Spiral Breeding

[cgmccary]

I spiral breed my La Fleche. I prefer to breed from hens not pullets in their first year for many reasons. They have shown vigor by living longer, are larger, and lay larger eggs. If a hen is a good one, I want to keep hatching from her. I have a couple of 9 year old hens. You have to decide how large a flock you want total. Of my three La Fleche groups I spiral breed I have approximately 25 females per group and 6 males (3 cocks and 3 cockerels). Only 8 females per group are being bred to three males this season.

 

[MrsChickens]

Well stated. I wouldn't see how you could effectively do it with less than 3 lines. In regards to the hens, I have a few ideas but was mainly wondering what those who came up with this technique had to say about it. One idea I had was to start with 5 hens in each line and add keep the five best hens from the first season breeding. Do the same each season keeping the top 5 hens of each generation. In the third season I was going to reduce the 1st generation hens to the best 2 birds. This would leave me with a total of 12 hens of each line. I am hoping to sell chicks to the local market so I believe this would give me a good start for having enough eggs to hatch for chick sells and also have some eggs to sell. As demand increase I can increase the number of birds I keep. I want to make sure I have good genetic diversity. Just a few thoughts.

It's easy...just form three "teams" of hens and one gets left out each season. Why would you be breeding one or two chickens? That's the fast track to recessive gene pools.

 

[MrsChickens]

I spiral breed my La Fleche. I prefer to breed from hens not pullets in their first year for many reasons. They have shown vigor by living longer, are larger, and lay larger eggs. If a hen is a good one, I want to keep hatching from her. I have a couple of 9 year old hens. You have to decide how large a flock you want total. Of my three La Fleche groups I spiral breed I have approximately 25 females per group and 6 males (3 cocks and 3 cockerels). Only 8 females per group are being bred to three males this season.

What I like about spiral linebreeding is that I'm constantly evaluating my stock for improvement. I also breed for table birds. So it's a win:win for me. And, because I control the breeding, I only run one breeding of my three "teams" per year. I decide how/what eggs to hatch (with Marans you evaluate egg color as an improvement as well as phenotype). That way I can control the total population of the closed flock and provide egg and meat production for us.

 

[MysticUniKitty]

I utilize spiral breeding. Be committed to keeping some records, but this is really a very easy and simple approach:
1. I select best three roos/hens and separate into three groups (if you know by bloodlines/hatcheries/breeders)
2. Maintain these three lines - Line A, Line B, Line C. (I use red/green/blue colors of leg bands to identify who belongs to what line)
3. 1st year breed red roo->red hen, blue roo->blue hen and green roo ->green hen. Simple but understand you must separate the breeding pairs into 3 pens or rotate pairs in succession (first red-14 days later, blue 14 days later green) then you only need one breeding pen. I isolate hens and roo, collect eggs for 7-10 to clear out hen oviduct then consider eggs on days 10-14-6 as the "clutch" to hatch out either by broodie hen or incubator. Mark all clutches by color. All chicks get the mother's color leg band.
4. 2nd yr breed red roo->blue hen, blue roo->green hen and green roo->red hen - got it? follow breeding pen concept above and all chicks get the mother's color leg band. KEEP RECORD.
5. Each year thereafter follow #4 above by rotating different color roo/hen.
Rules:
a. Keep records
b. I always breed 2 yo hens and allow pullets to grow 1 year before breeding.
c. I never breed a single hen more than 3 times
d. I strictly cull hens who have been bred to each color line.
e. I evaluate and select my stock at each breeding pair and replace roosters with sons (same color line) based on who is superior - I use roosters second season old.
f. Everyone else is processed.

If you cannot commit to the strict rigors of breeding (inbreeding/linebreeding/spiral breeding) don't start because you'll end up breeding good animals first year, okay animals second year and frankenstein chickens thereafter.

After tremendous research I've found spiral line breeding to provide excellent layers, table birds, great diversity and improved lines. This is how I plan to maintain a closed flock for many years to come. BTW I breed Blk/Blu Copper Marans and Bresse. I plan to tinker with a Marans/Bresse cross for table birds...maybe.

Thank you! I was looking for this information!
I'm doing my first generation babies this year to figure out who has the better genes and temperment to pass on, but I wasn't sure what pen to put the babies in once they got older and how to go forward. I'm working on good layers and table birds, so this was a big help!!