You make the assumption that all breeders are breeding for show. I would have to say that all the breeders I know are breeding for hardiness and productivity. I do not kill the males. I give them away for free. The hatcheries don't care about improving the breed. They are a business and profit motivated.
You're right, there are as many types of breeders as breeds of chickens. IMO vigor is the first thing to achieve. Then those qualities for which they were first developed or appreciated.
I each chicken so I don't give them away. It's an unpleasant task but it's better than buying the mushy flavorless stuff they pass as chicken when I have such good quality meat in birds that aren't going to be improving my lines of birds.
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I suppose you can counteract some of it by knowing who you are buying from and selecting those that breed for the characteristics you care about.
Another way to counteract it is to have breed clubs, outside of the APA, who focus, promote and emphasize the production traits for which the birds were originally bred, like longevity, egg size, quantity, and color, disease resistance, and such, and require that registered members track and report on those traits.
JMHO
I've often asked a breeder what their breeding goals are. They're usually honest. If they win a lot of prizes and show a lot, I doubt they are breeding for productivity.
Another reason to buy from a breeder is to support local farms. Also it is unlikely that a hatchery will have rare breeds, although some will try to sell a breed as rare when it is not really rare anymore. By definition most rare breeds are not good layers.
It can be poor laying ability but IMO, by definition, rare breeds are those that have fallen out of favor or never gained favor for one reason or another. Case in point - Lamona, Penedesenca, Andalusian, Java, Buckeye, Langshan, Lakenvelder and Fayoumi. All pretty good or very good layers. Lamonas were fabulous layers and may not even exist any more.
Aseels are very poor layers but they aren't that rare.
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Hatcheries have breeding stock. They keep some offspring for future breeding stock. They know what they are producing. Their main goal with most breeds is to breed for egg production. But they also care that a breed is fairly decent, meaning it looks like the breed.
Good point.
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I also have two lines of my birds, ones that are breed for standards and one that is breed for productivity and hardiness. Of course I breed only rare breeds. Not everyone going to a breeder wants show quality. They may want good quality that approaches the standard AND is a good layer. ...
That may be the way I need to go. I only have the time and space to do justice to a single breed.
After vigor, comes egg color, egg size, productivity, size for meat, feather, leg and beak color, comb type, earlobe color, etc..
I've heard of this technique before, select one line for SOP and another line for productivity and cross them down the line.
There are very few around to get new blood from. So I started with a fairly small gene pool and have only been able to add 2 pullets with inferior egg color but I'm using them for new blood.
