"classic Method" of creating your own strain

[ksf59]

Quote:
no technicaly you do not. You are making the chocies about breeding, so you now control the line. If I buy by pedigree, which I do, I want to buy from the original breeder, who designed the line and had a plan. You bought a peice of his line. If you bought an f3 of one of his line and an f5 from an unrelated line, you really have to completely differnt gene pools. The orginal breederd may have not intended that these lines be mixed. To many rookies think that the breeder line extend to the new owner. They do not. I own them they are mine. I develope my line from your lines, but becasue I make the choice in how I blened them they become mine. And the orginal ower should not take credit or shame form your success or failure. He conributed to your fate, good or bad, but you made the mating decisions.

 

[smoothmule]

I agree, once you have mated some of your chickens and produced chicks, they are no longer anyones lines but your own, you started that line at that moment. The originals may have come from someone else's lines but nothing you produce will come from anyones lines but your own.

Minister Man,
Where are you that you cannot get chickens? There are hatcheries everywhere that can ship day old chicks most anywhere. What you're describing sounds like many years of work with no guaranteed outcome and I'm not sure you are going to be able to create any sort of heritage chickens that way. Hardiness often comes from outcrosses so you may weaken your lines and affect fertility and laying if you don't get it right then you end up in worse shape than you started. Mixed breeds does not guarantee better birds either. You really have to know your business when you start crossing and line breeding. There are plenty of breeds out there that have been created to do what you're wanting but even then, when you keep your start to just a few birds, sooner or later there are going to be problems.

 

[punky rooster]

Quote:
no technicaly you do not. You are making the chocies about breeding, so you now control the line. If I buy by pedigree, which I do, I want to buy from the original breeder, who designed the line and had a plan. You bought a peice of his line. If you bought an f3 of one of his line and an f5 from an unrelated line, you really have to completely differnt gene pools. The orginal breederd may have not intended that these lines be mixed. To many rookies think that the breeder line extend to the new owner. They do not. I own them they are mine. I develope my line from your lines, but becasue I make the choice in how I blened them they become mine. And the orginal ower should not take credit or shame form your success or failure. He conributed to your fate, good or bad, but you made the mating decisions.

It would be your line of the breeders strain.
Quote:

 

[punky rooster]

http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/issues/6/6-2/breeding_the_home_flock.html Read this. This should answer questions.
Enjoy!

 

[Timmy]

Quote:
That should work fine. Just remember to bring in "fresh blood" when you can to improve upon what you have.

 

[minister man]

I live in New Brunswick Canada. The Closest Purebred hatchery I can find is in ontario. They ship birds by air, but not to New brunswick. So on top of the 200 $ for the flight, I have to drive 4 hours each way to pick them up. Next closest is out west. Again, very expensive air fair. Murray Mc Murray does ship into canada, but they shipp to the post office at the maine. I would have to meet them there and bring them through customs myself. For that I would have to buy a pasport, Drive 3 hours each way, and pay 65$ for the health papers to bring them accross the border. Those seem to be my only options besides back yard people.

I haven't got the trio that I bought yet, I am going to a show a couple of hours from here to get them in May. They are a year old and they are coming out of his breeding pens. I have spoken for the "best male " he has for sale this fall to go with them. I found another flock, that came from his birds that I might be able to get some eggs from not too far from here, so I might pick up a couple of dozen to mix with them.


I know that there are many breeds that will do what I want to do, but I have two problems with most of them. I only egg white eggs. Before you tell me there is no difference, there is. Some Brown egg layers carry a gene that causes a certain grain to make the eggs taste like fish ( don't believe me, Google it). I had a group of barred rocks like that for a while, and tried so hard to eat thier eggs and make it work, while they tasted rotten, that I can't even look at brown eggs. I can even pick out brown eggs on my plate in a restaurant. So that really limits the breeds I can raise. I have standard white leghorns now, but they are not particularly cold hardy. I have a lot of problems with frozen combs, waddles and frost bite. lost several of them last winter when it was -30ish. From what I have read, I understand that hamburgs are a good layer of white eggs. Because they are not single comb birds, they are more cold hardy. They are a small bird, because winter means that I have to have them in insulated coops.

In Some way it would be just so much easier if I didn't want to raise my own birds so badly, but I can't make up my mind to do that either. I have bought every book I can find about conservation breeding, and many others obout poultry and line breeding ( at least 25 ). I don't really want to keep more than 20-25 birds, and there just has to be a way that I can do that. After all the pioneers did it!

When I read about how people on here went to the feed store and there were so many chicks to chose from, it all most makes me jealous! i thought If I expalined myself better, then it would seem Like I was a little less crazy for trying to start with 3 birds. after all, they are almost 60$!


thanks for all the other help, I know there are easier ways to get into chickens, but not that I can find in the situation that I am in.

 

[QualityPolish]

It should work fine

Edited- My spelling is off today xD

 

[minister man]

Punky Rooster, Thanks for the article link. I read it and then i printed it. It would seem from the advice there it would be better for me to leave the trio together and hatch as amny chicks as possible, keep the best few females and a couple of males and use the old males on the pullets and the young males on the hen. From there just follow the rolling mating plan. Is there anyone out there with "rolling mating" plan experience that would advise against using it? Anyone using it that would recommend it? How do you manage your breeders for the rolling matings?

Thanks

 

[minister man]

I sat down this evening to catalouge the books that I have purchased to help with this project. I think that is part of the problem, I have researched so long that I have way to much information goiing through my head.

Heres the Poultry libray list: anything missing that I should have?


Book List


21St Century Poultry Breeding - Grant Brerton
Poultry Breeds and management - David Scrivener
The Mating and Breeding of Poultry – Harry Lamon
Production of 300 Eggers By Linebreeding
Chickens in your Back Yard - Rick and Gail Luttmann
ABC of Poultry Raising - J.H. Florea
Line Breeding for the Pigeon Fancier E.R.B. Chapman
Bantams As Layers J Barnes
The Chicken Health Book Gail Damerow
A Conservation Breeding Guide D. Phillip Sponenberg and Carolyn Christman
How to Raise Chickens Christian Heinrichs
Raising Rare breeds Heritage Breeds Conservation Guide Rare Breeds Canada
Livestock and Poultry Conservation a Producers guide Joywind farms
Start Where You are with what You Have Ralph H. Sturgeon
The Silkie Rod Harris
Game Chickens and How to Breed them Tan Bark
Cocking Science Old Family
Breeding Poultry for Exhibition E Cobb
Fresh Air Poultry Houses Prince T Woods, MD
Practical InBreeding W. Watmough
A Guide To Better Hatching Janet Stromberg
Intensive Line-Breeding M H "Dad" Paget ( about pigeons)


What are your favorite books about poultry?

 

[smoothmule]

I sure feel for you and can tell how much you want to do this. You'll find your own way to get what you're wanting. Have you considered Easter Eggers? They're very hardy, cold hardy too (they have beards and muffs!), very substantially built, small pea combs, non-brown eggs (I have no idea if you would have problems with blue or green eggs). They're colorful, very good foragers. Lots of good things to say about them for a project like yours. They're not a standard breed but definitely hardy and up to line breeding because of the diversity.

You can read till your head explodes but the best way is to just get in there and do it. The only advice I would have would be to start with as many as you can. Chickens have a way of just "dying" sometimes and a trio can rapidly turn into a pair or worse.

Best of luck. I hope you'll continue this thread so we can all learn from your experiences too