Production breeding

[Chris09]

What I want to know is how many people here are breeding for egg production, and what methods do you use to determine which pullets and cockerels to select as breeders.

The hens are the key to good egg production.
If you keep only hens that have good egg production and the rooster/s are out of the most productive hen then your egg production will go up.

This holds true even in dairy animals, if you want to increase milk production in your offspring you breed only your most productive females to the male that came out of the most productive female.

 

[Chris09]

Some of the hatchery strains are actually the best because they breed for production rather than to meet visual standards.

More and more hatcheries are crossing high productive Mediterranean breeds into there stock.
There is a lot of Leghorn blood running through hatchery stock, they do this not only for feather sexing at birth but also to increase egg production.

 

[gjensen]

Some of the hatchery strains are actually the best because they breed for production rather than to meet visual standards.

Most of the hatchery Australorps are average. laying 200-220 eggs pa.

 

[Michael OShay]

More and more hatcheries are crossing high productive Mediterranean breeds into there stock.
There is a lot of Leghorn blood running through hatchery stock, they do this not only for feather sexing at birth but also to increase egg production.

True enough. I'm not certain what other breeds were infused into the Black Orpingtons to increase the lay rate in breeding those early Black Australorps, but likely some Leghorn blood was added.

 

[Michael OShay]

Most of the hatchery Australorps are average. laying 200-220 eggs pa.

Mine have typically averaged more like 250-260, but I have noticed that it depends on which hatchery they come from.

 

[gjensen]

The hens are the key to good egg production.
If you keep only hens that have good egg production and the rooster/s are out of the most productive hen then your egg production will go up.

This holds true even in dairy animals, if you want to increase milk production in your offspring you breed only your most productive females to the male that came out of the most productive female.

True, but not all sires will produce superior performing pullets. There is as much variability in the cockerels as there is in the pullets. It is helpful if the cockerels can be "proven", and the same for other livestock.
The most improvement was made by testing and proving sons of superior performing dams.

 

[gjensen]

Laying genetics is a compilation of traits. It is more than lay rate alone. There are a number of traits to be considered other than rate of lay alone. A pullet can have a superior rate of lay and still be average within a pen.

 

[The Home Flock]

Utility is always worth keeping in mind in any breeding program as long as it is kept in balance with breed characteristics and things like health and longevity. True we can all just go and get commercial layers or hatchery hybrids etc. (Not that there's anything wrong with that), but our truly sustainable varied genetic base will only be preserved through the hands of the smallholder or backyarder, with specific breeds and strains.

If traditional pure breeds are kept just for nostalgia then that rationale has less appeal to me. Perhaps some breeds are 'selected for extinction' because they simply offer no real genetic value. I can create a new breed tomorrow but if it's a lemon then it deserves to disappear as fast as it appeared.

True utility value to small scale poultry keepers is sustainability and preserving future options. Because of this my catch phrase for ideal breeds is: 'A sustainable fowl breed has a good balance of form, productivity, health, temperament and genetic uniqueness' (http://thehomeflock.webs.com/about).

 

[The Yakima Kid]

Utility is always worth keeping in mind in any breeding program as long as it is kept in balance with breed characteristics and things like health and longevity. True we can all just go and get commercial layers or hatchery hybrids etc. (Not that there's anything wrong with that), but our truly sustainable varied genetic base will only be preserved through the hands of the smallholder or backyarder, with specific breeds and strains.

If traditional pure breeds are kept just for nostalgia then that rationale has less appeal to me. Perhaps some breeds are 'selected for extinction' because they simply offer no real genetic value. I can create a new breed tomorrow but if it's a lemon then it deserves to disappear as fast as it appeared.

True utility value to small scale poultry keepers is sustainability and preserving future options. Because of this my catch phrase for ideal breeds is: 'A sustainable fowl breed has a good balance of form, productivity, health, temperament and genetic uniqueness' (http://thehomeflock.webs.com/about).

This works for me. Part of maintaining genetic diversity is actually *not* outcrossing. Hatcheries and show breeders alike outcross, but for different reasons. I recently read an article by an APA judge who decried outcrossing for appearance reasons, and breeding only for appearance, as he thinks this means producing an animal that matches the image of the standard, but lacks the truly valuable traits that led to the establishment of each breed.

 

[gjensen]

I think we tend to drift towards extremes, where a healthy balance would be considering both phenotype and genotype. Breed type defines a breed, but it does not establish the animal as a good example of the breed. I can see the finest of birds, and own them to find they are not particularly useful.

My poultry keeping breeding will never be beyond hobby status. I can handle 24 females, and 3 or 4 males of a given breed at a time. Still, I prefer to be faithful to the breed and it's type. I also evaluate the individual birds over the course of a laying cycle. It is not complicated, but it is a process. A process that at one point, was commonly understood.

Today we speak of it, but how many operate a organized effort to improve a flock of their own?