who\'s line is it?

[QUADCH]

I\'m wondering how long does it need to be before someone gets to call their birds \"their line\" of birds, or stop calling it someone else\'s line. One or two generations removed from the original breeder can improve on the characteristics of a bird, but it sure can wreck things even quicker! LOL!  I have birds that people refer to as being from a certain line and that breeder has been dead for over 30 years! There has been a lot going on since then. Just wondering what you folks thought.

[John]

how long does it need to be before someone gets to call their birds \"their line\"

I would think that the birds bought from and bred by a breeder are his/her line/strain.  
After that if you cross birds obtained from two different breeders they are from your breeding and your own line of that variety.  
If all the birds of a particular variety that you have were obtained from the same breeder and you\'ve bred them, making improvements to the offspring, those offspring are your line.  
When someone breeds birds of a variety resulting in improving the variety that person is a real \"breeder\" of thier own line(s).
Those birds can be traced back to other breeders and \"lines\" or strains, but are not the same as the original lines.
Those are my thoughts on the matter.  

[grisaboy]

I agree with John.  Once you start breeding them and selecting breeders from your own chicks, its your strain.

You see this a lot with popular breeds like Old English Bantams.  People will claim their birds are pure SoandSo strain.  But if SoandSo has birds at the same show, the birds from SoandSo usually beat all the other birds from \'SoandSo\' strain.  Obviously SoandSo is using selection criteria that is different than the other breeders with the same strain.

That said, if I am buying birds from you, it is good to know who you bought birds from to start your strain.  If you have birds that came from top breeders, that gives me a pretty good idea what kind of genetics are in your birds.

Another thing.  If your strain started from birds that originally came from John, you can go back to John in a couple of years and get a new male or new pair of pullets.  This is a good way to get fresh blood into your strain with birds that are likely  to be compatible genetically to the strain that you are developing but enough removed to prevent too close inbreeding.

Curtis

[QUADCH]

Thanks guys. Good points.

[Tailfeathers]

Super feedback guys!  Thanks QUADCH for asking the question!

[Guest]

General rule of thumb is that 5 years (and I have always assumed that really means generations) of no influx from other \"lines\" or \"strains\" and it becomes a \"line\" ... as in \"line-bred\".
I think it is important to know if someone is just \"raising\" birds if they are \"breeding\", and by that I mean breeding towards a goal.