Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[BullChick]

Making the call is awful. I’m so sorry.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Today I have to say goodbye to our Jack Jack. I know he’s suffering and deserves to move on, somehow that doesn’t make it easier.

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I'm so sorry I know how you must feel right now. We've had to make that call in the past and it's never easy.

 

[fisherlady]

Today I have to say goodbye to our Jack Jack. I know he’s suffering and deserves to move on, somehow that doesn’t make it easier.

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I am sorry you have to say goodbye, it is the hardest, and kindest, thing we have to do as pet parents. You know it is the right time, and yes, you will cry and miss him horribly, but you will also have memories of good times and a warm place in your heart where he will always live....

 

[Plantnerd]

Hmm, SE PA, like plants and chickens, I feel like I should know this person . . .

Welcome to the group. I find this group of people much more knowledgeable/friendly/accessible/etc than the FB poultry pages, though I do participate there as well. People here are just fun, I guess is the best way to describe them. I am in northern Chester County.
The nearest poultry show of any size is in Lebanon, but I have never been there. Google poultry shows and you will find some. The breeders at shows are mostly very picky about their stock, and even who they choose to sell to, but you can at least get names and maybe contact info. Getting quality stock of any of those breeds will not be as east as you think. They are mostly all handled by large hatcheries that breed for high egg production and mostly correct color. Any other breed qualities are not important in a for-profit hatchery.
You might consider specializing a little and finding a breed that is not locally popular, but historically significant. I would suggest you consider Delawares, and a fairly local hatchery has some excellent ones: https://www.deerrunfarmmd.com/pages/delaware
If you restrict where you get your birds from, you can be a lot more sure of their disease free state. There are a number of significant diseases in this area, the worst being Marek's and the 2 Mycobacteria diseases, often called MS and MG. Deer Run tests from all those and vaccinates for Marek's (as do I). My "dual purpose" breeds are Marans and Ameraucanas, but I focus much more on egg (and bird) color than high meat production, that is why I am suggesting a breed I don't have for people that want to butcher their birds for meat.
If you do decide to focus on pretty eggs and sweet personalities, then the chicks I produce each spring are an excellent choice. Very few of my customers would even consider butchering one of their pets.

As for my original comment, my BS is in Horticulture and though gardening often takes a back seat to my poultry addiction, I do love to talk plants of any kind. My oldest daughter got me a mug that says "introverted, but willing to talk about plants" for Christmas. She said she thought of me when she saw it.

We do have occasional plant and gardening discussions here as well.

Thank you for the heads up on the show. I don’t do FB or any of the others. BYC is as close as I will get to social media. I also don’t think any of this will be easy. I know how hard it is to even find a breeder let alone aquire stock from them, but I’d be doing myself a disservice if I didn’t even try. I don’t believe opportunities just happen. You have to work to create opportunities so I will at least try. Even if I go the hatchery route, it won’t be easy to get what I’m looking for. It will take years of heavy culling and selective breeding to get any of the original DNA of those breeds to get them back up to size or bring back the hardiness and longevity. If I’m lucky enough to get any of those 3 traits to surface it would be a miracle. So again I will at least try to start with good genetics. I have been preserving lines of heirloom veg for years. It all takes hard work and I enjoy doing it. Sandhill is one of the places I would order from if that’s the direction I go. I’m always up for a good plant conversation. I planted a variety of Callistemon called Woodlander’s Hardy as well as 2 different Osmanthus varieties (Purpurea and San Jose). I’m excited to see how they do over the next few years. They have potential to get pretty big. Next year I will be adding some Illicium varieties to some shady areas. Trying to focus on the food before the landscaping but I had to plant to block a view of the neighbors scrap pile.

 

[Plantnerd]

@Plantnerd Hey there neighbor! I’m also in Coatesville, close to Harvey’s Bridge. Lebonan is the closest show of any size, it’s usually October 10th or so. Here is a great site to check out upcoming shows:

https://www.poultryshowcentral.com/

I’m sorry for your loss. I know how hard that is. Thank you for the link. I’m not far from the Turkey Hill that was in the news the other day.

 

[dheltzel]

Thank you for the heads up on the show. I don’t do FB or any of the others. BYC is as close as I will get to social media. I also don’t think any of this will be easy. I know how hard it is to even find a breeder let alone aquire stock from them, but I’d be doing myself a disservice if I didn’t even try. I don’t believe opportunities just happen. You have to work to create opportunities so I will at least try. Even if I go the hatchery route, it won’t be easy to get what I’m looking for. It will take years of heavy culling and selective breeding to get any of the original DNA of those breeds to get them back up to size or bring back the hardiness and longevity. If I’m lucky enough to get any of those 3 traits to surface it would be a miracle. So again I will at least try to start with good genetics. I have been preserving lines of heirloom veg for years. It all takes hard work and I enjoy doing it. Sandhill is one of the places I would order from if that’s the direction I go. I’m always up for a good plant conversation. I planted a variety of Callistemon called Woodlander’s Hardy as well as 2 different Osmanthus varieties (Purpurea and San Jose). I’m excited to see how they do over the next few years. They have potential to get pretty big. Next year I will be adding some Illicium varieties to some shady areas. Trying to focus on the food before the landscaping but I had to plant to block a view of the neighbors scrap pile.

I am good friends with Glen Drowns, who runs Sand Hill Preservation Center. He is most concerned with preserving the genetic stocks of breeds and does not "baby" his breeders, even in the harsh weather of Iowa. People express concern that chickens need protection from the cold in SE PA, but we never experience what they get in Iowa, so I am convinced every breed will do fine here, even the more "tropical" breeds recently imported from SE Asia.
He also does heirloom vegetables, like 2000 varieties, and has a full time job. I bet most men half his age could not keep up, I know I couldn't. If you want non-hatchery stock, and want to try a number of breeds at once, Sand Hill might be your best option, but consider ordering this fall for next spring, to get high on his waiting list. He does not vaccinate for Marek's, but I can vaccinate his chicks if you want. I did that with @feliciadawn this year, and I think she lives a bit farther from me than you are.
Also, he usually sends extra chicks of other breeds with each order. Those are pretty easy to sell locally as they tend to be rare stuff that the farm stores don't sell.

Unless you are getting grown birds from a reputable breeder, you should buy extra chicks and expect to sell or eat the culls and extra roosters. When show breeders buy chicks, even from the more elite hatcheries, they recommend getting 25 or 50 of a breed and feel good if they get 4 or 5 that are good enough to breed from. This year I hatched hundreds of Ameraucanas, sold about half as chicks as I only wanted the cuckoo chicks and my only male was single barred. I kept less than 100 and am now down to under 50. I expect to have that reduced to 20 or less by the first of the year when I am ready to setup breeding pens for next year. The cuckoo rooster I started with looked nice, but I am seeing that he has inconsistent genetics by his progeny, so he has already been kicked out of the breeding pen and I am looking over his sons for a successor.

 

[Plantnerd]

I am good friends with Glen Drowns, who runs Sand Hill Preservation Center. He is most concerned with preserving the genetic stocks of breeds and does not "baby" his breeders, even in the harsh weather of Iowa. People express concern that chickens need protection from the cold in SE PA, but we never experience what they get in Iowa, so I am convinced every breed will do fine here, even the more "tropical" breeds recently imported from SE Asia.
He also does heirloom vegetables, like 2000 varieties, and has a full time job. I bet most men half his age could not keep up, I know I couldn't. If you want non-hatchery stock, and want to try a number of breeds at once, Sand Hill might be your best option, but consider ordering this fall for next spring, to get high on his waiting list. He does not vaccinate for Marek's, but I can vaccinate his chicks if you want. I did that with @feliciadawn this year, and I think she lives a bit farther from me than you are.
Also, he usually sends extra chicks of other breeds with each order. Those are pretty easy to sell locally as they tend to be rare stuff that the farm stores don't sell.

Unless you are getting grown birds from a reputable breeder, you should buy extra chicks and expect to sell or eat the culls and extra roosters. When show breeders buy chicks, even from the more elite hatcheries, they recommend getting 25 or 50 of a breed and feel good if they get 4 or 5 that are good enough to breed from. This year I hatched hundreds of Ameraucanas, sold about half as chicks as I only wanted the cuckoo chicks and my only male was single barred. I kept less than 100 and am now down to under 50. I expect to have that reduced to 20 or less by the first of the year when I am ready to setup breeding pens for next year. The cuckoo rooster I started with looked nice, but I am seeing that he has inconsistent genetics by his progeny, so he has already been kicked out of the breeding pen and I am looking over his sons for a successor.

If I do go the hatchery route, which is the most likely scenario, I will be using Sandhill and possibly McMurray. I know people who have birds from Sandhill and they are some of the nicest I’ve seen. I will be putting in an order with them in October/November unless I find a magical unicorn that leads me to a breeder willing to sell. I admire the work they do at Sandhill and I feel I have a similar mindset as far as preservation of genetics both plant and animal. I really enjoy the work that goes into it and I regularly work 16-18 hour days between my job and working at home. My goal is to be as self sufficient as I can and if I can help to preserve and continue these older genetics they can be passed to future generations. I will be selling/trading veg starts and some produce as well as eggs to defer costs. If I can acquire true heritage breeds, I would selectively breed to maintain the lines and sell/trade excess hatching eggs and chicks. This is by no means a business venture for profit.

 

[Plantnerd]

The majority of the veg I grow have come from seed that has been passed down through family for generations. I meet a lot of gardeners in my job and have developed relationships with them and there is a constant sharing of these older varieties that you can’t really purchase through major retailers. It is its own community of like minded people and there is something really enjoyable about it to me.

 

[dheltzel]

If I do go the hatchery route, which is the most likely scenario, I will be using Sandhill and possibly McMurray. I know people who have birds from Sandhill and they are some of the nicest I’ve seen. I will be putting in an order with them in October/November unless I find a magical unicorn that leads me to a breeder willing to sell. I admire the work they do at Sandhill and I feel I have a similar mindset as far as preservation of genetics both plant and animal. I really enjoy the work that goes into it and I regularly work 16-18 hour days between my job and working at home. My goal is to be as self sufficient as I can and if I can help to preserve and continue these older genetics they can be passed to future generations. I will be selling/trading veg starts and some produce as well as eggs to defer costs. If I can acquire true heritage breeds, I would selectively breed to maintain the lines and sell/trade excess hatching eggs and chicks. This is by no means a business venture for profit.

Good, because there is no profit to be made, unless you intend to be highly unethical in your business dealings. Some people make money for short periods of time, but eventually they find that their "chickens come home to roost", so to speak.
Sand Hill will never be able to maintain all the breeds that are in danger without a lot of partners providing outside help. I send him lots of chicks every year in an effort to establish, and re-establish his lines. I am maintaining several breeds, some locally popular, like Cream Legbars and Welbars, some not popular at all locally, but with a small national following (Genetic Hackles and bantam ducks).
Maintaining even 1 breed is a lot of work, but if everyone with your mindset would pick 1 or 2 breeds and maintain them in conjunction with other maintainers of those breeds and Sand Hill, it would go a long way to ensure the genetic diversity and population health of those breeds.

 

[Plantnerd]

Good, because there is no profit to be made, unless you intend to be highly unethical in your business dealings. Some people make money for short periods of time, but eventually they find that their "chickens come home to roost", so to speak.
Sand Hill will never be able to maintain all the breeds that are in danger without a lot of partners providing outside help. I send him lots of chicks every year in an effort to establish, and re-establish his lines. I am maintaining several breeds, some locally popular, like Cream Legbars and Welbars, some not popular at all locally, but with a small national following (Genetic Hackles and bantam ducks).
Maintaining even 1 breed is a lot of work, but if everyone with your mindset would pick 1 or 2 breeds and maintain them in conjunction with other maintainers of those breeds and Sand Hill, it would go a long way to ensure the genetic diversity and population health of those breeds.

Thank you for the work you are doing. Unfortunately, I don’t think most people have the dedication to do what it takes to do what you’re doing. So how does that work with you sending the chicks? Are you shipping day olds or hatching eggs? Are you line breeding his stock or do you have other bloodlines that you are sending him? How did you get involved in this? Sorry for all the questions but I’m very interested in what you are doing and I would love to be of assistance in anyway I can at some point.