Sandhill Preservation Center - Breeds

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Which reminds me--the Creves I bought from them...large with decent crests...BUT...I had one with a crossed beak, a beardless cockerel, some with crooked toes and one with a white flight feathers? I was able to salvage two pullets from the mix that other than their white earlobes were okay...I will use them one season and see what I get...

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

I got an order from them this fall and was a little disappointed at first that it came in 2 shipments. Instead of the 25 birds I ordered, I ended up with 39 total. My "warmers" were breeds that I would have never ordered (dorkings, chanteclers, leghorns, rocks). The exchequer leghorns were very nice quality birds. I just sold the last pair. I did decide to keep some dorkings and chanteclers because they have a nice temperment. The partridge color on the chanteclers is not the best in the birds I have. I also kept 3 "black" dorkings. One is black, one is birchen, and the other is a mystery color that I can't identify. I sold the other 3 as chicks so I have no idea what color they turned out to be.
The black orpingtons (which I actually ordered) seem to be good quality. They are only 3 months old so not full grown. There is one hen that seems a little leggy, but the rest look nice. Like someone else had mentioned, he is breeding these for the original purpose, as a utility strain, not for show.

 

[MovieFanz]

Many of these breeds are a work in progress. Many of these breeds where almost gone and the vigor and fertility was poor. If your looking for show stock then go somewhere else. If your looking for a project to help preserve a breed, they might be the only place to find any of any quality. If you read he will say what the good and bad points are of many of the breeds.

 

[Chickielady]

OK I changed my mind !

 

[enggass]

Mahogany Russian Orloffs:
http://kummerpoultryfarm.com/LargeFowl.aspx
Erhard Weihs
Eggs: $48/dz with shipping

 

[Blue Ribbon Bantams]

Alot of their stock is exhibited in the book Storeys illustrated guide to poultry. I'm pretty sure that's the correct name of the book:/. When I was looking through the book, I seen some pretty poor quality birds, which when I looked at the credits found out were theirs. So from what I seen.....not good. Your choice though, you would be better off finding a private breeder considering that most orloffs need work.


GOOD LUCK

 

[briteday]

Any opinions on the Rhode Island Whites? I would like to have some decent egg layers. And I would like to know that genetically I could get sexlinks out of them when mated with my RIR roo. The RIW chicks I got from Privett last year are pathetic. One was a roo (typical from Privett), they all have single combs, and I get 1-3 eggs daily from 5 girls. I am not impressed. And I certainly don't want to pass on that egglaying behavior in any chicks I would breed. ???? Sandhill?

 

[EweSheep]

barnboy mo. :

Alot of their stock is exhibited in the book Storeys illustrated guide to poultry. I'm pretty sure that's the correct name of the book:/. When I was looking through the book, I seen some pretty poor quality birds, which when I looked at the credits found out were theirs. So from what I seen.....not good. Your choice though, you would be better off finding a private breeder considering that most orloffs need work.


GOOD LUCK

That is what I've been hearing about that in the book and alot of the serious breeders and preservatists said their birds are awful example of the breeds. It is a like a hatchery and if you want to be serious about breeding or getting their birds UP to standards, you as a breeder would have to do all the culling, buying most of their chicks, and more culling future generations.

The Red Sussex was a disappointment....a few had yellow legs and a few had white legs and some had speckles and some don't (like a NH Red).

The Polishes, had a lot of cross beaks and crooked toes, mottled legs. Cull all of them to the stew pot.

The American breeds, such as the RIRs, Buff Orpingtons, Barred Rocks, NH Reds, they all look pretty good for hatchery birds. Some imperfections of colors.

The Blue and Black Orpingtons, well, they are on the small side, not as big or refined or fluffy as my Catalupa Farm Orpingtons or Dick Horsmann's Orpingtons.

The Salmon and Mahogany Faverolles were the biggest disappointments...too many flaws and imperfections, a few had cross beaks and a few had missing fifth toes. Their vigor are weak....every ONE of them died around six to eight months of age, a struggle to keep them alive from get go. Not one of them even laid an egg for me. A friend struggled to keep them alive enough for one year before they start dying off for no reason at all.

for Orloffs, stick with Erhard and serious breeders out there. Stay away from hatchery and Sandhill's Orloffs. I remember one BYCer got some Orloff chicks from Sandhill and she got mad because they turned out to be Speckled Sussex birds WITH wattles, no beards.​

 

[BlacksheepCardigans]

He's VERY honest about what he's doing. I always wonder whether people are reading what he clearly says in his catalog and website. He's preserving utility strains of heritage birds. He is NOT breeding show birds. He is doing his best to keep useful heritage birds around in their historic form, which is not going to have, for example, the extreme feathering of a show Cochin or the super clear color of a show bird. But he never says they do - he never says that he's got show birds if he doesn't. What you get from Sandhill is a utility purebred. They're going to give you, on average, the results you want for the meat or egg or growth of that breed and they're going to look like the breed has over the decades in the backyards and flocks that has always needed them. He breeds the way you do for a utility flock - maximum outcrossing, minimum culling; maximum fertility within the confines of the breed. What you get from a typical pet hatchery is a bird with the right name but no expectation that it'll have anything more than the name, but you can get all pullets if you want to and you can order only a couple. What you get from a show breeder is close to a guarantee that you'll get the looks but you have no guarantee on the utility.

It depends on what you want and what you expect to get. Since he's the only hatchery that breeds all his own stuff (doesn't broker or "bunch" eggs), doesn't cull males, and because he knows chickens and genetics and inbreeds as little as possible, he'll always get my vote for a laying flock or a pleasant and efficient dual-purpose flock. I wouldn't go to him for show birds; I wouldn't go to a show breeder for utility birds.

I show dogs, and I know what it takes for a dog to win in the ring. If I went and bought a Border Collie off a ranch where they'd been working sheep for generations, there's no way I could take it in an AKC ring and win. The AKC standard is based on the Australian-import Border Collie and the American-bred dogs don't meet it. But that doesn't mean that I got ripped off or that the rancher is a bad breeder. He's a utility breeder. I'd be foolish to be mad that my Border Collie doesn't have the full white ruff or dense coat of an Australian-style dog.

On the other hand, if I bought a Border Collie from a pet store, then I'm getting absolutely nothing but the name. No utility and no meeting the show standard either. He's probably going to be black and white, and if I'm VERY lucky, the dog might chase sheep a little, but it's because of sheer dumb luck, not any kind of deliberate breeding for good qualities. That's about where a lot of the pet hatcheries are - they know there's a market for chickens with cool names and they know people love those catalog paintings (which are of show birds, of course). They offer you a product with the right name, and it has some of the right colors, but it's very unlikely to have the useful and often subtle qualities that make one breed a better fit for your yard or your pot than another. But they have a super pretty catalog and they can give you pullets and they can ship small groups, so they're very attractive to many people.

Healthy useful birds, bred by a single person, are where Sandhill is positioned. Not show birds, which is what he says over and over again. (And no, I have zero affiliation with him aside from the fact that I have chickens from him and felt like I got exactly what was advertised and I paid for - which in and of itself is unusual for hatcheries - and because I respect what he's doing.)

 

[Judy]

He's a member here and I always enjoy his posts. If I ever order chickens again, it will certainly be from him.