Endangered breeds

[heritagebirds]

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I whole heartedly agree wit you.

I have my EE's for my eating eggs and even though they are not a heritage breed I have chosen BC Marans as the breed I want to help improve. I plan to breed aggressively and cull heavily for standard and egg color. My only hope is that in some small way I may be a help to get BC's accepted by the APA. They are a beautiful breed but they need lots of help. I'm hoping that by this time next year I will have my base flock of at least 27 hens and 3 roos. Then the fun really begins!

Unfortunately I only ended up with one pair of Javas from a hatch last year, and they are a breeding pair who will be producing chicks this year. Some birds are very hard to find, so you start your breeding program with what you have. I'm sure that most of the big breeders started small. If there are still specimens, a breed can be rebuilt, and then bred to standard. The awesome thing about an forum like this is that you can get in contact with people who have the breed you want, or know someone who does. Not all birds hatched out of any flocks eggs are going to be to standard, we also need to preserve the genetic diversity. All contribute, even a little.

 

[hcammack]

I am hopeing that what I am doing will work with my bantam faverolles. I am keeping three pens of hens. Some from the hattrick line in one pen. Oxley pullet in one pen, Bourlanger hens in 3rd pen. Then I rotate my Oxley cockeral, hatrick rooster, and ComerXBourlanger cockeral between all three pens keeping track of what I am hatching. I plan on having chicks from all three pens covered by all three cockerals. I am also have eggs from two or three other breeder that I plan on hatching to add to the gene pool. They will be toe punched so I can tell what crossed I want to do. Then they will all be thrown in together for a while after this probably through the fall and winter.

Henry

 

[heritagebirds]

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Wow Henry,
Very nice, you need a bigger place now, no?

 

[hcammack]

Quote:
Wow Henry,
Very nice, you need a bigger place now, no?

Very much

I need to build one more chicken tractor or divide my coop don't tell my parents

 

[Oopoo]

Okay, so I went about asking questions and got nothing but heartache. There is (according to hatchery people with heritage birds) no such thing as a pure blood line chicken. You can't have any kind of traceable lineage on them, blah blah blah. So what's the point of keeping an endangered bird if it's already bred out of its genetics? The best we can do is get a breeding set or two and cross and cull to get close to the standards, but that doesn't mean that the genetic line is intact. And if that's true there would be no way of re-creating said birds because the lines of birds that they were created from don't exist either. aaargh

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Quote:
What you do is you study the history of the breed, find out what went into making it in the first place and go from there. You can purchase stock, be it hatchery or breeder, then outcross to one of the foundation breeds for a generation and breed back pure again, always selecting for the breed standard. Eventually you'll get there.

 

[josh44]

I have Black Penedesenca & Gold Laced Polish Bantams,
They are pretty hard to come across.

 

[FlashPointFarm]

I'd love to get some Speckled Sussex from a breeder. The best quality I can get my hands on. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

I believe RAREROO on here breeds them, you may want to check with him?

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Just looked to see, yep, First one on his list