It's impossible for me to keep feed from being wasted with all the littles but I've used tote lids for example under their feeders. Helps a little bit.
I've learned to bait the snap traps like this also. I also have a Ratinator.
Here's a couple tricks I learned in my days in 'Nam. 😉
Rats don't wiggle out from the drywall screws or take the trap with a tether.
Dusty trap= no rats here....yet.
Took quite a few pics of the BBS Silvers tonight so I'll split them up for funsies...
There's something funny to say about this picture but I'm too tired to come up with it. It needs a caption for sure.
Blue ginormous guy.. Black Silver guy next to him has color coming in on his back.
Well that's strangely easy.
I'm just spit balling an idea here, but it might be a good idea to do separate hatches from both groups until you get your selections down and then start pairing the 2 groups together. You'll get some Black out of your Cedar Blues, so you'll have your 3 colors...
This is awesome...looking forward to your breeding project.
Did you leg band all 3 groups of birds from the breeders to identify them separate? Just curious.....