I think Beth said she has 200 birds on her farm. I've not gotten one bad chick. Love her to pieces. You would be 110% correct on your analysis of the two.
GFF's stock can not hold a candle to Jordan Farm stock either. I have not found one bad thing said about them.
Sad about the Brahma's. Love those happy goofballs.

My SFH came from a local couple, they did get their birds directly from GFF. They got theirs when GFF first started offering them...wonder if that makes a difference. I guess it was close to or around 2 years ago. I have not had any trouble with my SFH. I have added chicks from Wallie and contrastphoto (here on BYC). I don't feed or treat them any different then any of the others. They are excellent layers and beautiful to look at.