Ideal Poultry: A look inside the hatchery!

[Ridgerunner]

Great informative thread. Thank you.

To me, breeder is one of those terms that has reached mythical proportions, but the ideal does not always meet reality. Some breeders know exactly what they are doing, hatch a lot of chicks, cull severely, and produce a lot of top quality chickens. I'd be real happy with their culls, even if they are not perfect. Others buy hatchery chicks, breed them, and sell "purebred" eggs without even having a copy of the SOP. You have a lot of people in between these extremes and with different culling abilities or even different objectives. For example, some people breed Marans to win prizes. Others breed Marans to win prizes and lay dark eggs. There is a big difference in buying from a breeder and buying from a top quality breeder that is breeding to your goals.

Picking a breeder that meets your requirements involves research, not just throwing darts at the yellow pages. The better quality stock you start with, the easier it is to get where you are going.

I have not worked there, but I have no doubt the breeders for the hatcheries cull their flocks. They are not going to breed birds that have obvious genetic flaws. They are going to select breeding stock that conforms as much as possible to the SOP, at least as far as coloring and pattern. Conformation is probably not as important, although it may be considered. They will select for vigorous productive birds that lay a lot of eggs. But they are not going to cull with the same goals as breeders that are culling to win a grand prize. If you want a bird that probably lays a bit more than the breed standard and has the general coloring and pattern of the breed you want, I think hatcheries are a great way to go. Those birds will meet the goals of most of the members on this forum..

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

Quote:
the hatchery v Breeder thraed is at https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=5663585#p5663585

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Quote:
Well said.

Know what YOU want first. THEN find out what the breeder's own objectives are. Maybe his are the same as yours. Maybe they are not. You may have to look elsewhere.

Some folks want birds that can compete in poultry shows. Other folks want birds that lay well or grow fast. Still others want birds that do other things from prolonged crowing to producing feathers best suited for tying fishing flys.

No one breeder can be all things to all people.

Even when narrowed down to a single breed and variety birds bred for other purposes can be different from each other.

This has been a good thread.

 

[idealpoultry]

Hello all, This is Teri from Ideal. It was said earlier that we were not commenting for 'obvious' reasons. That is not the case. We do come on the board about once a week and see what is going on. We do not have an employee that constantly 'monitors' the board.

The video was of the hatchery operation itself because that is what Purina wanted for their television show. We have not done anything on location at the farm but will look into it. Back when I was in school at A&M, I did some very unprofessional videos of the farm and most people found it really boring.

I am going to try my best to address the topics brought up in this thread. If I miss something, you are welcome to send a follow up message. I will subscribe to this topic so I will see your responses and be able to reply to them.

Ideal Poultry has a very large breeding farm about 8 miles out of Cameron in Pettibone, TX. We have approximately 60,000 chickens, bantams, ducks, geese and guineas on the farm. There is a picture of the farm shown briefly in the video, as well as a photo of the farm in the about us section on our website .

We have our own breeders for all of the poultry we sell other than the following: all turkeys, french guineas, chukar and pheasant.

We have not purchased breeders from an outside source since 1999. 1999 is when we ventured into the 'rare' side of the poultry business. Since that time, each summer we start a new breeding flock by selecting our breeders based on the Standard of Perfection. In the late 90's when we were building our rare flock, Mr. Fuchs did go all over the country to try to buy the best of the best. He ordered breeding stock that was 'show quality, high dollar' stock. Even by purchasing the offspring of show champion poultry, many chicks we received were what you all would call, hatchery quality. It takes a lot of culling once the birds mature to even get close to the Standard. All three Mr. Fuchs' that are involved in the selection process hold a Poultry Science degree from Texas A & M, with the elder Mr. Fuchs holding a Master degree in genetics.

There are times when we are sold out of a breed, that we might have an order drop shipped from another hatchery. However, it is a hatchery that has quality poultry and in most cases it is a hatchery that we sold breeding stock to.

Our breeding stock is mated on an average of one male per ten hens.

We do not claim to have nor advertise to have 'show quality' poultry. In fact we very clearly state otherwise in our literature.

Anyone that is involved in showing poultry would know that our prices are not indicative of show quality poultry.

The purpose hatcheries serve is to provide good quality poultry at a reasonable price, to the average farmer that wants to enjoy the beauty of the poultry or have farm fresh eggs. We do our best to provide quality poultry to all of our customers as well as provide excellent customer service. It would not be in our best interest to do otherwise. We have been in business since 1937 and will celebrate our 75th anniversary next year. We have not survived this long by providing an inferior product.

Like another post said it's about knowing what you want for both the buyer and seller. Our primary customer is the backyard farmer. That is who our product is priced for and marketed for.

Please respond with any other questions you might have and I will do my best to answer them.

Teri Fuchs Adcox
V-P Ideal Poultry

 

[gritsar]

Quote:

Kudos Teri!

I'm not interested in breeding (other than what goes on in the barnyard that I have no control over

). Nor am I interested in putting my birds through the stress of showing. I just want healthy, productive flocks. I have that from my two flocks of Ideal birds, including those two weird little silkies you talked me into.

I still think my boy Thor should be your catalog centerfold

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Quote:
So long as there was a voice over or text to tell us what we were looking at I don't think it would be boring at all. I think many folks would be very interested. Please do one!

There are times when we are sold out of a breed, that we might have an order drop shipped from another hatchery. However, it is a hatchery that has quality poultry and in most cases it is a hatchery that we sold breeding stock to.

Our breeding stock is mated on an average of one male per ten hens.

We do not claim to have nor advertise to have 'show quality' poultry. In fact we very clearly state otherwise in our literature.

Anyone that is involved in showing poultry would know that our prices are not indicative of show quality poultry.

The purpose hatcheries serve is to provide good quality poultry at a reasonable price, to the average farmer that wants to enjoy the beauty of the poultry or have farm fresh eggs. We do our best to provide quality poultry to all of our customers as well as provide excellent customer service. It would not be in our best interest to do otherwise. We have been in business since 1937 and will celebrate our 75th anniversary next year. We have not survived this long by providing an inferior product.

Well said.​

 

[Pidgey104]

I would also love to see your breeding pens. Still trying to figure out how I want to do a pole barn Pen with serval pens inside.
Few of my birds our from ideal all are great except not crazy about their silkies other then that great.

 

[NYREDS]

Quote:

Kudos Teri!

I'm not interested in breeding (other than what goes on in the barnyard that I have no control over

). Nor am I interested in putting my birds through the stress of showing. I just want healthy, productive flocks. I have that from my two flocks of Ideal birds, including those two weird little silkies you talked me into.

I still think my boy Thor should be your catalog centerfold

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/4810_emptycam_132.jpg

That's not the worst dark Brahma male I ever saw!!!! The female looks to have pretty good colour as well. I do get the impression that they don't have the mass they should have but it's hard to tell for sure from a picture. Any idea what they weigh?

 

[EweSheep]

A.T. Hagan :

Quote:
So long as there was a voice over or text to tell us what we were looking at I don't think it would be boring at all. I think many folks would be very interested. Please do one!

There are times when we are sold out of a breed, that we might have an order drop shipped from another hatchery. However, it is a hatchery that has quality poultry and in most cases it is a hatchery that we sold breeding stock to.

Our breeding stock is mated on an average of one male per ten hens.

We do not claim to have nor advertise to have 'show quality' poultry. In fact we very clearly state otherwise in our literature.

Anyone that is involved in showing poultry would know that our prices are not indicative of show quality poultry.

The purpose hatcheries serve is to provide good quality poultry at a reasonable price, to the average farmer that wants to enjoy the beauty of the poultry or have farm fresh eggs. We do our best to provide quality poultry to all of our customers as well as provide excellent customer service. It would not be in our best interest to do otherwise. We have been in business since 1937 and will celebrate our 75th anniversary next year. We have not survived this long by providing an inferior product.

Well said.

I agree!

Glad you responded, Teri! I would LOVE to see the unedited part of the farm that the breeders are in and how it was collected for hatching and what the progress would be to sort thru the hatchability. I don't know if you ever outcross breeders by a different line to "bring in new blood" or you never had any genetic problems.​

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Thor was just a baby when that pic was taken, just shy of a year old. The hen in the pic with him, "Lil'Bit" was my smallest hen, my baby and runt, that was later taken by a hawk.

Here he is at approx. a year and a half old, with some of his girls:

And at nearly two years old - I weighed him at about the same time this pic was taken and he was just a few ounces shy of 13 lbs. (Most of my brahma hens weigh in the neighborhood of 7 to 8 lbs. A couple of fat ol' gals at 9 lbs. I found that the brahmas really didn't "blossom" until they were well past two.)

I need to get some new pics of the brahma flock. They will be 3 in April. Other than the loss of Lil'Bit, I have lost one of my Ideal birds, to a heart attack in the middle of a very hot summer.