Breeding for PERSONALITY. AKA Hello SWEET ROO!

[enola]

Now, i am experimenting with Cream Legbars. My biggest problems so far??? First, both roosters I have had were both mean as snakes. Second problem, i can't any of my Cream Legbar eggs to hatch! So I am looking for a mature Cream Legbar to use for this hatching season.

 

[Pyxis]

Now, i am experimenting with Cream Legbars. My biggest problems so far??? First, both roosters I have had were both mean as snakes. Second problem, i can't any of my Cream Legbar eggs to hatch! So I am looking for a mature Cream Legbar to use for this hatching season.

My cream legbars are all still juveniles, but so far so good! I think some strains of cream legbar have become too inbred, like what happened to the isbars. I've been seeing a ton of people having problems getting their eggs to hatch.

 

[enola]

I am looking for another rooster, preferably one of the more colorful ones that is 2+ years old. The first rooster I had was aggressive by the time he was 8 months old. He made a great pot of soup!

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

I am loving this thread!!!
@lazy gardener VERY well put

@enola It's too bad you are in SC there is a lovely flock of Crested Cream Legbars that a lady here on BYC has been working on for a while now. They are awesome birds, but they are in OK

I can definitely see where choosing the hens just as carefully as the roos can make the generations get to where you want them quicker. I free range my flock so I definitely need a roo for protection, but I will not have one attack my kids even once! I think we have to find the fine line between a roo that is human freindly and one that runs at the sight of conflict. Protective but not Aggressive, Alert but not Nervous, Lovable but not a lap bird!

 

[aart]

I am all for breeding a rooster that is not aggressive. I have been doing my own little experiment with my Araucanas. And I fully agree with those of you who think removing aggressive hens from the flock is one step of the equation. Three years ago I was breeding my Araucana rooster (who I have owned now for 5 years) to a flock of Cuckoo Marans hens. I had a market for the resulting cockerels at the age of 6-8 months of age. I was finding that by 6 months of age some of them were getting aggressive to me. So, the next season I put the 2 hens that were making the flock miserable in a seperate breeding pen, marked their eggs, marked the cockerels when they hatched and raised them out. Sure enough, the cockerels that were hatched from those hens were the nasty ones. So, I no longer keep aggressive hens. I consider it a lesson learned! I personally don't think it takes many generations to reach the goal we will be striving for.

Keeping close and accurate track of pairings, hatching eggs, and chicks is essential....and can be hard to do without adequate facilities to segregate birds.

 

[lazy gardener]

I agree with you Aart. My dilemma is that I don't have much for options there. But, I do have this going in my favor. While it's not the best situation, it assures that at least the rooster line is people friendly... I only have the one rooster. When it comes time to collect hatching eggs for myself, I am thinking about putting all of the gals who don't make the cut in the tractor for a week or so. (or I could use the old coop)

 

[enola]

In my case, the cockerels were sex-linked, so i could mark them when they hatched and all of them grew up in the same grow out pen. But, adding a second breed is going to cause me to build more breeder pens. But you are correct, unless parentage is known, and records are kept, this project is going to take a long time.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Keeping close and accurate track of pairings, hatching eggs, and chicks is essential....and can be hard to do without adequate facilities to segregate birds.

To keep from inbreeding to such a degree that you'll need to carry a .45 caliber automatic pistol, a whip, and a chair with you just to hold off the rooster with when you enter a brood pen to gather eggs, will require you to use a minimum of 9 brood pens each with a different hen, pullet, and or rooster. Then you must keep track of every single chick that you hatch, then mark or wing band it so that you can find his or her parents and grand parents etc. as well as their off springs, uncles, aunts, cousins, 1/2 brothers and sisters and so on in your stud book. Don't forget that you will also need to evaluate each and every hen and rooster for bad personality traits. Good luck because you're going to need it.

If you doubt my words for it then ask Siegfried & Roy, I think that Roy is able to talk now.

aart is dead on. Roy was almost dead.... on stage.

 

[CrazyTalk]

They hyperbole isn't needed, and is just derailing the thread.

The idea that you can't do selective breeding without going to ridiculous lengths is simply wrong.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

... The idea that you can't do selective breeding without going to ridiculous lengths is simply wrong.

Oh you can do all the selective breeding that your heart desires, the question is that if after a lifetime of selective breeding are you any closer to realizing your selective breeding goal than you were when you began breeding selectively?

Furthermore all animals tend to return to the lowest common denominator once the breeder looses the one specific individual that made the breeder famous for a few years. If you are unable to identify and to intensify the good characteristics in your flock they will quickly revert to the mean or average. That means that instead of breeding for a sweet rooster, that you are back to once more culling roosters in the hope of finding another rooster with a rosy outlook on life.