Need some directing to understand breeds and breeding..

[Oregon Blues]

I am not quite sure where your confusion lies, but I will try.

Chicken fanciers breed for "breeds", not for "colors". Chickens are bred to try to get the bird closest to the Standard of Perfection for that particular breed.

The Standard of Perfection calls for specific colors, and so, in order for the bird to be as close to the Standard as possible, the chicken hobbyist pays close attention to color.

If you cross chickens of 2 different breeds, you are breeding mutts and there will be no standard for them, so you can do anything you want and call it good.

If all you want is to breed for colors, there is nothing wrong with that. Lots of people like their mixed breed flocks.

Temperament is inherited, so you decide what temperament you want, and breed the chickens with that temperament and remove the ones whose temperaments you don't like and don't breed those.

If you want really large chickens, you choose the biggest birds in your flock and breed those. You remove the itty bitty ones and don't breed those.

If you want tiny chickens, you use the little ones for your breeding stock.

If you want lots of eggs, you choose the hens that lay lots and lots of eggs and you use them for your breeding stock.

 

[kstaven]

When breeding for any characteristic you need to assess the good characteristics you want and have in the stock and also the bad traits. Bad characteristics strengthen as quickly as good ones. You can breed for laying abilities and get it and yet at the same time breed a bird that is 10x as likely to drop dead egg bound after two years. So it does get more complicated than just breeding based on the characteristics you do want.

 

[mtngrl812]

I had read something about needing to keep the same build type and comb type together. So I thought maybe that was some type of "requirement" to keep from breeding birds with defects. I have read one the couple of website posted and that has helped me to understand more.

I also read somewhere that the true standard type is what ever is closest to the original Jungle Fowl. That is only for birds closer to that breeding isn't it? LF are not suppose to resemble Jungle Fowl are they?

Thanks for the advise and help everyone!

 

[Arielle]

People have been breeding chickens for thousands of years; so there are a huge variety of chickens; and most don't look like jungle fowl anymore. THey have been developed to survive in different climates, for eggs, for meat, for both; some forage off the land better than others, some are kept caged some or most of the time. THe result is different temperments, how well they tolerate being in a coop/run or really need lots of land to roam.

There is a chicken to suit every need. Just like our beloved dogs!

PS. Mutt is used too often IMO in a negative way for crossing breeds; it is how most breeds started; only a rare breed is started by a sport.

PPS check out the www.albc-usa.org site(I'll recheck the name-should be right now); they created a written breeding program that is available for free. THey focued on the buckeye a few years ago to re-establish the breeds to it's former glory and succeeded. THey are planning to tackle another endangered breed, too. Maybe if you look at their method it will help you too. You have great questions that are really very difficult to answer with a quick short response. GL

 

[punky rooster]

Quote:
Type should always come first. type defines the breed, color defines the variety. Having good color has nothing to do with how it produces, but if the bird has the correct type for the breed it should produce well to its purpose.

As they say "build the barn before you paint it"

 

[Barrdwing]

If you want to get into the genetics aspect of things, there are three excellent books that I have found:

An Introduction to Color Forms of the Domestic Fowl, by Brian Reeder. It explains chicken color genetics fairly well. There are a few typos, and I had to resort to the dictionary a few times, but overall he has really tried to put things in plain English and organize them logically.

Genetics of the Fowl, by F. B. Hutt. This one covers every known gene and gene mutation in chickens, describing what the gene's effects are, and whether there are negative effects like mortality.

The Mating and Breeding of Poultry, by Harry M. Lamon and Rob R. Slocum. I had a field day reading this one. It discusses each breed, the proper type, and what you need to do to achieve type in your stock. It also discusses various methods of breeding, i.e. line breeding, and how to do a useful outcross.

Between the three of these books, you should have a lot of useful information for your project. Good luck!