02/23/2026
Credit to Dymond Dreamz as author:
This is kind of long, but I hope it helps us come together and be on the same page for expectations.
Please be patient and understanding with breeders, always, but especially early in the year.
As breeders, we love to share with others and we love the connections we make with keepers in bonding over birds, but there are some things I think many forget: Breeders are not hatcheries.
The vast majority of keepers do not want or always have a way to brood chicks in the winter (especially those mid US states and above where it is extra cold and wet) and most breeders take a break from hatching and brooding chicks during the late fall and winter. As a result, most breeders do not start the new year with fresh chicks ready to go to the public. Many don't even have hatching eggs to sell due to low to zero egg production during those refuced daylight colder months and no buyers for the ones they do have. Most of us know all that already but it is worth the reminder. Shipping live animals is also the most dangerous in December and January due to being the biggest shipping months of the year for gift packages and returns, and also being the coldest months of the year.
The thing is, as soon as the ball drops on January 1st, breeder inboxes are flooded with messages from folks wanting hatching eggs, chicks, and juvenile birds, STAT! They are so excited to get going on their own goals for the year, which we completely understand, but we can't just turn on a dime. Winter officially starts on December 21st each year which means it has only been winter for 10 days when the instant pivot takes place from folks being in no-buying, no-brooding mode to wanting to buy everything a breeder has as fast as possible.
We look forward to sharing with everyone we are able to as soon as we can. The reality is that we are working with living, breathing animals, not vending machines, and we are at the mercy of mother nature. We cannot magically make the temps increase, make the daylight lengthen instantly, talk our hens into laying now, or pull chicks out of a hat that we would have had to have been incubating the last 3 weeks of December to have ready for January.
Due to the differences in the way we operate, breeders cannot offer instant gratification like many hatcheries can. Hatcheries raise birds by the multiple thousands and spend all fall preparing to begin shipping eggs and chicks by the hundreds beginning January and February of each year. Private breeders and farms raise birds on a much smaller scale, most less than 50-100 birds, and have limited space for brooding and growing birds out. Breeders also have to hatch and brood for themselves first, before they can share. We have improvements to our lines to make, test breeding to do, old birds to replace, unforseen losses to replace, so many other things, and we have to fill our own cup first or we won't have anything left to share. This is why so many breeders don't often have anything to offer until March or even April. Not only do we have to wait for our hens to resume laying when they are ready, we are health checking and evaluating birds, checking and rechecking fertility, test hatching, hatching what we need for our own breeding programs, etc. All of that requires attention to our birds and a lot of time.
We understand the excitement of a new year and wanting to get started on growing our flocks and working toward our goals for the year. We feel the itch like everyone does, and it is hard to wait for us, too. Just please keep in mind if you get a "no", "I don't have any available at the moment", "not yet", "later in the spring", etc, breeders aren't dismissing anyone, being selfish or unkind, we simply just can't flip a switch, and we don't have the volume of supply to fit the demand. So, please remember we are people, too, and please respond with kindness and grace when we aren't immediately able to provide what you are asking for. At the end of the day, everything about raising poultry (especially these slow as molasses speed silkies) takes time, and waiting is hard.
Thank you to everyone who supports small breeders and farms. Your support is appreciated more than you know. 🥰🥰
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