Breeding project with limited stock?

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cochinGurl

cochinGurl

Songster
9 Years
May 11, 2010
454
14
156
bellingham
Hi there! Ok, here's the situation: I'm working on a breeding project with very limited stock and I'm wondering about who I can breed to who. I have one bird from very nice stock, the bird that inspired this project, that I got from my grandfather before he passed. I have him paired to a female of the same breed (Serbian highflier) from unrelated stock and they have had two offspring so far. One is male, the other is female I think but too young to be sure.

My question is what should I do from here? How best can I pair up their current and future offspring? I can get more birds from the same breeder that I got the hen from, but I don't have access to any more birds from the fathers line. Should I pair the offspring of my first pair to each other, or to new birds? Or pair the offspring of my first pair to each other and then pair their offspring to non siblings from the mothers line? Any advice is appreciated!

For more back story on this project you can see this other thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/955485/embarking-a-breeding-project#post_15957163
 
cochinGurl said:
My question is what should I do from here? How best can I pair up their current and future offspring? I can get more birds from the same breeder that I got the hen from, but I don't have access to any more birds from the fathers line. Should I pair the offspring of my first pair to each other, or to new birds? Or pair the offspring of my first pair to each other and then pair their offspring to non siblings from the mothers line? Any advice is appreciated!
Click to expand...
It is my experience you are best served to go with your own gut instincts and evaluate the results by trail and error.

In-breeding has been practiced with excellent results and should not be discouraged especially with any character trait you wish to pronounce.


One has to keep good records and identify the individual traits of each bird and try to select the best pairing that will produce the even more superior offspring.

Culling is another factor with serious breeders employ to great extent. Something tells me you are not cut from this cloth.

No matter which pairing you finally go with you still run the chance of getting a bird from the lower end of the gene pool.

Genetics is a very complicate endeavor with dominate and recessive traits. There are pigeon fanciers out there who have forgotten more on this subject then I will ever know.

Breeding has always been and always will be a roll of the dice gamble with no guarantees.

Wish I could be of more help I know this serves as little.
 
Last edited:
Hokum Coco said:
I must apologies that remark I agree was uncalled for. That being said the Windsor family (Hapsburg) at one point had a very limited gene pool you can not ignore the facts. Measures to date have been taken to correct that fact.
Click to expand...
I thought what you said was quite amusing - Im from the UK but its certainly valid (and funny)
Its actually not really the GB royals - inbreeding between ALL monarchies in Europe has been practiced for centuries, including the Tzars of Russia.
 
Keep breeding your two original pairs, or only breed each of to offspring of, to get better traits of your original stock of two. Just don't breed bro to sis pretty much, but parent to children gets best preserving the parents line traits FAM etc..
 

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