Oriental Gamefowl Thread! - Page 21

Question everything. Then ask somebody else if it could be true.

Walt made a great point: It only takes 2 generations to ruin a good line of birds.

My pullets are laying Woooh Now Must resist the urge to hatch
Suppose to be cutting back

But you have nice weather all winter, don't you??
I have to wait til we thaw out. Hatch 'em!

TX weather is very unpredictable, some days warm, others hot,or humid and them BAM!!!
Rain or freezing weather. So sometimes it gets messy, last year we were hatching in winter, was nice and warm , must have been in the 70-80's then a freeze hit. Temp.dropped 50 degrees in a few hours maybe 2 hrs.  Half my chicks froze wasn't home to turn on the lights

That's crazy, I thought Texas was just HOT all the time. I'm sorry to hear that.
I was just getting baby-chicky crazy. I promised myself NO MORE til after Valentines day.
I need a break, and still need to remove all the feather dust from inside my house.
Already getting chilly here at night, and it doesn't help there has been Christmas stuff in the stores for the past month. UGH

Some can do it in one generation.

There are several pretty good "plug in" thermostats available, as well those that can be modified to work..................... useing a Reptitempt 500 has saved me some chicks in the past.

old*cowboy :

Quote:

Originally Posted by saladin 

Question everything. Then ask somebody else if it could be true.

Walt made a great point: It only takes 2 generations to ruin a good line of birds.

Some can do it in one generation.

Those are the "expert breeders" you read about on BYC.

w.

I am thinking whether or not you ruin, or begin to ruin a line has most to do with the start. I have always "played around a bit", with breeding. I liked seeing what would work or not work. The most I learned was that it is not as easy as it would seam. Most of the birds I have had were average, either hatchery or someone elses offspring from a backyard flock. I wasn't hurting anything.
What changed my approach was that I picked up on some birds that were pretty darn good. After a couple of years, a move became necessary. I gave them away. After settling in, I tried to get some of the offspring from those birds. They were no longer around. I decided to get some birds from the breed I preferred most. After four years I finally found some that I wanted to work with. That was not four years of waiting. That was four years of beating the bushes, and bugging everyone that I could come up with. I never realized that finding good examples of alot of breeds would be so difficult.
Now I have them, and they are sharp. What concerns me is out of the batch that I purchased, I am limited to working with what I have. I don't have a perfect one in the bunch. If I am going to go backwards, I will do it right here and now. I think I know what I am seeing, and I think I know what I want to do. My options are limited though. I plan to purchase more in the spring to give me more options and a little more security. Picking the best of average birds is easy. Selecting the best options to move forward with good birds is a little more challenging. I figure if I don't go backwards, I would do well.
To sum up my point, it wouldn't take someone new long to go backwards. I don't know about ruining the line. I expect to have the originals. I can picture some challenges along the way. Especially up front. Some of us could use a few pointers along the way.

i have found that if you start with good & breed best to best & cull very hard along the way and i mean cull hard for any defects or sickly fowl you will be way ahead in the long run...i have also found that bringing in new blood and adding it is a big waist of time and money in my oppinion, work with the blood you have & if it don't work cull it all and start again...