Tell Me About Your Breeding Program

[countrygoddess]

Hi there! Next spring (2013) I intend to begin breeding my Silver Gray Dorkings. I've done much reading on the subject of breeding programs but have not been able to make up my mind as to which would be the best one: Line breeding? Spiral breeding? Clan breeding? So I decided to come to all of you to hear about your experiences. I pose these questions:

1. Which type of breeding program do you use? If it isn't generally well-known or is of your own design, would you please briefly describe it?

2. How many birds do you have involved in your program and how many chicks do you hatch out each spring? How many do you cull down to?

3. How did you decide on the type of breeding program you use? What do you like best about it? What have you found has been the most difficult aspect of it?

4. Tell me a little bit about your record-keeping.

5. If you had to do it over again (as far as chosen breeding plan), would you? What, if anything, do you plan on changing next spring?

6. For those of you who use broody hens to hatch eggs, what are the benefits and drawbacks that you have discovered?


Thank you so much for your feedback--I can't wait to hear what you all have to say! =)

-Heather
Hill House Dorkings

 

[WallTenters]

I am still a beginner but perhaps you can learn from some of my early mistakes I work with a business partner on my primary breed so she has helped keep me centered.


1. Which type of breeding program do you use? If it isn't generally well-known or is of your own design, would you please briefly describe it?

We picked our best males and then paired them up with the best females that did not match up their faults - so if he had a bad tail we put females in with good tails, etc. We put anywhere from 1-6 females in with a male. Toe punched the chicks according to their sire line. We did this because we are breeding up on our birds. This year our offspring have more consistency and we can start step 2...

which is line breeding by the females. Pick two or three females that closely match each other as much as possible. Put a complimentary male in that pen with them. It will be a combination rotational line breeding and still the old system as part of the year we may take a cock bird from one pen and use him on all pens if he has the trait we need. Most of the chicks will be from pen a males x pen b females, pen b males x pen c females, etc. on down the line.


2. How many birds do you have involved in your program and how many chicks do you hatch out each spring? How many do you cull down to?

I think this year we used eight hens and three cock birds. We hatched out maybe 250 chicks of this breed this year and have it narrowed down to about thirty cockerels and thirty-five pullets right now, between Rhonda and I. Will narrow that down further to about twelve good cockerels and fifteen-twenty of the best pullets if we can get that many.


3. How did you decide on the type of breeding program you use? What do you like best about it? What have you found has been the most difficult aspect of it?

If we had better birds to start with I am sure we would have done rotational line breeding in the first place. However we did not have any consistency (of faults or merits) across the board so it was hard to consider doing that. I am very happy that we will be able to switch to that this year. The downside of breeding back to the same cock birds is their faults are more evident this year than they were the last. One of the cock birds we have used three years and another two years and a third only for one year. The first two had very coarse combs and a bit longer back than ideal and one had smutty coloring as well - all of those traits are more evident this year than last year but pretty sure we can breed that out again like we did the first time but keep those good traits we liked in those males.


4. Tell me a little bit about your record-keeping.

All the chicks are toe punched as they come out of the hatcher, then they are wing-banded at about a week. The wing bands make it easy to keep lifelong records of the birds without putting leg bands on until they are adult size so you don't have to keep switching leg bands.


5. If you had to do it over again (as far as chosen breeding plan), would you? What, if anything, do you plan on changing next spring?

Starting with the same birds we did YES I would do the exact same plan - We kept females with faults but paired them with males without that particular fault and we got a lot of chicks with the benefits from both parents. Just hatch a lot and cull hard. We hatched less chicks this year than last and will hatch less next year as well.


6. For those of you who use broody hens to hatch eggs, what are the benefits and drawbacks that you have discovered?

I let the broody bantam hens hatch chicks from the bantams but it's a breed I am not really focused on. Major downside is numbers - you can only put so many eggs under one hen. And not all broody hens are good mothers - they may hatch eggs fine but letting them raise them is different some of them stop caring for the chicks too early. Not so much a problem in the summer as it's warm enough but I lost a chick this spring because the mother was not warming it often enough. The benefit is a sometimes - if you have a docile flock AND a docile broody hen you can let her raise them with the flock and that's great, no heat lamps, no special feeders/waterers/housing. However if your broody hen is a witch she will attack the other flock members and that is stressful on them all. The only time I lost chicks to another flock member was with quail chicks - I had planned to move them into a separate pen after the hen got done hatching (I was building their pen when they hatched - they came a day early). The quail chicks do not stay under the mother for two-three days like chicken chicks do. They ran out away from her and a cockerel thought they were food :/ Can't blame him they are the size of a large bee when they hatch.

 

[countrygoddess]

Thank you for your input, WallTenters!

 

[countrygoddess]

That first response was great--let's hear from more of you!

 

[WallTenters]

Oh I should add the only reason we are keeping that many cockerels is with our breed (and many) it is best to wait until their second year (at least) to really tell true quality especially on the males. So of the twelve-fifteen we keep only six-eight will be used for breeding, maybe even less than that depending on merits.

 

[countrygoddess]

I'm noticing that with my Dorking cockerels. I don't think I can accurately make a decision on who to keep and breed now. I'll look at them again in the spring, but even that might be too early to really know for sure. We culled one because he was very pinched and small and so quite obviously not a boy I'd have bred, and intended to keep the rest of them (6) but one died of unknown causes (was listless one day out of the blue and was gone by lunch time--the rest are all doing fine and are healthy) and one disappeared one day. Probably a fox or fisher or something... =( Now we're down to 4...

 

[countrygoddess]

Anyone else?

 

[CAjerseychick]

Well am a newbie, but here goes...
We have 3 second generation breeders birds-- 1 roo and 2 pullets, 12 weeks old as well as 13 eight wk old hatchery pullets (all Jersey Giants BTW) . Know that the breed is not especially known for broodiness but was going to wait n see what happens next year-- probably keep the the biggest, most vigorous chicks and maybe get some birds from the person in Auburn, CA that says they have JG' s out of breeder stock to add into my flock (want to see what the hatchery birds turn out to be like).... So that is it.... Just a newbie so not a whole lotta record keeping yet...

 

[countrygoddess]

Good luck with those Jersey Giants! They're beautiful birds.

 

[countrygoddess]

I'm loving what I'm hearing so far! Let's hear from more of you...