Hatchery vs breeder stock

[PioneerChicks]

I don't know much about hatcheries or breeders, sorry.
One of the buff silkies I ordered from Cackle Hatchery has one blue/black feather in her leg...
The other silkies are okay quality, except one who is really good.

 

[townchicks]

I guess the bottom line is, what do you want from your flock? And, are you getting that from your current birds. Unless you wanted to show, or are hoping for a broody to raise chicks, it probably doesn't matter. For a lot of us, going broody is not a plus.I know it wouldn't be for me.

 

[Ridgerunner]

So they most likely don't mix other breeds like leghorn into their lines.
It's more about the selection process?

As I said, different hatcheries can have different policies. I can't speak for all of them any more than I can say that every cop in the world is a bad cop or every school teacher in the world is a good school teacher.

There are a lot of downsides to them mixing in a different breed, even a carefully selected breed that shares a lot of traits. A leghorn is going to be a lousy choice anyway. They are so different in size, body shape, egg shell color, ear lobe color, and such that those effects are going to be pretty obvious in the next generation and for a long time. It would be a horrible business practice. It fails the common sense test pretty dramatically.

After a certain amount of inbreeding a flock can lose fertility, production, and disease resistance. With the pen breeding method, as long as you have enough numbers this loss of genetic diversity is pretty low. You can go a long, long time before there are any effects. Many breeders handle that by using a different method, often spiral breeding. Loss of genetic diversity is a real thing but there are different ways to mitigate it. That's one reason poultry specialists study genetics, to understand how to handle those effects.

If their flock every shows signs of losing genetic diversity all they have to do is bring in birds of the same breed from a different source. That eliminates the inbreeding problems. Fertility, production , and health improves. And the general body shape, egg color, feather color, and such stay within limits. But no, they will not be show quality.

Even if you feed a hatchery bird a showbird diet, you are not likely to get one as big as a champion showbird. Hatchery chicks are not bred for that.

Folly makes a lot of good points. Even top-notch champion breeders hatch a lot of chicks that don't meet SOP standards in some way. One breeder on this forum said only 1 in 5 of her chicks meet her standards. Another one said it was only 1 in 10 for him. That's with championship breeders selecting which rooster gets to mate with which hen.

 

[Folly's place]

I remember an article by a person who wanted to bring back a rare breed at his farm He bought a total of 200 chicks, from three different sources, and culled them down to the best 20 birds!!! The next year, he hatched lots of chicks, and kept a tiny % of them, breeding towards the type he wanted.
Those are the numbers it took, and the selection process.
Mary

 

[Chicken Heel]

My Avatar photo is of one of my Buff Orpington hens that I got from Cackle Hatchery in March 2017. In my opinion they should be good sized birds with an abundance of feathers as this one is. This particular hen is the largest one in my mixed flock of 3 Buff Orpingtons, 3 Turkens, 3 Cuckoo Marans, 3 Austra Whites, 2 Golden Laced Wyandottes and 2 Golden Comets.

 

[Folly's place]

Nice girl!
My birds from Cackle have been very nice overall. White Chanteclers (Solo, my avatar), French Marans, Speckled Sussex, bantam Easter Eggers, Buckeyes, and more.
Mary

 

[Folly's place]

They all resemble their breeds, close enough, and I'm not showing.
Mary

 

[SueT]

I got my Spitzhaubens from Cackle last year. Their website says "Cackle Hatchery imported 3 breeding roosters of the Appenzeller Silver Spangled Spitzhaubens in 2013 to improve and work on our breeding program. Traditionally in the states most Spitzhaubens have the crest going backward and too much of a crest. Cackle Hatchery would like to be instrumental in correcting this breeding issue with our own flock and hope others follow. " My Spitzes do have the forward crests, and I am pleased with them and their offspring.

 

[bigz1983]

I guess the bottom line is, what do you want from your flock? And, are you getting that from your current birds. Unless you wanted to show, or are hoping for a broody to raise chicks, it probably doesn't matter. For a lot of us, going broody is not a plus.I know it wouldn't be for me.

We got buff orpingtons because we wanted broodies.

 

[townchicks]

We got buff orpingtons because we wanted broodies.

Well that's a bummer then. Maybe you can find someone local that breeds, and has broody hens. Or get silkies, they seem to be inclined towards broodiness.