Well, I have to disagree that hatchery stock is always "bad," we have 2 feed store silkies(undoubtedly hatchery stock), one is cute but nowhere near perfect, the other is close. She is not perfect, but she is not so far from breed standard that it is laughable either. I believe that she would be fine in a 4H type show but that would be about it.
I do have to say though, whatever hatchery our local feed 'n seed uses, is a good one. I actually have one Ameraucana that meets breed standard for white-while the rest are 100% EE, go figure. I know that my white is still an EE, but the fact that she meets the standard says something about their stock. I would never enter her in a show, but if I did, not even the most trained eye would be able to tell the difference, she has slate legs, muff/beard, lays the most gorgeous blue eggs, if I only had her I would argue with those that said hatcheries only deliver EEs(I have 17, the other 16 are the gold/black/red/brown of EEs)
We have many hatchery birds, so far we are pleased as punch with them for pets and a couple stand out as beautiful birds...I think that is the norm. We have a barred rock rooster that could compete any day of the week, he is gorgeous and perfect. I honestly started with hatchery birds only because I didn't know any better(and my daughter was not interested in show birds at the time), but as time has gone on and I have learned more, I will use breeders for my future stock, BUT that is not saying that hatchery stock can't produce a show bird, just that the odds are against you. I do not know what the statistics are, but maybe 1 in 20 hatchery birds will be SQ, but 1 in 2 breeder birds will be SQ(remember breeders cull and select birds too). So if you are like me and cannot stand the thought of culling a bird, you are best off getting breeder stock if you want to show your birds.
