Has anyone else noticed there are some rather shady things going on in the chicken and egg selling business? Like they show their best silkie chickens on their websites, but the hatching eggs turn out to be a horse of a different color.
I guess I can understand that they don't want to sell their VERY best chicken eggs and have everyone else with chickens as nice as their own. I mean, gee, they want to win shows etc. It still strikes me as rather dishonest.
This message was edited Apr 5, 2010 7:03 AM
Honesty in the poultry business ?
Light4Jesus: It's a dirty business, No different than the Show Dog, and Horse business. I have found it is especially bad in the highly sought after Black Copper Marans, and Silkie, Serama business. Many of the eggs that are sold are not fertile and the prices are shameless. I don't buy anything but local, that way If I get stiffed I can go and confront the culprit. Online buying is especially dirty. It won't change until people stop patronizing. The worst of it is that there are some good people out there, but, as usual the bad apples always spoil it for all. Hay. I might add, thats one of the things that I love about DGer's, I feel they are uniquely honest and that is one of the great draws here. I can't say that about all forums.
This message was edited Apr 5, 2010 7:30 AM
This message was edited Apr 5, 2010 12:07 PM
Thank you Hay, I always appreciate your posts.
I had no idea it was like this, in fact, I thought when I bought chicks from Ideal, that they would look like the ones on the major silkie websites. You can call me greatly naive, but I really didn't know. To me, a chicken was a chicken.
In fact, at first, I just wanted eggs, in case food prices shot up so high I couldn't afford to pay. This venture was more of a survival tactic than anything, but it opened up a whole new world, which I thoroughly enjoy. I can't imagine life without my chickens now.
Now I want some REALLY pretty ones, and that's proving difficult. I want the drop dead goregous ones. :) In the meantime I'm collecting roosters that have to have new pens built and kept separated.
At least I'm entertained and enjoying it!
You know, it's not even that it's all dishonest.. it's buyer beware and buyer be informed. I recently got "stiffed" and it took a year to find out. It was not a dishonest mistake, it was communication. In my haste, I didn't pay attention to the fact that the seller had auctions too.. and in those auctions, I didn't read the description thoroughly. If I would have, I would have seen these eggs were not what I wanted. As mad as I was when I realized that it's going to take another year to get what I thought I had. I can blame no one but myself.
It is really hard (if not impossible) to build show stock from common hatchery birds.. You have to go to a reputable breeder with a great reputation and buy the best you can possibly afford. That is my honest opinion.. Otherwise, you just have to work up the ladder.. LOL like I am. LOL
I totally agree with everything that ZZ's just said. Sometimes we make mistakes in assumming and sometimes we just fail to take time to get the facts. Then it is a fact that you must find a REPUTABLE BREEDER and be willing to pay top dollar for good quality birds to start with. And don't buy from those you can't check out. That is my opinion. Thats why I never had Seramas until ZZ's made it possible, and I didn't have to concern myself as I knew her reputation very well. But were not always that lucky. Thats why I try to deal with the forum friends as much as possible.
As I was thinking about this entire subject last year, I realized that if it was me selling birds, I would probably do something similar. Keep the best birds for myself and sell the ones I don't want. I mean, let's just be honest, you don't want everybody in the world with your top of the line silkies if you expect to stay on top of things. The down side is, eventually the average joe out here catches on and no longer trusts you. Sort of like the pyramid scheme, as long as you can lure people in at the bottom that don't know the game, you can continue. At some point though, the game is over, their reputation is ruined and that's it.
Apparently there is big money in poultry for some people that do this for a living. Not that I'll ever know. Mine are all pets. :)
Have a great day guys. gbu
Come to think of it, as much fear as I have of our Creator. I don't think I would dare do business that way. I would be honest.
I would probably say, I have two pens of silkies this color I sell out of. One is show quality and I want $$ this much for them.. even if it was really a high price... and these are my lesser quality and I want $$ for them. Then, explain that I also have chickens of my own private stock that are totally off limits.
That is exactly what I believe they do, they just don't tell us that.
I don't know that you should necessarily end up with "second best" when buying from a quality breeder, but you have to know your breeder. I raise Icelandic sheep, and I've decided that I will not sell any animal as breeding stock that I wouldn't be happy to keep. In other words, it has to meet certain criteria in order not to end up in Freezer Camp. But that doesn't mean that I don't have personal favorites among the breeding quality animals, and those would be the ones I will keep for myself. I can't keep them all, so I have to choose some that would be for sale, and some to keep, and the rest to go to butcher. (And in a year like last year, when no one was interested in breeding stock, at least around here, I sent good quality animals to freezer camp simply because I could not keep all of them, but had meat customers who would buy them.)
Any breeder that sells poor quality animals isn't going to have much of a reputation for very long. A breeder who does that also isn't doing the breed any favors in the long term.
Maybe it's easier though for chicken breeders to keep all the best ones for themselves because chickens take up less room. Still, if you want to be known for your Silkies, or anything else, you have to let some of the good ones get into other breeders' hands.
I guess the next question on the tip of my tongue is how do you find a good breeder if you don't know of any in the area.
Excellent point Heaven, It's a painstaking pursuit, I still think some of the DGer's would be the ones i'd turn to, there's a ton of infor right here amongst us, if we'd tap into it...
Maybe a good way to go, would be to buy silkies that are grown or practically grown, that you can see pictures of, or even travel to see them first hand. Then have your own babies if you want more. Poultry shows are a good option as well.
That way you can really see what you are getting, and not just buying a pig-in-a-poke so to speak.
Your exactly right LFJ, and we have our own Silkie Chick, who is well trusted and raises the very best of show and pet quality silkies. We have Catsy, ZZ's, myself, and others comming up that will be handling Seramas, ZZ's will eventually build Lavender Ameracaunas, and who knows what else, and when we don't have them here some of the DGer's can possible give us a referal, to someone they know and trust. Hay
Im not much of a silkie girl but I could definitely do the Lavender Ameracaunas :) Would love to see some pics of that!
Im looking for about 6-10 more hens but I would like to buy from a good breeder. We don't show other than my son's 4-H but its nice to have quality animals. Most people get their chickens from Ideal hatchery here... Not bad but not the best either.
I bet ZZ would like to see some Lavenders too....She has a magnificent roo, but it looks like her pullet is straight black...but in a year or two, if only some of the black split chicks are pullets, she will be the Lavender Queen!
I think Silkiechick got out of silkies.. Not sure.. I sure miss her on here!!! Her birds were awesome!
Do Lavender Ameracaunas lay lavender eggs, or do they lay any particular color? I know you can tell by their ears what color eggs they lay.
I found local breeders by joining a local email "chicken list". It is centered in NC, but many members are in SC as well, even VA. Also lets me know when local events are held.
That sounds great Cat. How would I go about looking for such a list?