Congrats Syble.
My breeding goals are duckwings right now. I am not concerned if they have tufts, although that is definately a bonus. I would like to increase the size of my birds. Right now they are at the standard weight which is good but I wouldn't mind them being a little bigger, making them more dual purpose. Conformation is of major importance to me. The right conformation will go a long way towards helping with fertility. My fertility is excellant, but I dont use short back birds in my pens, tufts or not. I do have a lot of fluffy butted hens but am not considering that a problem. I tend to like the looks. Head shape and eye color are important to me. Egg color is not as high on my priorities since I am seeing definate improvement each generation in color. I am culling for color this year, trying to get as close to the standards as possible.
I have 16 birds in this years breeding pens, making up 4 pens. I have a tufted white roo over barred hens. He is awesome and I had to put him somewhere. Plus he is good sized. I have a tufted blue over blue hens. Tufted dom white over bbr, blue, black, splash, hens and a clean faced ginger duckwing over ginger, and two silver hens. I also have a birchen pen that I will be moving a black hen into. The ginger pen is my favorite, followed by the dom white. I am getting some nice double tufted out of all the pens.
My hatch rate has definately improved this year, along with fertility and general thriftiness of the chicks. I believe it is the improved diet the birds are on. They have more animal protein in their diet this year and less soy bean.
Lanae
looks will look piddley with my 3 dozen eggs haha, but atleast i'll be in tip top shape next spring!
