Texas

[yinepu]

I do test hatches because I want to know how each cross is going to look.

yup.. test hatches are the only way to know for sure

way back in the stone age we used to breed dobermans. I had a nice bloodline going and had an exceptional red female . A friend of my husbands had a nice looking red male and wanted a puppy from him (he had champion bloodlines as well).. So we gave it a go.
ugliest puppies ever
I let him have two pups out of the litter as we had agreed and sold the rest with a spay neuter contract

when the owner of the stud found out he was beyond mad.. i had called his dogs puppies inferior.. how dare me!

So I laid it out for him.. even though his dog had excellent breeding and so did mine.. their genes weren't compatible for producing great dogs when bred together.. therefore as a breeder I didn't want that particular litter of puppies to go on to reproduce. They were fine as pets..but not a single one was worthy of passing on it's genes to the next generation


By doing a test breeding is the only way you will know what the offspring will really look like... luckily it's far easier to cull chickens than it is to cull a healthy .. but ugly puppy

 

[Texasmja]

yup.. test hatches are the only way to know for sure

way back in the stone age we used to breed dobermans. I had a nice bloodline going and had an exceptional red female . A friend of my husbands had a nice looking red male and wanted a puppy from him (he had champion bloodlines as well).. So we gave it a go.
ugliest puppies ever
I let him have two pups out of the litter as we had agreed and sold the rest with a spay neuter contract

when the owner of the stud found out he was beyond mad.. i had called his dogs puppies inferior.. how dare me!

So I laid it out for him.. even though his dog had excellent breeding and so did mine.. their genes weren't compatible for producing great dogs when bred together.. therefore as a breeder I didn't want that particular litter of puppies to go on to reproduce. They were fine as pets..but not a single one was worthy of passing on it's genes to the next generation


By doing a test breeding is the only way you will know what the offspring will really look like... luckily it's far easier to cull chickens than it is to cull a healthy .. but ugly puppy

I agree. I test breed to also look for hidden genes that are masked. I keep pedigrees on my livestock so I can always look back and make notes on certain lines. I note the flaws and likes on each to see when bred what they pass on. There are magic crosses and that is what I try and find. Two way hybrids exhibit the best genes from both parent lines. When I refer to hybrids I am not talking about breeding different breeds, I am referring to breeding two different inbred lines of the same breed.

 

[yinepu]

I agree. I test breed to also look for hidden genes that are masked. I keep pedigrees on my livestock so I can always look back and make notes on certain lines. I note the flaws and likes on each to see when bred what they pass on. There are magic crosses and that is what I try and find. Two way hybrids exhibit the best genes from both parent lines. When I refer to hybrids I am not talking about breeding different breeds, I am referring to breeding two different inbred lines of the same breed.

Yup.. those two dobermans looked great and had produced champions with other breedings.. but had too many hidden genes that meshed up and produced some really poor quality puppies. I had a tough time conviceing the stud's owner of it.. but finally he took a good look at what I was showing him and had to agree

 

[bnjrob]

Anyone on this thread do trap nesting?

I'm thinking of doing it since I plan to keep my hens to 10-12 per pen with a single rooster. It seems it would be the easiest way to determine who is laying what. Mike says he can build a divider for my incubator, too, so I can hatch from multiple hens without getting them jumbled. I kind of need an option like this due to a limit in how much land I have making breeding pens for individual hens pretty difficult. It would be easier for me to have a bachelor pad and cycle the roosters between the hen houses. I dunno...hrm...trying to figure out the most space efficient way to get the most detailed results. It'd sure help me determine who was laying and who wasn't, if nothing else.

Just curious if anyone's used that option?

I have some but have not yet put them up. Am planning to use them because we have some breeding goals that require knowing the mother and father with absolute certainty. Of course I have rare breeder birds, not hatchery stock, that are in need of a good preservation program. Don't know that I would use trap nests if I was just propagating hatchery stock for our own flock perpetuation. Too much work making sure that you get them released in a timely manner - especially on days that it gets warm.

 

[Kilsharion]

Re: test hatching - that requires separate units. Breeding pens. Which is what I'm trying to avoid having to build. If I am trapping the hen and only a single rooster is in with them....and I hatch that particular hen's eggs....then, I'd know the mother and father without question. I'm getting my test hatch without a breeding pen or need to remove the hen from the group for any period of time.

Oh well - I'm guessing this means that y'all are thinking breeding pens are really the only/best option.

 

[bnjrob]

I lost one of my bannie chicks yesterday morning. I think they got cold and one got squished had a similar incident with my quail the day before. unfortunately my brooder can't stay in the house so everyone is in the barn with heat lamps on high I covered it with a heavy towel and that seemed to help a lot.

I broke down and bought a Brinsea EcoGlow this year - it is a platform that warms with radiant heat. It is more of a "mother hen" type warmer that the chicks run under, and stand on top of ,when they get chilly. In a room that gets down into the 50s, there needs to be supplemental heat, but by using the EcoGlow in the brooder and a heat lamp "near" the brooder, it can keep a stable temp. The chicks also seem to feather out faster using this method than having the heat lamp hanging over them. I even took the chicks outside for a field trip, before being fully feather, with the EcoGlow, and they ran around around and had a ball, then ran back to the EcoGlow for a warm-up, then back to playing in the grass. I've been very pleased and have plans to get more as money allows.

 

[Texasmja]

Re: test hatching - that requires separate units. Breeding pens. Which is what I'm trying to avoid having to build. If I am trapping the hen and only a single rooster is in with them....and I hatch that particular hen's eggs....then, I'd know the mother and father without question. I'm getting my test hatch without a breeding pen or need to remove the hen from the group for any period of time.

Oh well - I'm guessing this means that y'all are thinking breeding pens are really the only/best option.

When I test breed, I keep the male and female separate and collect those eggs and hatch them. How you keep them separate is your decision. I have a yard they are in and they live together as long as I am collecting and hatching from them.

 

[yinepu]

Re: test hatching - that requires separate units. Breeding pens. Which is what I'm trying to avoid having to build. If I am trapping the hen and only a single rooster is in with them....and I hatch that particular hen's eggs....then, I'd know the mother and father without question. I'm getting my test hatch without a breeding pen or need to remove the hen from the group for any period of time.

Oh well - I'm guessing this means that y'all are thinking breeding pens are really the only/best option.

I like the breeding pens because you can without a doubt control the breeding.. with small scale you only need ONE extra pen anyway because you aren't going to have room to hatch out 100 or so eggs at a time from several different hens plus house all those extra birds while you evaluate them. So for small scale I would pick the best of the best and to test breedings from them.. one batch at a time.. no chance of mixing up eggs or chicks

with trap nesting the hen goes into the nest and is trapped there.. so if you have birds like some of mine who hop from nest to nest and arent even laying.. they will set off the trap which keeps the other hens from using that particular nest.. you would need at least one nest box per hen for the traps to work and still allow the other hens access to a nest

then you also have the hen who has deicded to lay an egg on the floor to totally mess with your plans!.. lol

 

[Kilsharion]

When I test breed, I keep the male and female separate and collect those eggs and hatch them. How you keep them separate is your decision. I have a yard they are in and they live together as long as I am collecting and hatching from them.

Yeah - that's how I've known them to be done. Isolating the breeders and keeping them isolated until you're done with them. I was just wondering if trap nesting would be a viable alternative so I didn't have to interrupt hierarchy or build different coops solely for breeding. Looks like it's something that's not commonly done. Thanks for your feedback.

 

[yinepu]

Yeah - that's how I've known them to be done. Isolating the breeders and keeping them isolated until you're done with them. I was just wondering if trap nesting would be a viable alternative so I didn't have to interrupt hierarchy or build different coops solely for breeding. Looks like it's something that's not commonly done. Thanks for your feedback.

the hierarchy isn't an issue either.. just move birds around to break it up (I am assume you will have them banded anyway) when you go to put them back.. since they will be a project flock anyway and will still be within sight of each other it shouldn't affect laying much.. and if it does you still have your layer flock of other birds to help keep you in eating eggs