I just sold 7 cockerels and roosters today. I even sold General Grant though that was hard to do but there\'s no since breeding him and going backwards. I think Ulysses was the last remaining bird from my original start.
Now I\'ve got the #7 BW Cockerel with the really clean hackles left, a #3 BW Cockerel (from last years #11 - General Grant - over #13 BW hens), and a #8 W Cockerel (from last years #12 W rooster - Tucumseh - over #13 W hens.) Both the W & BW #13\'s are full sisters.
I will breed all females I keep under each of the 3 males.
So now I\'m looking at my bird talley and seeing things like:
1) I have two #1 Wheaten pullets. One has pale ears and one doesn\'t.
2) I have one #2 BW pullet that has white ears.
3) I have two #7 BW pullets that I don\'t think have any major faults. At least I don\'t have anything recorded now. I will take another look at them. But I culled two #7 BW pullets because one was clean-faced with white ears. White but not enamel white. The other had white ears, a big comb for a female, and was somewhat off color. And then I have a #7 Wheaten pullet that has good ears, good tail, but a bad over-sized comb. Almost like a cockerel\'s.
4) I have three #8 pullets. One W that is ok (no major faults), one BW that is ok, and then another W that has white ears.
5) I have a one #11 BW pullet, two #12 W pullets, and one #13 W pullet that all seem ok.
6) I have two #14 Wheaten pullets that both have pale ears.
7) I have three W pullets that are not toe-punched so they\'d be a 0 or 16. I didn\'t have a 0 or 16 pen so these were chicks that must\'ve somehow gotten loose as I took them out of the hatching tray or something else happened where I couldn\'t tell who they were and didn\'t punch them.
So here are my thoughts and I\'d like to get everyones feedback on these:
1) WRT to #1 above: breed the one #1 and cull the other. Agree or disagree? How touchy is the pale/white earlobes? Easy to fix or no?
2) This sole #2 pullet is the result of last year\'s #11 W Rooster over the #10 BW hens. As a reminder, the two #10 BW hens give a white and almost white egg but I get 4 to 5 eggs a week from each. So, should I do the same with these as Mike suggested with the #7 rooster and breed them? Oh, see also has white ears. Would that make a difference in whether I should breed her?
3) As you can see, my #7\'s are all over the place. So I\'m thinking of breeding my #7\'s only to their brother and then keeping only the offspring with good ears, good muffs, and good combs. Yes? No?
4) I\'m guessing I should cull the #8 pullet with white ears & only breed the other two?
5) No brainer. I\'ll breed all these.
6) Rather than ask the obvious question about the ears again, I got to looking back through the previous several years of breeding plans and it reminds me of another question. Does anyone already have some kind of ancestry chart they use to keep track of the lineage of their birds? If so I would like to get a copy if possible. If not, I can probably make one which brings me to another question... how many years should I keep track of and trace back? I\'m thinking back four generations - to the great, great grandparents. Shouldn\'t that be far enough?
7) A couple of them look really good. Initially I was thinking I wouldn\'t breed them since I couldn\'t go back and trace where they came from. But now that I see them and how good they look, I\'m wondering if it might not hurt to breed them and just identify them as a 0 and create a new line from there? What would be some pros and cons to this?
Ok, I\'m going to work now on my Breeding Plan. Look forward to hearing any and all comments, suggestions, etc.
God Bless,