confirming breed and blood lines

[robin416]

If you choose to continue with the same line you could begin to see things fairly rapidly. You obviously established a relationship with the person you got your birds from, now ask that person who else they trust.

And as you already know, there are no guarantees. You can not "see" or "touch" what might be the genetic makeup of the birds, even the ones you now possess. You could begin to see defects with the first breeding or not see any problems for years. Its all in how diverse the gene pool was in the original breeder's flock. If you asked, that person would tell you they began with a diverse gene pool and worked with that to get to where they are now.

 

[onthespot]

I would say stick with what you have unless you run into a problem. It is always easy to outcross later, than it is go back and get your flock pure after you have outcrossed.

 

[NYREDS]

The best way to screw up a breeding program is to indiscriminately mix two strains. If you are satisfied with the birds you have as a starting point [and from your pictures they look good to me] line breed from them & cull mercilessly.
The breeding plan you propose is fine but be aware that breeding fathers to daughters & sons to mothers is a perfectly acceptable breeding practice. There's no reason to avoid it.
I will use my own experience as an example: I have line bred a flock of Rhode Island Red Bantams for 25 years w/o adding "new blood". My females still lay well, my males have good fertility & I hatch over 90% of the eggs I set. More importantly, for me, the birds still show competitively & are regarded by some as one of the best lines in the country.
As to documenting that the strain is what it was claimed to be the question is irrelevant. Once you have set up your own breeding pens the strain becomes yours as the original owner may well have mated the birds differently.

 

[muddstopper]

I feel that if I do bring in another roo, it would have to be of exceptional quality and of breeding age. I would want to see the whole parent flock as well. A quality flock should produce quality offspring and even a poor flock can turn out a good looking bird every once in a while. A flock of all good looking birds should lessen the chance of picking up hidden undesireable traits. No way would I want to grow out chicks hopeing for that one quality bird from the group.

Culling for me is not a problem. I sent 19 brothers of these birds to the butcher just a few wks ago. I also am planning the hatching about 200 chicks in the next few months with the goal of keeping just 24 pullets, which is about all the current coop capacity I have right now. Altho, plans are in the works for more pens. Learning how to cull properly might be my biggest headache as I am still learning what to look for. I could have sent some potential show winning roos to the butcher block last month, but i kept what I liked and sent the rest to freezer camp.