:sigh: I am so disappointed. I went to our local "poultry show" this weekend.
I have been so looking forward to making contacts with So Cal chicken breeders so I can acquire a few bantam pullets. The new coop is coming along between all my other projects. I was looking for pretty much the same thing Ribh looked for when she found her breeder: raised in a clean and healthy environment and for eye candy instead of egg production.
More than ten years ago, I went to the county fair's poultry show and found the breeder I got my bantam cochins from. There had been a whole exhibition building full of beautiful chickens and knowledgable chicken people to talk to. Ten years later... I dunno what happened. This year really only a few dozen 4H kids doing showmanship with some silkies that looked like druggies they were so passive (or were so stressed they were catatonic... although knowing silkies, that may be their normal behavior

). There wasn't much of a chicken show at all. I think my county has become so urban and suburban that this part of the county fair is dying out.
I guess I'll have to travel north to a more rural show to find breeders, since I really don't want to resort to Craig's List or mailed hatchery chicks, and the only local "feed store" is appalling.
Sorry for the rant, but I figured you all would commiserate. My family thinks I'm nuts even to go to this kind of trouble finding a puppy, let alone pullets.