05/14/2026
Warning rant!!!
Please do not underestimate what an actual breeder does. Im not referring to animal traders, backyard breeders, or people who think there is money in raising chickens when I say breeders. Selective breeding for certain traits and trying to get to the SOP is a never ending endeavor. I have birds that have done well at shows and when bred together faults pop out so that whole breeding season for the most part was a waste. Breeders spend hours with their birds whether it be feeding, watering, evaluating, treating for coccidia, or at times mites or show prep. Some of us have been dedicated, which I know I have taken in several breeds the last 3 years, to a breed for atleast 8 years. My foundation stock of welshes came from Murray McMurray hatchery and I have been slowly breeding them to what they are today. I have at 3 seperate ocassions brought in birds of which I only have 1 I have kept due to faults popping out as they have grown or from a predator attack. What has promoted this post is dealing with some crappy people on different ocassions. One my least personal favorite is when someone ask for birds and I give them a price they get irrate over it. First off you dont have to buy anything from me, and a no than you would be sufficient. No arguing, no name calling ex f.....ing idiot, because I let you know how much the parent stock had cost me or how far I had to drive to get them. Another thing is when people contact me wanting info on my birds, what bloodlines were used, and then advertise that they have a certain bloodline available knowing they did not get birds from that person directly, nor are those birds just that line. I will go ahead and tell you if you contact me wanting my darkest maran eggs, which are honestly no darker than a 7 on the chart, I will not sell you eggs and if I do they will be lighter ones. I have been working and recreating the line I lost. Egg color is not something I focus on with my large fowl. Yes I do work on it, but if a bird has everything else I will use it in a breeding program over a darker egg laying hen. We are still building and rebuilding lines from the predator attacks, dog in training, weather, and our fire almost 3 years ago from what we lost. With that being said if you have gotten an birds from us with the exception of a few they have all been culls and nothing we would want to breed with. I am transparent about the fact they dont fit in our breeding program and state as such before a sale. So it irritates me to know when someone uses our farm name as a gimmick to sale birds, eggs, and babies. In reality we are still building our flocks to be better so I dont know why someone would even use our farm name. 4 years ago we had a guarentee on baby poultry that were purchased from us. I stopped selling chicks for the most part at that time due to dishonest people saying chicks had died. I also at the time quit doing egg swaps for the same reason. I had several that went down south to 1 person that always said eggs were broken and sent 3 dz before they made it safely, and then was told nothing hatched. It wasnt 4 mos later said person had grow outs from the breed that they didnt have available. Could be a coincidence, but doubtful because I had heard she had done the same thing to another person who had reached out to me after I had posted in a group asking if eggs traveling to FL were always getting smashed and yes there was pictures. I had to do essays for hatching eggs for youth due to people saying they were for kids when in reality they were not. I used to do brooder clearances when I needed room and would have people tell me chicks died, ask that I replace them and would resale them for double the price. I have offered advice and mentored people when asked and some were extremely offended by it. I have always tried to help people out with what little knowledge I do know, but to know what I do now from some of the ones I have helped, I do not know that is something I am willing to continue with in the future. Not that I mind helping people who have a genuine interest in improving a breed for the sake of the breed, but I will no longer be helping people who are getting certain birds just thinking they can make a buck off their offspring. If you are dedicated and raise birds in the way they should be you will not make much money at all or you will break even. I may sound extremely bitter and might be just a little bit, but I have seriously considered not selling to the general public anymore. Maybe just auctions online and ebay for eggs, and culls being dropped off and sold at auctions without the farm name or my name attached, and breeder quality birds sold at shows only. I know my family was wanting to start a hatchery with offering offspring from our exhibition flocks as well as our building flocks, but at this time we may only do offspring from flocks we are still building or have flocks like most hatcheries do and just throw a bunch of birds together for numbers instead of quality and keep our exhibition stock out of the equation. Still undecided on how we will move forward with the small operation hatchery.
