breeding birds for my program

[ColtHandorf]

So much so that I'd like to get a contact from you for future reference.

*gasp* Have you gone to the dark side? lol

 

[Chicks 'n ducks]

Inbreeding and linebreeding are powerful tools and it's how many breeders have achieved there great lines. Keeping your line close and related will help to get your line consistent so you hatch chicks with solid, consistent type and color, however color isn't as much of an issue with blacks. The linebreeding chart you posted is a good place to start but only if you have birds with fantastic type and hardly any faults to begin with. The whole point of linebreeding is to lock in good traits but can also perpetuate genetic faults if you don't cull ruthlessly. I have also heard that you should introduce new blood after 3 or 4 generations of linebreeding like crossing sire to daughter/ dam to son, grandson, etc., but the new bloodline should be genetically compatible with your line because if not you will end up with some interesting chicks. excessive inbreeding (and linebreeding is a form of inbreeding) will end in loss of fertility and most embryos won't make it to term, but you won't end up with a bunch of franken-chicks. One possible thing you could do is this:

Cock A (Excellent type) to Hen B (Excellent type and balances cock)
Take the very best hen and cock from this mating and mate the hen to her sire and cock to his dam. Hatch lots of eggs from these matings and select the very best pair to breed together. From that breeding you could take the pullets back to their grandsire (Cock A) or cocks to their granddam (Cock B) After that I would introduce new blood to keep your flock vigorous. By now you will have locked in many traits and hopefully weeded out several flaws if you culled enough.

 

[aSoftsilkie]

Inbreeding and linebreeding are powerful tools and it's how many breeders have achieved there great lines. Keeping your line close and related will help to get your line consistent so you hatch chicks with solid, consistent type and color, however color isn't as much of an issue with blacks. The linebreeding chart you posted is a good place to start but only if you have birds with fantastic type and hardly any faults to begin with. The whole point of linebreeding is to lock in good traits but can also perpetuate genetic faults if you don't cull ruthlessly. I have also heard that you should introduce new blood after 3 or 4 generations of linebreeding like crossing sire to daughter/ dam to son, grandson, etc., but the new bloodline should be genetically compatible with your line because if not you will end up with some interesting chicks. excessive inbreeding (and linebreeding is a form of inbreeding) will end in loss of fertility and most embryos won't make it to term, but you won't end up with a bunch of franken-chicks. One possible thing you could do is this:

Cock A (Excellent type) to Hen B (Excellent type and balances cock)
Take the very best hen and cock from this mating and mate the hen to her sire and cock to his dam. Hatch lots of eggs from these matings and select the very best pair to breed together. From that breeding you could take the pullets back to their grandsire (Cock A) or cocks to their granddam (Cock B) After that I would introduce new blood to keep your flock vigorous. By now you will have locked in many traits and hopefully weeded out several flaws if you culled enough.

thank you so much for this inciteful information! I'm actually restarting my line after I read the page because a little while ago a false genetic entered my flock of blacks turning all the chicks blue (which saying blue is more of a dominant gene. I never received blacks I was looking for) so now I'm contacting a lady in Indiana for some chicks ,and one in new York for the lines I am needing. I am trying to understand a little to more how linebreeding works and especially how to understand this form of breeding. are there any tips to line breeding and how you successfully begin your line of birds?

 

[Chicks 'n ducks]

Mostly it's just starting with great birds and culling a lot. I believe blue is incomplete dominant, whereas black is complete dominant. For example you won't get all blue chicks when crossing two blues together, you will get 50% blue, 25% black, 25% splash. Many breeders keep BBS pens so your black birds are most likely blue split. You probably had the blue gene hidden in your flock but didn't know it until you bought blue splits. If you are set on an all black flock you will have to buy birds from a breeder who keeps a pure black pen, not BBS. Other wise you will be seeing more blues in the future. Basically all linebreeding is is breeding offspring to parent/grand/great grand parent, as well as uncles, aunts, and sometimes siblings, although that is just inbreeding, which can be helpful and done safely for a 1 or 2 generations. Here is another way of doing line breeding:

 

[aSoftsilkie]

ok thank you! would you recommend 4 or 3 lines at the beginning?

 

[Chicks 'n ducks]

By lines do you mean groups of birds from different breeders? Is so you could start with as few as one line. That is what I plan to do with my rabbits.

 

[aSoftsilkie]

the one line would be related. I understand that you could breed the related birds but you could only go so far. wait can you line breed with highly related birds with the absence of another??

 

[Chicks 'n ducks]

you can line breed with the genetics from one breeder (a line) that are related but after 3 or 4 generations you will need new genetics added to the flock so they stay healthy. But you might want to introduce new genetics before that if say, your birds have poor foot feathering and you want to fix that.