breeding birds for my program

[aSoftsilkie]

hello! I am a certified black silkie breeder. this I my third year in silkies and I'm kind of struggling to sustain my program. I am currently line breeding, and I'm having difficulties keeping track of generations and keeping the line pure without any inbreeding (line breeding always has its flaws) I need tips, suggestions, to how to improve my flock of silkies. I will take any advice you awesome BYC people give me. thank you!

 

[gtaus]

I'm just signing on to your thread to read what others have to say. I'd like to get into breeding birds someday, and questions like yours are interesting to me.

 

[BlueBaby]

Couldn't you add some good new black one's to freshen up your line's?

 

[Fairview01]

This book will help tremendously. It will show you that in and line breeding are very powerful tools when it is used not just to set positive traits and eliminate undesirable negative recessive traits. When the undesirable negative charateristics show up and eliminated with the proper selective pressure and not masked with a premature outcross

, the default option is they can only be replaced with positive desirable ones. Available from the American Bantam Association on line store.

Hatch a lot, cull a lot, save very few. Cull 90% of your chicks before they come out of the brooder by learning how to identify those characteristics that do not support the SOP. A chick with poor type will never outgrow those poor characteristics no matter how long they are fed. Invest your time, space and feed on those birds that show promise.

Create a closed family by using 3 of your best males with you 4 best females. Select the best 4 pullets and 3 best cockerels from the offspring. Any offspring better than the previous year's breeding stock replaces them. It's not exactly a true form of in or line breeding however this will maintain enough genetic variability to keep a closed family.

Breed the best to the best. Dont worry about what relationship exists. Always breed best to best.

 

[aSoftsilkie]

This book will help tremendously. It will show you that in and line breeding are very powerful tools when it is used not just to set positive traits and eliminate undesirable negative recessive traits. When the undesirable negative charateristics show up and eliminated with the proper selective pressure and not masked with a premature outcrossView attachment 1959874 , the default option is they can only be replaced with positive desirable ones. Available from the American Bantam Association on line store.

Hatch a lot, cull a lot, save very few. Cull 90% of your chicks before they come out of the brooder by learning how to identify those characteristics that do not support the SOP. A chick with poor type will never outgrow those poor characteristics no matter how long they are fed. Invest your time, space and feed on those birds that show promise.

Create a closed family by using 3 of your best males with you 4 best females. Select the best 4 pullets and 3 best cockerels from the offspring. Any offspring better than the previous year's breeding stock replaces them. It's not exactly a true form of in or line breeding however this will maintain enough genetic variability to keep a closed family.

Breed the best to the best. Dont worry about what relationship exists. Always breed best to best.

thank you so much! I have been using the line breeding tactic(I know its not a true form of breeding), to what I should propose about this confusion of keeping track and understanding line breeding? is their an easier way to understand this? thank you again!( this picture is a good representation of how I am breeding my birds recently. if I need to make any changes don't bother to call me out)

 

[aSoftsilkie]

Couldn't you add some good new black one's to freshen up your line's?

I do but I cant keep track very well with all my birds even though they are all a registered flock, keeping a close up record, and keeping leg bands to were they go and what line they are from. but if you have any other suggestions to how to keep these organized talk away! I'm open to whatever you have!

 

[BlueBaby]

Good luck with your black silkie project.

 

[Fairview01]

thank you so much! I have been using the line breeding tactic(I know its not a true form of breeding), to what I should propose about this confusion of keeping track and understanding line breeding? is their an easier way to understand this? thank you again!( this picture is a good representation of how I am breeding my birds recently. if I need to make any changes don't bother to call me out)View attachment 1959888

Wow, that is way more than I would be willing to keep track of. If i had to.do that I'd no longer show birds.

Before breeding season i cull down to no more than a combined 3 cockerels/roosters and 4 pullets/hens. This year i hatched 400 eggs, culled 350 before they came out of the brooder, grew 50 out and put 36 of those in the freezer. Only 3.5% of what i hatched made it to show string age.

I don't care who came from who when it comes to making the final cull. Only the best are set aside and then those offspring are compared to the beeding stock. Only the best is kept from the combined new and old group and that becomes the current years breeding stock. Your plan intensifies and depends on the qualities of one bird. If that keystone bird has weaknesses it appears that those wraknesses will be intensified rather than eliminated. It appears breeding down becomes a liability.

This year i had a lot of sickle hocked birds. It didnt matter how good of type they had sickle hock is a negative recessive trait and any displaying it were culled. I'll always sacrifice a superior type bird with a negative recessive trait and favor one without it even if ot has slightly less type.

 

[Fairview01]

I do but I cant keep track very well with all my birds even though they are all a registered flock, keeping a close up record, and keeping leg bands to were they go and what line they are from. but if you have any other suggestions to how to keep these organized talk away! I'm open to whatever you have!

Will an unregistered silkie with superior type sell for more, win more and give you a better reputation as a silkie breeder or would a perfectly tracked and registered silkie with less type give you those benefits?

When rubber meets the road its the bird that counts in the show ring not the paper it's standing on.

 

[Cyprus]

The quality of your birds are so far very, very nice. So much so that I'd like to get a contact from you for future reference.

With line breeding, it is advised to bring in new males from previous generations every 4 or 5 generations. Line breeding is the best way to lock in desired traits, but it is also the best to expose unwanted characteristics and hidden recessive diseases. For this reason, pedigrees need to be kept and close attention to who mates with who should be taken.