I don't know if I shared what Foley told me or not. I am going to share what I know. I am not a long time breeder so if anyone has anything else to add please do. He told me lots of thing, most I can't remember. But if you have a question, I might remember some nugget of info he gave me.
First, to keep the shafting down you have to use the DARKEST Red birds you have. The darker the red the less shafting. If you use birds with any GOLD, BRASSYNESS.... you will only cause more feather shafting down the road.
You always have to breed for type, but I don't think you should be breeding for type with a bird that will ultimately bring you birds down. As with any breed you have to cull hard to improve your flock. I know sometime it is hard. For example.... you got hatching eggs from So and So and they had Foley birds. But you chicks are not really up to snuff. The reason is because the breeder with Foley birds bought chicks from him and didn't cull, neither did Foley.... they were Foley birds and they wanted to keep them all. Even Foley culls his birds and OFTEN. When you buy birds from a breeder, you are getting culls... think about it, they are not going to sell their best birds, especially if they have been grown out some. They picked the best birds and sold the rest.
What I am trying to say is we need to CULL and CULL hard to improve this color. It may take years to get to where Name Brand breeders are, but we are not going to get their breeding mediocre birds. Breeders only breed with about 10% of what they hatch and I would really thing that is a high number. (so if you hatch 10 chicks only 1 will be a breeder) You need to make sure you are using the BEST roo you can find too. They are passing their genes off to 100% of the chicks. I think good hens with GREAT roos will get you further than an OK roo and great hens. Only breed your BEST and you will move forward. If we do that the chicks will improve every year and you will see HUGE progress in a short period of time.
One more thing, breeding brother and sister will exaggerate the problems. You need to use closely related birds but not brother and sister. I know there are times when you think you need to but make sure your birds are really good birds, because the flaws will get bigger and more pronounced in the chicks and you have gotten no where. As a breeder I try to always have more than one line of birds. I like to have two lines to breed and I try to always include eggs from each pen.
I want to clarify too, this is not directed at anyone and is just some general breeding info we can all useIf anyone else has some words of wisdom, please share. These are BEAUTIFUL birds and any breeding wisdom can only help everyone on this thread that wants to learn.
I am rambling now..... I hate to read long posts......
Great post!
