Chicken Breeding Template

[MrsChicky55]

Does anyone have a chicken breeding template that they like? I found one I REALLY like but it's not cheap.

http://standalone.zooeasy.com/en/pedigree-software/breeding-poultry/breeders/features.html

This is my first year with chickens, thought maybe there was a less expensive or preferably free route to document the necessary data for now at least. If anyone has one they'd like to share I'd really appreciate it!

 

[tastyacres]

Following.....

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Determine what characteristics you want and you expect in your fowl

Start with 9 pairs each in its own separate brood pen. Every year move three roosters down the row of pens, add 3 new roosters that meet your criteria, and cull the three left over roos. Or at best keep them as insurance.

Do the same thing with your hen line. Use numbered wing bands to keep up with who is whose momma and daddy. Don't breed sisters and brothers. The one greatest danger is not breeding and raising enough individuals so that you'll have a goodly number of hens and roosters to select from.

 

[MrsChicky55]

Determine what characteristics you want and you expect in your fowl

Start with 9 pairs each in its own separate brood pen. Every year move three roosters down the row of pens, add 3 new roosters that meet your criteria, and cull the three left over roos. Or at best keep them as insurance.

Do the same thing with your hen line. Use numbered wing bands to keep up with who is whose momma and daddy. Don't breed sisters and brothers. The one greatest danger is not breeding and raising enough individuals so that you'll have a goodly number of hens and roosters to select from.

Thanks for the breeding plan, much appreciated! Any chance anyone has a document template they record their breeding on too? I'd like to record genetic traits from breeding pairs in order to identify what genes they might have and pass on in order to make the best pairings for traits I'm looking to improve. Things like that.

 

[FreedomFarm13]

Following!

Sorry I can't help

 

[Fairview01]

Search spiral breeding. It's very easy as mentioned previously. Ideally one pair will be an outside bloodline to the other 2. I'm not sure of the need for 9 pairs. I do mine with just 3 pens. Spiral breeding when done correctly allows a flock to be bred internally for a decade or more without inbreeding suppression.

I disagree on brother and sister matings. Some of the best winning livestock are produced from brother sister mating when done with due diligence.

 

[MrsChicky55]

This

Search spiral breeding. It's very easy as mentioned previously. Ideally one pair will be an outside bloodline to the other 2. I'm not sure of the need for 9 pairs. I do mine with just 3 pens. Spiral breeding when done correctly allows a flock to be bred internally for a decade or more without inbreeding suppression.

I disagree on brother and sister matings. Some of the best winning livestock are produced from brother sister mating when done with due diligence.

This spiral breeding does sound very simple and easy to do. I like that idea and will probably use it for my egg layers. But what I’d really like to do is a project focusing on determining the genetic phenotypes vs genotypes of birds to determine the best trios. Looking to breed to show and teach my daughters about genetics. I’d really like a nice spreadsheet to document info from hatches to help with the learning process.

I’m hoping to do this project with Silkies. I have 18 silkie eggs on lockdown so fingers crossed I get a good hatch. They were shipped eggs from a breeder and I only have 2 eggs from the same pen out of the whole group, so I should have some genetic diversity to start.

 

[Fairview01]

This


This spiral breeding does sound very simple and easy to do. I like that idea and will probably use it for my egg layers. But what I’d really like to do is a project focusing on determining the genetic phenotypes vs genotypes of birds to determine the best trios. Looking to breed to show and teach my daughters about genetics. I’d really like a nice spreadsheet to document info from hatches to help with the learning process.

I’m hoping to do this project with Silkies. I have 18 silkie eggs on lockdown so fingers crossed I get a good hatch. They were shipped eggs from a breeder and I only have 2 eggs from the same pen out of the whole group, so I should have some genetic diversity to start.

As soon as those two eggs hatch I would be sure to immediately snatch those chicks and toe punch them.

Phenotype versus genotype is where it gets interesting. I don't know anything about silkies. I started raising heritage Cornish this year and the more I learn about their genetics the more confused I seem to be. A white Cornish can have 3 different genotypes - WW, Ww or ww . A WW Cornish bred to a Dark cornish and the resulting chicks will all be white with the dominant white will covering the dark gene. A ww bred to a dark cornish will produce all dark offspring but those offspring if bred to each other could result in a hatch mixed with dark and white chicks. -- I think I got that right.

Everything that that program does I do with different colored zip ties, a #2 lead and big chief tablet. I use a razor blade to make a cut in webbing between the toes; the location depends on which pen they came out of. When they become juevenilles and begin to show promise I'll zip tie the leg corresponding to their foot the color is coded to the year they hatched. This way I can grow out the whole lot of them in one pen without losing track of who's who and not eating one that I may want to use as a future breeder. Imo part of this learning project should involve keeping accurate and detailed breeding records, not fill in the blank when prompted by the computer.

 

[LDFchicksnducks]

Does anyone have a chicken breeding template that they like? I found one I REALLY like but it's not cheap.

http://standalone.zooeasy.com/en/pedigree-software/breeding-poultry/breeders/features.html

This is my first year with chickens, thought maybe there was a less expensive or preferably free route to document the necessary data for now at least. If anyone has one they'd like to share I'd really appreciate it!

Wow, after looking over all that info, I expected a much higher price than $52. Yes, that's not cheap, but seems pretty fair to me, for someone that wants to have some serious recordkeeping.
Am i correct, it's only a flat $52?

 

[Rancher3535]

Does anyone have a chicken breeding template that they like? I found one I REALLY like but it's not cheap.

http://standalone.zooeasy.com/en/pedigree-software/breeding-poultry/breeders/features.html

This is my first year with chickens, thought maybe there was a less expensive or preferably free route to document the necessary data for now at least. If anyone has one they'd like to share I'd really appreciate it!