Delawares from kathyinmo

[LeslieDJoyce]

I donate a trio of Delawares to a youth poultry event yesterday. This is one of the pullets ... the best bird in the trio. The idea is to work with the kid who won the birds to help improve the line. She really wanted to get started with some pastured meat birds, which is great. I promised to hook her up with a better birds as they become available. The male I had set aside for her ... had a nice body and great wings ... developed a Turkey Tail, which was interesting but would have been a poor choice as a breeder.

I'm really hoping she stays in touch and doesn't get discouraged when these project birds don't grow as fast as the Cornish Cross she tried but didn't enjoy working with.

 

[caychris]

I was talking with Neal today and I think one of the things that poultry breeding suffers from is the narrowing of the male genetics over time because many of us do not have the resources to keep several males and groups of hens.

Im wondering how the line breeding can be altered a bit to include more males to decrease the effects of inbreeding and still develop the key characteristics.

 

[finnfur]

You could do that with just pairs but it would
Be more expensive . The Hen can only pass her genes on one egg at a time while the Cock can spread his multiple times daily.

 

[1zooman12]

My Good Man, Chris,
Had you asked me directly about how to accomplish your goal of reducing the effect of high inbreeding coefficient in our birds I would have been glad to tell you the best that I know about this problem. I did tell you that this phenomenon is the scourge of the livestock industry as exemplified by the dairy farmers all wanting to have their cows bred (mostly by artificial insemination) to the better bulls thus reducing the sources of breeding sires. Yes, this is a series problem now and it is not unique to our friends in the dairy industry. There is a way to do it in our poultry world and thank heaven chickens, at least, tend to suffer less from the phenomenon than many other farm breeds. So maybe we should get a panel of like minded people together to go over a good solution. It will require various seriously minded folks to maintain a breed breeding registry among ourselves. Anybody interested?
Neal, the Zooman (and geneticist)

 

[shorttimer]

I think this a great idea. When I become better equipped to do justice to a breeding program I would definitely want to be involved. Would we do this on this thread or on another?

 

[tobystevensonjr]

I'm new here and joined to find a good line of Dels. I have been reading pages of this thread for hours and my eyes hurt. Could it be to much to ask if anyone could give me a connection to anyone that I can get Del roos and hens from. I have been raising Cornish cross and want to get away from them. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[caychris]

I'm new here and joined to find a good line of Dels. I have been reading pages of this thread for hours and my eyes hurt. Could it be to much to ask if anyone could give me a connection to anyone that I can get Del roos and hens from. I have been raising Cornish cross and want to get away from them. Any help would be appreciated.

You might try the Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheDelawareClubofAmerica/

I think it would be nice if we did have a listing of breeders of Kathy's birds. I know there a a number scattered across the country.

 

[1zooman12]

Hello All,
Listen to Finnfur, she knows what she is talking about. The goal of reducing inbreeding coefficients is doable with a stable of a few males.
Neal, the Zooman

 

[finnfur]

Hello All,
Listen to Finnfur, she knows what she is talking about. The goal of reducing inbreeding coefficients is doable with a stable of a few males.
Neal, the Zooman

Neal
JFYI I haven't taken the Bruce Jenner journey and at last check I fit the male category but thanks for the thumbs up

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I've got two breeding males of this line, one for each generation. Sire and son. I only started last year, with a trio.

There aren't a lot of these birds running around yet. Maybe people working with more established breeds can toy with the idea of bringing in fresh genetics without losing quality and introducing a lot of nasty surprises to the line. But we don't have a ton of extra birds with this line of Delawares, so I don't see a big benefit in worrying over this issue until it is somehow relevant.

Until then, we either work on moving this line forward the best we can using what we've got, or we essentially start over by using birds from other lines.

Certainly trying to share the best quality trios possible with other interested breeders would be cool ... does anyone really have much extra quality to spread around? Once you let go of good birds ... it's a risk.

The info of who started with the F4s from this line is lost. I only know from participation in this thread who has some now, and hope those that do have some will focus on keeping them "pure" and breed toward the SOP.