Sandhill Preservation Center - Breeds

[cubalaya]

i had ordered some columbian wyandottes from them with the rest of my order and had some deaths in shipping. they sent me another 25 chicks. i would order again if i ever needed chicks. i will also order more seeds.

 

[1muttsfan]

They are very clear about their communication and shipping policies in their literature and online.

From their catalog: (colored emphasis mine)

It is our sincere hope that each and every one of our customers takes the time to read this page. The few minutes that it takes to read this will help provide you with a better understanding of our operation and will communicate to you how we operate. We are not a large operation and all of the work is done by members of our family with occasional inputs from outside sources. The family consists of myself (Glenn) and my wife, Linda. Our two grown sons, Nick and Cory, are no longer living at home but come back occasionally to help out.

• We are genetic preservationists that are in this for the genetic diversity of this planet we all call home.
• We are not a wholesale seed company nor are we a large hatchery.
• We produce all of our own eggs for our hatches, tend all of our own flocks, weed and care for the seed crops and produce around 90% of the seed which we sell (one of the highest percentages of any place in the country).

Patience

Please remember we are not a 24-hour fast food place where you can order and expect service immediately.

We are doing this as a hobby business service and we work as fast and efficiently as the time allows. We cannot guarantee specific hatch dates, as we cannot guarantee the hatch rate or laying rate of each of the many breeds that we have. We will get to each and every person that places an order - in the order the date that we receive that order in the mail. If you are impatient and absolutely have to have something by a certain date, please do us and yourself a favor and order from somewhere else.

Shipping Date: When your order has been received in our office with payment enclosed and it has been set up in the hatch schedule, you will receive in the mail a confirmation letter from us telling you what date we hope to be able to ship your order. There is no guarantee on shipping dates. We do the best we can to meet your requested date. We always contact you (either by telephone or e-mail) the evening the shipment goes in the mail.

HOW SOON DO WE CASH YOUR CHECKS SENT FOR PAYMENT OF YOUR POULTRY ORDER?It might take us a few weeks to get your order processed, depending upon our work load at the time, but your check will be cashed just as soon as your order is placed in the schedule book and a confirmation letter is sent to you.

We are a breed preservation facility. Every bird shipped out under the name of Sand Hill Preservation Center has been hatched here from breeders which are maintained here at our farm. Poultry is priced according to the difficulty of obtaining the product, not the rarity of the breed. The more expensive it is, the fewer of that item we are able to produce.

We are also a no-kill chick facility. We adjust our hatches accordingly to hatch numbers of day-olds within reason. This means we do not have many extras with no homes to go to. It also means we cannot usually meet last minute orders wanting immediate delivery. This does not mean that we do not cull out defective birds. It simply means that we do not "overhatch" to have extra with no home that have to be disposed of. All extras that we hatch are distributed through our various assortments.

Genetic diversity is a priority: We try to keep as genetically diverse flocks as possible, but we don't always have room to keep large numbers of all breeds. We do not kill the extra chicks each week as some hatcheries do. Therefore, we have to plan our flock size according to the majority of requests for that breed. We are still in the process of increasing all of our flocks to enable us to, hopefully, reach the ability to hatch 25 chicks of each and every breed at one hatch. Some breeds don't hatch well, so this is providing some challenges.

We do not guarantee specific hatch dates, "show quality" birds, or male/female ratio.

 

[Oldhound]

My experiences with Sandhill were positive , they are very upfront with all things. 1muttsfan has a point , READ what they have on their website and in the catalog. Sandhill is a HATCHERY, it is Not a Dirty word. They say that they are Not selling Show Quality. The Fact is you cannot tell show quality on day olds even if the parents are show birds. If somebody out there is trying to tell you that their day olds are "show quality" they are not telling the truth. If you want Show Quality go to poultry shows and buy adult birds from Show Breeders. That way there will be no guessing about what the birds will look like when grown.If the show chickens are in your opinion too expensive then so be it, buy non show birds. Looking through the comments of all the hatcheries and you will find good and not so good comments. One last thing , if you order chicks from anyplace when the weather is too cold or too hot your chicks will DIE. They might not arrive dead but will be weakened and die within days. They are infants, they are fragile. Do your homework read all you can especially if you are first time poultry owners or ordering chicks for the first time to be sent through the mail. Best of Luck.

 

[windyflat]

Very happy with everything we've received from Glenn & Linda over the years.
I wouldn't hesitate to order from them again.

 

[studiofarm]

If they're going to call themselves a preservation center I just wish they would try and keep SQ birds from many different lines because otherwise you get to a point where they're just distributing bad lines of birds. I feel like their birds are from the same flocks they've had for years and are just getting inbred with each other.

 

[windyflat]

The silver penciled hamburgs we obtained from Glen were very nice.

Waay too many breeds to really do justice to all of them.

 

[draye]

If they're going to call themselves a preservation center I just wish they would try and keep SQ birds from many different lines because otherwise you get to a point where they're just distributing bad lines of birds. I feel like their birds are from the same flocks they've had for years and are just getting inbred with each other.

Talk to any of the oldtimers that have raised for years, and they will tell you that if bred right you can maintain a herd for years and years without any outside lines added.

Have you ordered from them and know for fact that they have bad lines?

 

[studiofarm]

No but many people on here have had problems in the past with them. I am sure that they have some nice birds that come out of their flocks, I think part of preserving breeds is just trying as hard as possible to keep birds that represent their standards though.

 

[Countrypunk92]

That is what they do. Lol.hatcheries produce quanity, and do not control their breeding to the standard. Sandhill tries to breed to the standard. And preserve it.

And many SQ lines are line bred. A form of INBREEDING. but controlled right can last years without bringing in another line. And produce good birds.

 

[cubalaya]

i am thinking about ordering 7 dels, 7 bb red cubalaya, 7 brown red cubalaya, and 4 white cubalaya from them this spring will probably cull down to 1 bird from each group so 4 hens.