Why Do People Buy Live Chicks From Breeders and Farm Stores‭?

[Mosey2003]

However if you want high production hens then you will need to settle for chicks hatched in an incubator or "Iron Hen" because all highly productive hens do not set or ever get into a mothering frame of mind.

You could breed your own sexlinks. There are still Barred Rocks that go broody, just need a NH cock. I've had one "hatchery" BR and two SOP go broody on me.

 

[aart]

You could breed your own sexlinks.

I did this...BCM x CCL(solid over barred) was pretty cool, but,
only learned the disappointing gender ratio 6 weeks sooner .
Good tho if you want to sell sexed day old chicks, which is in my plans.

 

[Mosey2003]

I did this...BCM x CCL(solid over barred) was pretty cool, but,
only learned the disappointing gender ratio 6 weeks sooner .
Good tho if you want to sell sexed day old chicks, which is in my plans.

I was really disappointed that nobody wanted to buy my sexlinks. Rough area for sales I'm in, I guess. I did Buff Orp x Barred Rock, as I started with the Orps and then get Rocks. If I ever want to do some again, I'll get a nice NH cock and make "proper" Black Stars lol.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

You could breed your own sexlinks. There are still Barred Rocks that go broody, just need a NH cock. I've had one "hatchery" BR and two SOP go broody on me.

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New Hampshire Reds and Barred Rocks are 19th Century chickens and as such they can no longer be considered as HIGHLY PRODUCTIVE laying hens.

Anyway the sex links that the hatcheries sells are produced with highly inbred brood stock because only the purest blood lines can reliably produce a sex linked hen or rooster.

That being said they will only reliably produce a sex linked chicken in the first generation cross. When you breed a sex link to a sex link is when you begin scratching your head trying to figure out which chick is a pullet and which chick is a cockerel.

 

[igorsMistress]

However if you want high production hens then you will need to settle for chicks hatched in an incubator or "Iron Hen" because all highly productive hens do not set or ever get into a mothering frame of mind.

Ironically, one of my production reds went broody last summer. I was surprised! None of the others have have the inclination so she's an oddball.

 

[Mosey2003]

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New Hampshire Reds and Barred Rocks are 19th Century chickens and as such they can no longer be considered as HIGHLY PRODUCTIVE laying hens.

Anyway the sex links that the hatcheries sells are produced with highly inbred brood stock because only the purest blood lines can reliably produce a sex linked hen or rooster.

That being said they will only reliably produce a sex linked chicken in the first generation cross. When you breed a sex link to a sex link is when you begin scratching your head trying to figure out which chick is a pullet and which chick is a cockerel.

New Hampshire over Barred Rock is the industry standard for producing Black Stars, a highly productive black sexlink available for sale. Do you have some reference for this only inbred stock producing sexlinks claim? Any red cock over a barred hen will produce a black sexlink, period.

I never suggested trying to create further sexlinks from current ones. You would keep your breeding stock, not breed the results.

 

[centrarchid]

Image often used to make disease management easier to conceptualize. Hatchery source birds are generally better than average at keeping pathogen out. A local hatchery I have even produces at least some lines that are resistant / immune to pathogens I have as part of a favorable environment. Properly packaged and shipped birds experience a bird that is not thermally stressful and very seldom too moist.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Anyway the sex links that the hatcheries sells are produced with highly inbred brood stock because only the purest blood lines can reliably produce a sex linked hen or rooster.

Ya I disagree also.
Pure is pure. There's no "purest" vs pure.
And it doesn't take a pure bird to make a reliable sex link.
The reason hatcheries use their "highly inbred brood stock " is for the egg production not their ability to produce sex linked chicks.

 

[aart]

I was really disappointed that nobody wanted to buy my sexlinks. Rough area for sales I'm in, I guess. I did Buff Orp x Barred Rock, as I started with the Orps and then get Rocks. If I ever want to do some again, I'll get a nice NH cock and make "proper" Black Stars lol.

Well, mine are sexlinked at hatch but are OE's, not high production breeds.

 

[Mosey2003]

Well, mine are sexlinked at hatch but are OE's, not high production breeds.

Right. There's what I think of as the generic term sexlink, being just the basic fact that you can distinguish sex at hatch, and then there's what the chick buying public thinks of as Sexlinks, ie Black Stars, Golden Comets, etc.