Genetic related wry tail? Or just previous environment?

[SourRoses]

How are they looking?

 

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

How are they looking?

I actually meant to update y'all a few days ago! Their tails are way more straight and the hen especially is keeping it far more streamline with her body! Although around 40ish percent of the time the male keeps his facing the same angle the hen only occasionally does it and sometimes it's in different directions so idk. Maybe all they needed was time!

 

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

This hen is unusually friendly for a "flighty" breed lol! She may not like being touched, but she loves walking straight up to my camera, and she even started pecking my hand when I wasn't looking at her

But what do y'all think? Is wry tail still a concern? She let me take some wonderful photos yesterday without getting too spooked

Those photos show what she's like roughly 90% of the time... But the other 10% of the she's still swaying her tail to one side in particular, so idk what to think at this point

I'm looking to replace the rooster, perhaps with a sebright. Although I would like to have a flock of phoenix, finding a good rooster seems like finding a needle in a haystack. I just don't trust using him as my 1 breeder male, I feel like if I use a rooster in breeding he needs to be 110% perfect since he's gathering all the offspring. But idk, what do y'all do? What would y'all do in my shoes? I need advice on this

 

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

I feel paranoid now... Like every bird I have might be a varying degree of wry tail, I feel like I'm loosing my mind

 

[Amer]

This hen is unusually friendly for a "flighty" breed lol! She may not like being touched, but she loves walking straight up to my camera, and she even started pecking my hand when I wasn't looking at herView attachment 4284799
But what do y'all think? Is wry tail still a concern? She let me take some wonderful photos yesterday without getting too spookedView attachment 4284806View attachment 4284808View attachment 4284809View attachment 4284810View attachment 4284813
Those photos show what she's like roughly 90% of the time... But the other 10% of the she's still swaying her tail to one side in particular, so idk what to think at this point
View attachment 4284816
I'm looking to replace the rooster, perhaps with a sebright. Although I would like to have a flock of phoenix, finding a good rooster seems like finding a needle in a haystack. I just don't trust using him as my 1 breeder male, I feel like if I use a rooster in breeding he needs to be 110% perfect since he's gathering all the offspring. But idk, what do y'all do? What would y'all do in my shoes? I need advice on this

She's very cute!
I think it's very probable that that line has a genetic predisposal for wry tail considering both birds had it.

 

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

She's very cute!

She is! I wanna keep her so badly!

I think it's very probable that that line has a genetic predisposal for wry tail considering both birds had it.

I was wondering if they might've been the case. I might try putting her with my phoenix since I can't put her with any other flocks. My other roosters ate too big and aggressive for such a delicate little bird. Anyway I could test her for anything she could transmit to my pheasants?

 

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

I wonder if I could just breed it out

 

[NatJ]

I feel like if I use a rooster in breeding he needs to be 110% perfect since he's gathering all the offspring. But idk, what do y'all do?

How many hens would you be breeding with the rooster?

If you use one hen and one rooster, each parent contributes 50% of the genes for the whole batch of chicks. In that case, the rooster should probably be as good as the hen, but I don't see a reason why he would need to be much better. Of course you want to avoid situations with hen and rooster having the same flaws as each other, because then you are much more likely to end up with chicks that have those same flaws.

If you use ten hens and one rooster, the rooster gives 50% of the genes for the whole batch of chicks, while each hen gives only 5% of the genes for the whole batch of chicks (each hen produces 1/10th of the chicks, ang gives 50% of the genes for each of those chicks.) In this case, it makes much more sense to focus strongly on the rooster. You still want the hens to be good, but the rooster has a much bigger influence than any single hen.

 

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

How many hens would you be breeding with the rooster?

If you use one hen and one rooster, each parent contributes 50% of the genes for the whole batch of chicks. In that case, the rooster should probably be as good as the hen, but I don't see a reason why he would need to be much better. Of course you want to avoid situations with hen and rooster having the same flaws as each other, because then you are much more likely to end up with chicks that have those same flaws.

If you use ten hens and one rooster, the rooster gives 50% of the genes for the whole batch of chicks, while each hen gives only 5% of the genes for the whole batch of chicks (each hen produces 1/10th of the chicks, ang gives 50% of the genes for each of those chicks.) In this case, it makes much more sense to focus strongly on the rooster. You still want the hens to be good, but the rooster has a much bigger influence than any single hen.

Exactly, I'm trying to develop a good flock of phoenix with one breeding rooster. Only problem is that phoenix are hard to find in my area so good birds are few and far between. Which is also why the phoenix I do have available have issues such as wry tail, non single combs, wrong leg colors, ect ect. The one really nice hen I have is from a guy who got his line imported from Germany a few years ago and his line is nice but inbred to a degree.

These two with wry tail are from a friend who kinda just collects stuff and hatched without tons of care. Irresponsible breeding imo, but I don't ever make a big deal about how he breeds his own birds. I got them for free and due to their temperaments I'm quite happy, but I'm the long-run idk if I'm gonna breed them.

That hen is super sweet, but perhaps it's just not worth the risk to breed her. However hens are rare, and good roosters are even more so.

What you said was really informative though so I guess as long as I find a really good rooster and a couple good hens to up my numbers I can weed out bad birds in future generations

 

[Amer]

I just have the philosophy not to start with birds with defects because that goes against genetic improvement for chickens but it's definitely possible. It's just very hard to get rid of recessive defects and they can haunt you far down the line.