no off colors or that it's not a cull, or that it doesn't have any physical deformity. Things like that, when folks spend the kind of $$ I am talking about there must be no doubt about anything, it's just good business and a good word goes much farther than a scathing experience.

 

[al6517]

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Yes it is in a way, the difference being young adult 6-8mo old birds can survive a rough handling shippment much better than a very young few day's old chick. Never had a bad experience getting or shipping live adult birds.......... now chicks that's a whole different ball of wax.

I can also ship them in confidence after the buyer has seen pic's of the very birds they are getting, they can see that there are no off colors or that it's not a cull, or that it doesn't have any physical deformity. Things like that, when folks spend the kind of $$ I am talking about there must be no doubt about anything, it's just good business and a good word goes much farther than a scathing experience.


I do recommend the buyer purchase insurance, it's cheaper so for penny's on the dollar you can they can rest assured. I know we all hear of horror stories of folks buying birds sight unseen and then get burned, I am growing weary because I am a breeder and resent sometimes being thrown in the same group with the knuckleheads. It is allways a buyers responibility to do their homework however exhausting is can be to check your breeder out. I personaly wish all of my perspective buyers to research away, if your a good breeder you have nothing to fear and everything is right there on the table for all to see.

 

[CelticMoon1]

I must disagree with you here. I hesitate very much to bring new adult birds into my flock as I am very conscious about diseases. Because of this, bringing in day old chicks or hatching eggs are way safer and easier (providing the chicks are in separate housing). I always ask to see the breeder pen and assess the parent birds, also pick them up personally rather than relying on shipment. Say I'm after a nice roo for my hens; getting 10 chicks from good parentage gives me a probability of 5 roos. Buying hatching eggs I'd get appr 15 hoping for the same result, but then you could always have bad luck and low hatching... I will have to raise them and feed them at further cost. I can cull quite early for obvious fawlts, other than that I prefer to keep all prospective roos for up to a year before culling down to a keeper.

To me, this is not in any way cheaper than purchasing an adult. It may be quite a drive for the pickup, guaranteed more expensive than a shipment. Price per hatching egg here is about $2, say $30 for a batch of 15 and the work of hatching them plus the risk of low hatching rate. Price per day old chick is about $7, say $70 for a batch of 10. Now keep in mind I'm looking to get ONE roo from this - Already before raising and feeding I've spent between $30 and $70 on one bird. However, I will get to cull from my own preferances and may end up with a bird that's far better suited for me than an adult one a breeder would have wanted to sell me. When first starting out, I did try to purchase adult roo from a breeder; the one she wanted to sell me was limping (she said he was fine the previous day and it would probably pass) and looked older to me than the 2 years she claimed, so when I declined I got two 2 month old cockerels. Neither turned out very well, though she claimed they were very promising.

I'm not saying that you personally hold back the best birds with your practice - but I won't be seen as a cheapskank for wanting to buy eggs or chicks!

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[chickened]

I am a breeder and currently do not show birds and when I buy adult birds they are treated as if they are diseased for a long time. There are too many diseases that birds can carry that show no symptoms as a carrier. And if anyone shows birds you all know you are taking a risk in contracting something. To pay a high price for a bird it is usually for showing purposes. Another reason to have high prices is a polite way to say I really do not want to sell my birds but for the right price I will. I know a few local breeders that have nice birds and will show them to me, tell me that they will sell me some someday but when I push them to do it they always find a reason to not do it ... always. For this reason I prefer eggs also and I prefer to do the culling.

 

[Oregon Blues]

[[[[........allows you to not sell a potential show winner to your competition......]]]]]

My "competition" and I all have a pact to work together towards improving our breed. We expect to share bloodlines and if one of them wins, then I will congratulate them with enthusiasm. If nothing else, it means that our breed is good enough for the judges to notice for the big awards. Which is a good thing.

I've worked that way for decades, both with horses and show dogs. Few people can really maintain enough animals to have a really good breeding program, and by working in conjunction with half a dozen other breeders and sharing the same bloodlines and sharing knowledge, a lot of progress can be made.

 

[lucky123]

This is a heritage rir, and a hybrid pullet sold as a heritage when I bought the eggs. I hope the picture shows.

 

[chickened]

I agree with you and have a few folks that I do that with. But I assure you it is not the norm and I think it would be very rare to raise a bird to 1 year old and sell him or give it away if it is a potential show winner. I think it would be more reasonable to do what you do if some did not take winning shows as serious as some do.
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[exop]

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That is very cool.

 

[Ducks and Banny hens]

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LOL, yeah, I know. (Of course, I guess it's nothing to laugh-out-loud about.)

Almost all hatcheries in the USA are concerned primarily about one thing: quantity. Forget quality. The more birds they sell, the more money they make. It doesn't matter to them whether or not their Orloffs are actually just Ameracauna crosses, or whether or not their Ameracaunas are Easter Eggers, or whether or not their Rhode Island Reds are commercial hybrids. The almighty dollar is their idol, and quality is a threat to their graven image.

Yeah, I think the problem can be traced to ID sometimes.When Hatcheries need a new Gold Dutch rooster to breed, they walk into the pen-full of Chicks that were brooded together, and pick up a BBRed OEGB or Light Brown Leghorn banny or a 'Red Junglefowl' (which itself is probably an OEG/Phoenix cross or something). That may be the problem: some breeds look alike.
'Hey, Bob!'
'Yeah?'
'Is this a Welsummer Rooster or a Leghorn Rooster?'
'How should I know?'
That would explain why my Well's lay white eggs

(just joking. I don't have Wells).