Numbering system for breeding records

[HippyGardener]

Would anyone mind sharing examples of their number system for keeping track of breeders and generations? I see F1, F2, etc...mentioned here and there and I'm just trying to figure out what that means. Hopefully I'm posting this in the right place. Thanks in advance.

 

[The Moonshiner]

F1, F2 etc are the generations.
Say you want olive eggers. You cross a Marans to an Ameracauna. Those offspring will be F1s the next generation will be F2s.and so on. Most chicken breeders seem to up the Fs with every generation regardless. When I had Bengal cats the Fs were to show how close they were to the original hybrid cross. F1s first generation F2 second generation etc. But if you crossed two F1s the offspring were considered F1s because they still had the same percentage of blood from each of the original cross. If you bred an F1 to a regular cat that produces F2s because the percentage of regular cat went from 50% to 75%.
Hope that makes sense.

I do some projects with some of our chickens. Each color/pattern I asign a letters abbreviation. When I cross colors I use the abbreviation for the rooster first then the hen. So silver duckwing (SI) rooster and cuckoo (CU) hen would be SICU. Then I use year hatched. SICU17. Sometimes I add more numbers like if I have different pens or different lines. Nothing complex I hate record keeping and don't do spreadsheets and such just notes in a notebook.
I use colored zip ties to keep track of who's who.

 

[HippyGardener]

F1, F2 etc are the generations.
Say you want olive eggers. You cross a Marans to an Ameracauna. Those offspring will be F1s the next generation will be F2s.and so on.

I do some projects with some of our chickens. Each color/pattern I asign a letters abbreviation. When I cross colors I use the abbreviation for the rooster first then the hen. So silver duckwing (SI) rooster and cuckoo (CU) hen would be SICU. Then I use year hatched. SICU17. Sometimes I add more numbers like if I have different pens or different lines. Nothing complex I hate record keeping and don't do spreadsheets and such just notes in a notebook.
I use colored zip ties to keep track of who's who.

Wow, thank you! That's super helpful.

 

[HippyGardener]

Just curious - what does the "F" stand for? I hope that's not a dumb questions, but it would really help me to know when thinking about it. Clearly it's a universal code for this.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Filial

 

[HippyGardener]

Thank you!!!!

 

[cmom]

I put everything on a calendar. I color code my breeding's with different color highlighters. When I band the birds I use corresponding color spiral plastic leg bands.

First I mark the eggs with a surgical marker, pencil, even sharpie, put the eggs in the incubator and I use my styrofoam incubators as hatchers so I can separate my hatches. After the chicks hatch they go into drying brooders then after they dry they go into their regular brooder. After they go into a chick coop that is divided to keep the birds sorted. Next after a period in the chick coop they will go into grow-out coops (where they will be banded) which will eventually be used as breeding coops. I have to do it this way because I hatch out a few hundred chicks each season. I grow them out, keep some as future breeders and sell the rest. I do show birds at poultry shows and keep my different breeds pure. I did do several project breeding's in the past. Now I'm just concentrating on my pure breeds. I still do the colors to keep track of my hatches.

 

[HippyGardener]

I put everything on a calendar. I color code my breeding's with different color highlighters. When I band the birds I use corresponding color spiral plastic leg bands.

First I mark the eggs with a surgical marker, pencil, even sharpie, put the eggs in the incubator and I use my styrofoam incubators as hatchers so I can separate my hatches. After the chicks hatch they go into drying brooders then after they dry they go into their regular brooder. After they go into a chick coop that is divided to keep the birds sorted. Next after a period in the chick coop they will go into grow-out coops (where they will be banded) which will eventually be used as breeding coops. I have to do it this way because I hatch out a few hundred chicks each season. I grow them out, keep some as future breeders and sell the rest. I do show birds at poultry shows and keep my different breeds pure. I did do several project breeding's in the past. Now I'm just concentrating on my pure breeds. I still do the colors to keep track of my hatches.

Oh my - that's a load of information. I love it, thank you for sharing all the different stages of brooders/coops they get moved to. I've got some more homework to do now to figure out what we can build where on our little piece of property. May I ask what bands you use? I've been researching that as well. For my first birds I got the snap on ones from Tractor Supply, but I'm wondering how well they will stay on. Trying to get as much figured out early on as I can manage.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I use really small colored zip ties. They're the cheapest and easiest to get on and off. I put them on as loose as I can get away with and change them every two weeks.

 

[HippyGardener]

Ok, thanks!