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Having sold a ton of birds, I'm not sure that "most people" want or care to know the lines they get birds from. I would agree with that if "most people" is referred to as those who are serious breeders or into showing. WRT being comfortable knowing they aren't getting hatchery birds, that goes to my point. While I would absolutely be the first to agree that one should steer away from hatchery birds if desiring to get into breeding and showing (see my previous comments on here about the difference in the goals of a hatchery vs. a breeder), having birds from a "good line" doesn't necessarily mean anything either. It is the breeder and the breeding program that is what matters and counts.
Case in point, this year I hatched over 150 Ameraucana chicks. Out of those I got 3 pullets that are the oddest thing you could imagine when compared to all the others. Of course I sold those. Now suppose someone goes to breeding them and creates a whole mess of them. Then says, "Well, I got these from Royce and they're pure Ameraucanas." Am I to be held responsible for that?
This is why I say one must accept responsibility and claim the birds to be their own with the very first offspring they've bred. And I don't see how anyone can argue that it must absolutely be considered as such by the third year.
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Opa, obviously I agree with you. Again, if someone has an interest in the genetics likely to be held in a bird, they may ask what "strain" they come from as a good indication of what the bird may hold and produce. But as I said before, even in the case of Laurie & Nina, except for the direct offspring of those few remaining original birds obtained from Lowell, all others must be considered to be a product of their own breeding and therefore their own lines.
Lastly, Opa, while I do agree with you that it is still early for those cockerels to know what they will turn out like, in my experience the one in the foreground is going to turn out with way too much red in the breast. But do come back and post pics later on so we can all see how they turned out.
God Bless,
