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True, true and true.. So I'll keep fumbling along. I'll have 20 wintering this winter. That's a bigger start for next spring than I've had in the past... won't breed them all but growing out and keeping more in hopes that I'll have a better selection.I wish he was still with us. The advice in general is still sound, Redcaps might be the only exception because it appears no breeders are working on them. In all other cases hatcheries are garbage and the birds they sell are garbage.
Hopefully sometime in the future someone will take the time to try and breed up Redcaps but that would be a long long process and that person would have to be super dedicated to the breed. I'd say it be a good candidate to be recreated but I don't think we know how it was created to begin with?
Where did you get your start from? How long have you had them? I've heard the biggest problem is size, how far under are they, and are you making progress?True, true and true.. So I'll keep fumbling along. I'll have 20 wintering this winter. That's a bigger start for next spring than I've had in the past... won't breed them all but growing out and keeping more in hopes that I'll have a better selection.
I might have asked before, but how is their egg production? (I mean your RC Anconas, not Ancona in general)
Flitter, have you considered raising them to 8 weeks and the weighing and keeping the top 10% at that point, and just keep hatching and culling at 8 weeks for weight?
I usually cull out the smallest around 8 weeks and again around 16 weeks... probably 15% at that point. Then I cull out a few more in the early fall. I decided to hold on to more than 10% this year because I ended with hollow combs and a single comb last fall and when I culled those my numbers were too low for safety. I really only cull for size but do cull out the really bad combs... had a couple wry tails the first year of my own hatches... culled them. I'm culling out one entire line, too... I kept only individuals without the hollows but they produced hollow so they are all
going/gone.
It's pretty good, pretty consistent. I have not been emphasizing it as I used to. I realized that type needed to come first or it would never come at all. With type getting fixed I'm fixing a rhythm to start emphasizing production. They're certainly homestead ready now, but like all things selection pressure will only benefit.
Oh! That answered the other question I had!
Which was, how do you figure out what to select for, if you want temperament, production, and SOP. So, you think go for SOP first.
I was thinking that that was maybe the benefit of having multiple pens of the same breed. Maybe half of the pens could be for SOP, and the other half for temperament and production, and then combine the two once you are close to your goals.