Chicken Breed Focus - Maline

[Our Roost]

Darned you! I'm jealous! We need some of that blood over here to share. The law and expense puts a big damper on that.

 

[3riverschick]

3 ways to start a breeding program with a small gene pool.
Hi,
There is a way to start a breeding program with just 2 birds. Eric Rivard over in Canada wrote it up when he had Preservation Genetique back several years ago. As I remember the article was shared among the Euskal Oilia ( Basque hen) crowd as they were initially dealing with a very small gene pool. Might ask Skyline Poultry ( website, USA) or The lady with the Lavender Farm in Canada from whom Skyline got his Basque hens. It's an interesting article for anyone dealing with a critically small gene pool. Eric was the one who brought the Basque hens to North America.
The there is also the classic plan from APA poultry Judge and renowned breeder W.H. Card who wrote this wonderful pithy little book back in the day. he explains it with a diagram. Only need two unrelated ( or mostly unrelated birds).
Laws governing the breeding of standard fowls. c.1
by Card, Wetherell Henry.
Published 1912
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.087299559;view=1up;seq=5
Btw, this digital library is full of wonderful poultry lit on a wide variety of subjects. One of my fav places.
Now another thing you can do is take birds from the same flock and strain. Place them with breeders at least 500 miles apart. In 5-6 years, the differences in climate, management, and personal breeding decisions by the 2 different owners will have produced flocks that differ enough that, tho they are truly from the same flock and strain, breeding them together is actually a linebreeding. Not inbreeding. Veteran poultry people here in the USA have practiced this for years. Maintaining their flocks and swapping some birds back and forth every 5-6 years.
Best,
Karen

 

[Our Roost]

Some very good points you have made. Not impossible but difficult without numbers and unrelated birds. Line breeding is a long process that requires patience and time. One has to understand that the stock for these birds came from only one source. Some were related and some were not. The breeding plan for these birds is very critical to its quality of survival.

 

[StephWind]

All of my Malines come from GFF, but I was told that a barred Cochin was an acceptable out-cross for some genetic diversity...? I plan on tagging all of my keeper birds and crossing 1 male per 5 females in groups, and then making the offspring that are kept for crossing back on a different group.

 

[Our Roost]

Although inbreeding concerns without using unrelated fresh blood stock is a problem, you can surely stretch out the longevity of what you have for quite some time before issues may arise. There are some standards related to proper breeding that we should all follow as a common practice. Professional breeders and hatcheries follow this as a common practice. Sounds like you have done a little investigation on this but need to focus on selecting the best of the best to use for breeding. Might sound funny, but eyeball your best birds for qualities using the standards of perfection related to the breed. Cull the ones that dont meet your findings to make your next generation of birds offspring a step closer to what they were created to be.
These birds were utility bred using several parent breeds such as the Cochin, Brahma, Flemish cuckoo, Langshans and a number of unknowns based on what little history is available. I have crossed my malines with large fowl cochins and now have chicks from that crossing. Not all came out the barred herrigbone and some have color! I will definitely keep you posted as they progress to see what emerges!

 

[amymboxer]

Well my pet maline is turning out to be a favorite of mine. She is very sweet natured since the mixed flock I have are pretty much pets with perks . She is not a fast moving bird and just recently figured out how to go up the coop ramp. I have to watch that my couple of sexlink gals don't pick on her. The 3 sexlinks, though friendly with me have more of a tendency to pick on the others that are a few weeks younger like my maline pullet who is growing quite slow. They might be finding a new home in the near future. The gal I got my maline from uses the males as a meat bird and the gals as jumbo layers.

 

[Our Roost]

She may be getting pecked on now but surely wont when she grows more. These gals hold their own very well. If you can, match her up with a nice roo and mate her.

 

[amymboxer]

I would love to get rooster but I really just have a large yard and nearby neighbors...though their dog is much worse and there are roosters nearby so I do toy with the idea of keeping a speciality rooster. She was from the first set of Malines offered by Greenfire farms to my local breeder that does alot of speciality breeds and where most of birds are from, shouldn't I get a rooster from a seperate breeder for inbreeding issues?

 

[chicken2525]

I have heard that the Maline can be sexed at hatched...but Greenfire Farms even says that they have not had luck with it. Wouldn't it be fairly easy if the Roos have double bare genes? Does anyone have luck sexing their day old Malines? Has anyone had luck only breeding those that are easily distinguished at hatch to make a more easily sexed bird in future generations. Any help would be appreciated as I am hatching some of these soon. Would like to know ahead of time so I can attempt to sex them at hatch,.

 

[amymboxer]

The gal I got mine from I would say about 90% you can tell at hatch. The boys are lighter. And the girls dark. Occasionally a questionable bird pops up. Even so by a couple weeks old it is pretty obvious by the feathering coming in from what I have seen by her birds.