How do you know if you have a really great representation of the breed?

[lisaslists2014]

I can buy chickens from the hardware store, or the chicken auction or some people around who breed chickens, but how would I know if I happened to get a really great one? My dogs' breeder is very responsible and only breeds to better the breed and tests for everything possible. I would like to be the same kind of chicken breeder if I go that route. How do I do it?
Lisa

 

[sourland]

You might go to a poultry show, note the breeder winning/placing most with the breed that you are interested in, and obtain some stock from them.

 

[Michael OShay]

You might go to a poultry show, note the breeder winning/placing most with the breed that you are interested in, and obtain some stock from them.

x2, or if you already have a bird you want to know about, show it to someone who is successful in winning poultry shows and ask them for help in determining whether or not it is show quality.

 

[3riverschick]

I can buy chickens from the hardware store, or the chicken auction or some people around who breed chickens, but how would I know if I happened to get a really great one? My dogs' breeder is very responsible and only breeds to better the breed and tests for everything possible. I would like to be the same kind of chicken breeder if I go that route. How do I do it?
Lisa

Hi Lisa and

,
This is such a wide ranging question. I came to poultry from 15 years the dog world where I specialized in breeding systems and strain-crossing. Your chances of finding a high quality bird at the above places is less than finding a champion dog at the pound. Except for the basic general philosophies of gathering virtue in a pedigree, the breeding systems and theories for breeding dogs do not translate into the poultry world. There are at least a couple reasons for this. Poultry have a plethora of sex-linked genes which canines don't have. As a species, poultry have a much wider genetic base than canines. In addition, in poultry Standards, the proper placing of the color patterns on the birds bodies are written into the Standard. Kinda like the Dalmatian dog. Certain feathers have to be a certain color or a combinations of colors, all placed in the right parts of the feathers.
So we have aspects of poultry breeding which laud inbreeding as the best way to set type in a strain. Inbreeding in poultry is a good thing. It is the only way to check color variation so the patterns and colors will breed true in a strain. Correctly done and wisely selected, it succeeds in spite of of the plethora of sex-linked genes and the wide genetic base.
Knowing all this what should we then do? How do we find excellence in poultry. As in other species, all the great ones look alike. It is the sacred union between form and function which makes a great animal. The union which causes a balance and symmetry , resulting in a graceful union of form and function. How does one find this sacred union, this graceful balance in a species with so many chances for genetic variation?
In poultry shape is what makes the breed. Literally, if the bird doesn't look like that breed, it isn't that breed and the APA judges see it that way too. Color ( and sometimes the shape of extremities like comb and ear lobes) makes the variety.

The answer lies in a vintage line-bred winning strain. Vintage: it take times ( sometimes decades) to have a breeding program stabilize a gene pool so that proper breed type and color genes become stable enough to reliably reproduce themselves. Line-Bred: The best way to set type in a strain (which was usually founded by inbreeding), so that shape and color can be improved and still hold the line on proper shape and color. Winning: The public vindication of a successful breeding program. The strain should be winning in quality competition ( both quality and size of entry) over multiple generations. Strain: The end goal of a formal breeding program. Not a random bred creature. Reflecting the artistic eye of the breeder while being bred successfully to the Standard for that breed.
The first thing to do is choose a breed. Historically, poultry experts state that one succeeds best in a breeding program when dealing with one or at most 2 breeds. Know your chosen breed. Be able to visualize the perfect bird in your mind's eye. Have a goal for your time in poultry. Read and learn about the history and origins of your chosen breed. In this way, we come to understand the nuances of that breed which are so vital to selecting for proper breed type.
Make a list of breeders in your chosen breed which have a vintage line-bred winning strain. If you need help with this, contact the BYC Heritage Large Fowl Thread-Phase II or the breed's national Club or the most prominent thread on your chosen breed at BYC or the new Genetics Forum at BYC. If you decide on a bantam breed, there is also a Heritage Bantam Poultry thread at BYC. Contact your chosen breeder and buy a trio (1M,2F)or a quad (2M, 2F) of birds from that strain which are distantly enough related to they can be bred together.
Once you get your birds, listen to the breeder you obtained them from and have them help you set up the first 2-3 years breedings. By then you will know your gene pool and how they develop so you can choose wisely once you are on your own. There will be enough variety in the chicks to please your artist's eye. The rule in poultry is one "keeper" in every 10 chicks if you are working with a line-bred strain.

Best Regards,
Karen and the Light Sussex
in western PA, USA