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I have to agree with this. When you toss a bunch of animals together and go with what you get you have stopped being a breeder and now are simply propagating an animals. Even in most production livestock operations there is some form of selection and breeding program followed.
That said I dont view hatcheries as the great evil. Yes they mass produce large quantities of chicks without regard for the SOP. Yet their purpose is not to produce show quality birds but rather provide the consumers with a wide selection of breeds at a cheaper price and they do this very well! Hatcheries are not the place you go to find showstock, its an outlet for production stock. I am amazed by people who go to a hatchery expecting to find show animals, you wouldnt go down to your local auction pick up a horse and expect to set the A rated breed show world on fire. This just doesnt happen, show animals are bred for the show ring/ pen and production animals are bred to produce. You can look at just about any species and see this difference. Why, because often when we breed an animal to be pretty for the show ring production takes a back seat or is completely overlooked.
Now as far as pollution of bloodlines go I think this comes down to the preservation vs progression argument. I personally do not see crossbreeding as a pollution of bloodlines in poultry, particularly in the American breeds where most of them are composites to start with. In livestock pedigrees are kept and purity of a breed is monitored, or in the case of an association allowing an outcross bylaws state a specific number of recorded generations required to gain registry. In poultry it seems that what you see is what you have. If it looks like a Delaware and meets SOP then its a Delaware, it doesnt matter if its a ¼ something else its still going to win if its the best bird. In this way it is possible for a breeder (notice I say breeder) to improve their flock through the utilization of out crossing if they so choose.
Im not advocating hatcheries as a place to buy show stock but simply saying they do have their place and in most any livestock breed there are show and then production animals.
Well then what happens when you breed two Dels that are 1/4 something else and they have chicks that look more like that 1/4 something else instead of a Del? It's seems to me that if I breed two dels all the chicks should look like Dels. not the 1/4 somethng else. It also seems to me that most birds do not meet the SOP but are lacking in one area or another. Including what I have right in my coop. Point being they look like Dels but don't meet the SOP, yet they are still Dels, right? And if I breed them their offspring should all look like Dels, right? or can they throw the occasional Barred Rock looking chick? As for preservation, what's being preserved if there is the 1/4 something else? Certainly not pure Dels. My point being, why should anyone bother caring whether a breed is considered rare, cuz after all those that do exist may be 1/4 something else anyhow, and it may look like a del and walk like a del but be Del/NHR. Is this according to the ALBC or the APA or the SPPA? So why should I buy from so called breeders when hatchery stock is cheaper and just as fitting, or just hatch my own and that's cheaper still. I know this sounds snarky , I'm just trying to find a reason to care. If I can breed anything into the line then I just don't see the point.
