I think we are getting caught up in the wording. If their are your birds, your flock, your breeding decisions, they are your lines. To me after a couple of generations the words are interchangeable.
You can buy top notch birds from someones line and not bring in any new blood, but if you dont know anything about selecting breeders and what to cull for you can ruin those top notch birds after a couple generations. Seen it happen many times especially with call ducks.
When we start a new line of birds we get them from several different sources and it takes a few generations to get on track with breeding. You have to keep good records and mark your breeders because when you start breeding lines together sometimes they just dont work ..and sometimes they do.
Mrs. Turbo has got it right when she says that even if sticking to an established bloodline's gene pool a different breeder may have nothing of the same results and may well ruin what might have been a good start. Genetics is a huge part of the picture but so also is the ability to properly use the birds at hand, evaluate youngsters and proceed from there. Some people are pretty good buyers but not so great at continuing on with the breeding end of things. One more aspect to the "my line" or "my breeding" rhetoric. Yes, it's words but they do convey an idea. Birds hatched from a matched pair supplied by another breeder may well be the first generation on your own place but those youngsters are not "your" breeding. Take all the credit in the world for fertile, hatchable eggs and youngsters well raised but when the pair has been selected and shipped to you that first generation cannot properly be described as "your" breeding or line. [email protected]www.sebastopols.freeforums.org
My comment was not about the first generation produced by a pair purchased from a breeder. Thats why I stated "after a couple of generations they would become your lines". Your lines implies that you have been selecting the pairs to mate, not that you have done a good job at it or that your birds are getting a distinct look, merely that you have been making the breeding decisions and not the original breeder you bought the birds from. If you want to call it your birds or your flock fine. I don't call my breedings my lines either but they are my birds and my breedings, my success's and failures not the people I originally bought birds from.
This may not be quite up to the same, but I'm gonna post my thoughts anyways
We currently have a mixed flock that runs around willy nilly. most of our flock are hatchery birds, with the exception of the mille fleur cochins and possibly the barnevelders? and the serama roo might not be hatchery either. we currently have two chicks running around out there that were hatched by one of the mfc bantam hens. neither was out of an egg laid by her, one is an aussie x mfc roo and the other is an ee x mfc roo. sadly the only mfc x mfc chick (which was the only egg she actually laid) drowned in the water. I would call these chicks ours (not that any one would claim them) because even though the parents came from someone elses flock(s), we are the ones who did the breeding (or allowed it to happen) and so we are the ones responsible for the end product. now, if anyone would ask I would tell them the parents came from here and there, but the progeny themselves and what they make after are ours. heck, to use a better example, if that mfc chick would have survived it would have been ours because the mfcb hens are not related to the mfcb roos and so the matching and the breeding of them is our responsibility and so ours to win or lose
You can buy top notch birds from someones line and not bring in any new blood, but if you dont know anything about selecting breeders and what to cull for you can ruin those top notch birds after a couple generations. Seen it happen many times especially with call ducks.
When we start a new line of birds we get them from several different sources and it takes a few generations to get on track with breeding. You have to keep good records and mark your breeders because when you start breeding lines together sometimes they just dont work ..and sometimes they do.
Ditto very well said in a nut shell...........................
OP you can't just get birds from a reputable documented breeder line and then hatch some chicks and call them your line. Breeder lines take many many years of very hard work and lot's of trial and error and professionalism to develop.
Actually it doesn't sound like this is the way this whole thing is shaping up. The OP asked a question and asked for opinions. All of us have different opinions and different ways we do things and thats what was asked. I have followed the thread from the beginning and maybe I am wrong but I don't recall the OP saying they wanted sell hatching eggs someone else worked towards. I think they wanted to know how long others felt it would take untill they could call the breeding program they have theirs. Doesn't that seem more reasonable based on their question than assuming that they are out for no good. I guess that is guilty untill proven innocent. Right.
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Ditto very well said in a nut shell...........................
OP you can't just get birds from a reputable documented breeder line and then hatch some chicks and call them your line. s. Breeder lines take many many years of very hard work and lot's of trial and error and professionalism to develop. *edited by staff*
AL
i don't know where this hostile post idea come from but this is too much around here. as the kids says 'take a chill pill'
perhaps yo're angry person?
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Oh yes, our farm is looking for the same sort of help in naming our lines, so you can write your recommendation on a $1 bill and mail it to me.
: lau Our farm is a small, small full time farm and every $1 helps I say!!!
Love BYC, an interesting thread, a great laugh and I'm off for chores for about 3 hours and then church!!! Love, hugs, prayers and laughter....Have a blessed and fun day! Nancy