Whenever it's possible people should support local breeders & small farms. Buying local birds also means they're more adapted to your area, have higher resistance to the diseases in your area & your Buying from people that generally care way! More for their birds than a giant hatchery that couldn't care less about you or the millions of chicks they produce every year...
Fair enough- the problem I face with that, like many others in small town America, is that our local feed stores and hardware stores get all their stock from big hatcheries. But totally agree, I love supporting local when I can and when feasible!
Low order minimums are good for people stuck in urban areas with bad zoning laws. I suspect survival is greater with more chicks (more warmth). It was good to hear the names of multiple hatcheries sobI can research for myself (Rhode Island Reds are a good production breed, but not my choice.
Absolutely! I live in an urban area and don’t want too many birds for that reason so it’s perfect for me- big orders definitely produce more heat which is why a lot of hatcheries won’t ship low orders until around April or so. Which breed do you recommend for production?
@WanderingWithTony Well, because of zoning issues (limit of 6 hens, no roosters in most cities here and I think also the County, for some reason), I was planning to avoid chickens. But major hatcheries often have other birds. When I was a kid (outside city limits, in the South, where counties don't [didn't?] regulate livestock) my dad got various types of ringneck pheasant chicks from a chicken hatchery (Murray McMurray sounds familiar). Pheasants would be verboten here, but I suspect any place raising them might also raise coturnix. You need smaller fance openings, smaller everything really, but otherwise gallinaceous birds are pretty similar in their care.
Most of these what you think are large hatcheries . They actually contract with many different farmers that supply the eggs that they hatch and ship. They have high standards for the folks that supply them the eggs.. It is not simple like you think. There are many breeds. and among those breeds are many strains . A good strains is a wonderful thing. Not just any old chicken, but ones that can have many years of breeding to get you the best of the best for your chosen breed.
I think the concern some have about large hatcheries is the lack of attention to detail on orders, and what happens to the male chicks. However, many of the larger hatcheries are great!
I am looking to move, so zoning may change, but my job keeps me near a too big metro area, thus evil zoning laws are difficult to dodge. Since the politicians who write such things know very little about food or agriculture, non chicken poultry (coturnix and waterfowl, though it is hard to get quiet waterfowl other than muscovies; bobwhite and other North American quail would tend to have state game law wrinkles, and are less productive in eggs). Since males of non Gallus birds are usually called "cocks," not "roosters," coturnix wouldn't be affected by rooster bans, making fértile eggs possible and meat production more affordable (with some capital improvements like an incubator, you can raise your own chicks once you have a colony, only needing to outsource occasionally to avoid inbreeding). So my interests are coturnix (esp. Jumbo Pharaoh for size and ease of sexing) and quiet breeds of waterfowl (muscovies for meat; I have heard mallard derived ducks produce more palatable eggs, & usually more of them, but I don't know how you avoid excessive quacking that gets noise complains from neighbors)
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Whenever it's possible people should support local breeders & small farms. Buying local birds also means they're more adapted to your area, have higher resistance to the diseases in your area & your Buying from people that generally care way! More for their birds than a giant hatchery that couldn't care less about you or the millions of chicks they produce every year...
Fair enough- the problem I face with that, like many others in small town America, is that our local feed stores and hardware stores get all their stock from big hatcheries. But totally agree, I love supporting local when I can and when feasible!
Low order minimums are good for people stuck in urban areas with bad zoning laws. I suspect survival is greater with more chicks (more warmth). It was good to hear the names of multiple hatcheries sobI can research for myself (Rhode Island Reds are a good production breed, but not my choice.
Absolutely! I live in an urban area and don’t want too many birds for that reason so it’s perfect for me- big orders definitely produce more heat which is why a lot of hatcheries won’t ship low orders until around April or so. Which breed do you recommend for production?
@WanderingWithTony Well, because of zoning issues (limit of 6 hens, no roosters in most cities here and I think also the County, for some reason), I was planning to avoid chickens. But major hatcheries often have other birds. When I was a kid (outside city limits, in the South, where counties don't [didn't?] regulate livestock) my dad got various types of ringneck pheasant chicks from a chicken hatchery (Murray McMurray sounds familiar). Pheasants would be verboten here, but I suspect any place raising them might also raise coturnix. You need smaller fance openings, smaller everything really, but otherwise gallinaceous birds are pretty similar in their care.
Most of these what you think are large hatcheries . They actually contract with many different farmers that supply the eggs that they hatch and ship. They have high standards for the folks that supply them the eggs.. It is not simple like you think. There are many breeds. and among those breeds are many strains . A good strains is a wonderful thing. Not just any old chicken, but ones that can have many years of breeding to get you the best of the best for your chosen breed.
I think the concern some have about large hatcheries is the lack of attention to detail on orders, and what happens to the male chicks. However, many of the larger hatcheries are great!
I am looking to move, so zoning may change, but my job keeps me near a too big metro area, thus evil zoning laws are difficult to dodge. Since the politicians who write such things know very little about food or agriculture, non chicken poultry (coturnix and waterfowl, though it is hard to get quiet waterfowl other than muscovies; bobwhite and other North American quail would tend to have state game law wrinkles, and are less productive in eggs). Since males of non Gallus birds are usually called "cocks," not "roosters," coturnix wouldn't be affected by rooster bans, making fértile eggs possible and meat production more affordable (with some capital improvements like an incubator, you can raise your own chicks once you have a colony, only needing to outsource occasionally to avoid inbreeding). So my interests are coturnix (esp. Jumbo Pharaoh for size and ease of sexing) and quiet breeds of waterfowl (muscovies for meat; I have heard mallard derived ducks produce more palatable eggs, & usually more of them, but I don't know how you avoid excessive quacking that gets noise complains from neighbors)
I would love ducks for my property but they are so loud- even the ones marketed as quiet can be so loud!