Where to find chicken breeding stock
Like 3 Dislike 0 Published on 16 Dec 2015
I have thought a lot about hatching my own chicks. There's a debate to be had between buying in day-old baby chicks and hatching my own from my birds. At the end of the day, I have no aspirations about being a professional breeder.
This touches on a common misconception in farming. It's a trap that new farmers fall into. I know because I've fallen victim to it in my career so far. While on the one hand, yes, you can hatch birds from your own eggs, they won't be as productive as if you bought properly bred birds from a professional hatchery.
If you don't have good blood lines and a small breeding program you will start to get in-breeding which leads to health problems and a lower productivity from your birds. If you are doing it for fun and not for profit by all means try breeding and hatching your won. Just know that it comes with a fair amount of technical knowledge and that your birds may never perform to their highest potential.
http://web.uconn.edu/poultry/poultrypages/
http://www.hyline.com/
http://farmmarketingsolutions.com