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there is NOTHING wrong with hatcherys..they play an important and vital part in raising chickens..Curious - since mine will be from a hatchery and it came up - what does everyone have against hatcheries? What makes their birds inferior to a breeder? While on this forum I have seen very few positive opinions about hatcheries...(FWIW I'm not going to be breeding, just wondered why everyone was so anti-hatchery. If I didn't go hatchery I would have a very hard time getting anything other than production birds where I am at.)
delisha, So what you are saying is that Hatcheries are not using their show quality stock (which they most certainly have) to supply you with good quality birds each and every year? Bad choice of words by you in my opinion. These hatcheries wouldnt have survived for as long as they have if they kept breeding bad quality birds with smaller and smaller skinny chests. Something very wrong with your opinion of hatcheries. I myself used a hatchery cock that won a few awards through showing. Culling has been done for centuries and is a tryed and true method to obtaining better quality stock. I have to agree that not all the birds I have acquired through a hatchery are perfect and would only qualify as pet quality. Thats not to say you cant get good birds from a hatchery as you so suggest.
Great point! That's what I compare them to, puppy mills! Anything in mass quantity can't be good in the long run.Anecdotally.. I had very bad luck with the health of birds coming from a hatchery. They would get sick and die slowly with symptoms that could not be attributed to any 1 disease. I spent hours and hours researching and buying books trying to figure out what was wrong. I think each one had something different. They were (in my opinion) just lesser quality - think weaker, more disease prone, with twisted legs and scales, some with splayed legs and chronic prolapse (culling for prolapse isn't something I should have to do)
The other BIG difference I have noticed is that hatchery birds were all VERY flighty, absolutely terrified of humans. These were my first chickens, so I wanted them as pets, and I absolutely could not tame them no matter how many mealworms or how much time I spent with them. Even after I would have them inside my house for weeks doctoring them and they went back outside they would not remember or trust me.
now.. I am raising chicks that are from small breeders (ie flocks under 50ish) and the difference is night and day. The Wyandottes I hatched have such amazing personalities! They are so calm and sweet and docile. I would not believe it is possible to breed such strong behavioral differences, if I had not experienced it myself. You can reach your hand into their cage and pet them without them flipping their lids. I really really really think that was bred into them! I can see the generations of work put into them in their personalities alone.
Edit:
I have heard hatcheries compared to puppy mills, if you understand why they're bad, then you will understand why hatcheries are bad. They pump out huge quantities of chicks, creating thousands of generations that were raised artificially (without mothers) and without human contact. So generation upon generation of inheirited traits and personalities. Also, you have a limited gene pool being used to create mass numbers of chicks, USUALLY with artificial insemination because they are not allowed to free range or anything like a normal chicken. So you are getting all that history when you buy their chicks. I wanted to make sure I raise hens with mothering instincts so they could brood chicks in the future. I doubt hatchery hens will ever go broody, it's not in their nature since it's been bred out of them. The breeder I'm getting wyandottes from has 13 roos over 40-something hens, so I think that's a pretty good gene pool by comparison.
Anecdotally.. I had very bad luck with the health of birds coming from a hatchery. They would get sick and die slowly with symptoms that could not be attributed to any 1 disease. I spent hours and hours researching and buying books trying to figure out what was wrong. I think each one had something different. They were (in my opinion) just lesser quality - think weaker, more disease prone, with twisted legs and scales, some with splayed legs and chronic prolapse (culling for prolapse isn't something I should have to do). I had 12 pullets (12wk) and ended up with only 4 adult hens (1yr), at which point I decided to get rid of them and start over with higher quality stock.
The other BIG difference I have noticed is that hatchery birds were all VERY flighty, absolutely terrified of humans. These were my first chickens, so I wanted them as pets, and I absolutely could not tame them no matter how many mealworms or how much time I spent with them. Even after I would have them inside my house for weeks doctoring them and they went back outside they would not remember or trust me.