Honestly, most of the process for me just comes from years and years of breeding, so don't know if I could take photos of it. When pairing up birds, it all depends on what you are wanting. I'm going to be focusing on the blue coppers most this year in the copper variety of the Marans. So, selecting birds with really good body type is a priority as I'm working on creating them from blacks and splashes and will use the few blue coppers I have created from last year. Simple things I look at for example would be combs, if a bird has too many points, trying to pair them with a bird with less points on the comb, I also do the same for wing carriage, tail set, leg feathering and etc. I also put a lot of focus on stance and structure of the pair. Another thing I work on when working with blues is the color of the pair and what color tone of blue they will give me. For example, if breeding a black to a blue, you will get darker blues, so if you are starting with a blue bird that is already a deeper blue, it may not get me where I want to go color wise in the offspring. So, having the use of a splash bird to pair over a darker blue to help lighten the blue in the following generation would perhaps make a better pairing. Overall, the longer a person is breeding birds, the more consistency that should show up in the body type of the bird, so can focus more on the details. When first starting out I spent a lot of time breeding for mostly body type. Now that is it well established of course I'll continue working on it, but it affords me a more level field to pick from type wise so smaller details can be focused on without compromising type if that makes sense. Each year the focus might be different, as well as each pairing, depending upon what color bird I'm working with or breed might be totally different than the next.
