Best Books and Resources for Breeding Poultry and Genetics

[RememberTheWay]

Would love to hear what everyones favorite resources and books are on gaining knowledge about breeding poultry and their genetics. I am in interested in several breeds and would like to learn about breeding to the SOP,, for production, and how all the genetics work and interact with each other. Thanks in advance

 

[Rock17]

Bantams and small poultry is a great book for beginners and the experienced at breeding bantams to the SOP and making your own bantams.

 

[Rock17]

Bantams and small poultry is a great book for beginners and the experienced at breeding bantams to the SOP and making your own bantams.

PS. It is by joseph batty and is now out of print

 

[RememberTheWay]

PS. It is by joseph batty and is now out of print

I do have some bantams but I mostly breed full size birds. I just got the SOP for my birthday and am reading through that right now. Looking for resources on how their genetics work together and express when mixed. Do you think things for bantams would cross over to full size?

 

[Rock17]

I do have some bantams but I mostly breed full size birds. I just got the SOP for my birthday and am reading through that right now. Looking for resources on how their genetics work together and express when mixed. Do you think things for bantams would cross over to full size?

Maybe

 

[NatJ]

I do have some bantams but I mostly breed full size birds. I just got the SOP for my birthday and am reading through that right now. Looking for resources on how their genetics work together and express when mixed. Do you think things for bantams would cross over to full size?

The only difference would be that they have different genes for size.

All the other genes should work the same in all sizes of chickens. That includes feather colors, feather patterns, kind of feathers (silkie/frizzle/normal), comb type, feathered/clean feet, crest, muff/beard, 5th toe, egg color.

Have you played with the chicken calculator? It can be a fun way to model the effects of some of the genes. Just change the genes in the dropdown boxes, and the little picture of the chick will change too:
http://kippenjungle.nl/chickencalculator.html
https://kippenjungle.nl/breeds/crossbreeds.html
(Several versions exist, with more or less options and various features. Sometimes one or another has a problem, so it can be handy to have links for more than one version.)

 

[Andrew Gordon]

By far the most helpful book on chicken genetics I use would be
Sigrid van Dort, The Genetics of Chicken Colours
https://www.chickencolours.com/index.php/genetics-of-chicken-colours/
The author offers an incredible amount of details and takes an analytical, scientific approach, while always prepared to think out of the box.

Much broader and sweeping in approach is
Genetics of the Chicken Extremes by the same author.
https://www.chickencolours.com/index.php/genetics-of-chicken-extremes-book/

 

[RememberTheWay]

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[RememberTheWay]

By far the most helpful book on chicken genetics I use would be
Sigrid van Dort, The Genetics of Chicken Colours
https://www.chickencolours.com/index.php/genetics-of-chicken-colours/
The author offers an incredible amount of details and takes an analytical, scientific approach, while always prepared to think out of the box.

Much broader and sweeping in approach is
Genetics of the Chicken Extremes by the same author.
https://www.chickencolours.com/index.php/genetics-of-chicken-extremes-book/

Are these books easy to understand for a beginner? I understand some foundational things but not everything and I am by no means an intermediate or advanced

 

[RememberTheWay]

Bantams and small poultry is a great book for beginners and the experienced at breeding bantams to the SOP and making your own bantams.

Also I'm specifically looking for an understanding on how the different colors and patterns work together in real life situations. Would love lots of photographs in a book as well. I'm very visual