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Breeding Pens

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Jess:
Evening folks,
After 11 inches of rain left by Tropical storm Lee, I have started to set up my breeding pens. I had to wash and clean out all my feeders because the rain blew in on all of them.
I have 4 pens with Wheatens in them and 3 pens with Blacks in them.
Pen # 1 I have 2 pullets from Jeans stock with a rooster from Barbar Campbells stock.

Pen # 2 has 4 pullets from Wayne merdeth stock with a rooster from Barbar Campbells stock.

Pen # 3 Has 3 pullets from Barbar Campbells stock with a rooster from Jeans stock.

Pen # 4 has 3 pullets from Barbar Campbell stock with a rooster from Wayne Merdeth stock.

My 3 black pens all have splash roosters from Wayne and  larry garners and whitmore  stock.
I already have several orders for Blue chicks, Which sells great in this area.

If you have any advice on this, please feel free to tell me. I am new to this and really want to get this right.
I have tried to put roosters with hens that will enhance different traits. Now I wait and see.
Thanks Jess

bantamhill:
Jess:

Is there a particular reason why you are mixing the wheaten lines? Have you done any test mating to see what will happen?

I tend to recommend that breeders work with a line before introducing new blood to the line. It is good to understand the strengths and weaknesses of a line before introducing new blood. I agree with your idea of enhancing traits/balancing strengths, but it is difficult for me to personally judge the plan without having observed the birds for a good while. I suggest really careful record keeping!

If there is one cockerel that is much better than the rest, I would use him over all the hens rotating him every few days. He will literally be half the flock, but using him on his daughters will drive the quality toward his genes. Look for a back up cockerel among his sons and grandsons and use them when needed on their mothers, sisters, daughters, and granddaughters. Using your records/toe punches/leg bands/wing bands you will be able to cull toward the very best and create the Jess Burge line!

Just my thoughts for what they are worth.

Michael

Jess:
Thanks Michael
Like  I say, I\'m so new at this I feel like I\'m shooting in the dark.
I have great respect for these breeders that have worked so hard to bring about these fine lines of Wheatens.
I was thinking that by building on their hard work I could spread out my gene pool to include the best of each of these breeders.
I worked on building a line of nubian goats and was heavy into line breeding and found out that if you don\'t spread the gene pool a little bit you wind up with real good stuff or real bad stuff.
I wound up getting more culls than stuff that I wanted to keep.
This might not work with poultry.
I have 2 GQF incubators and 1 GQF hatcher. Most of what I will be hatching will be test birds. I plan to set about 6 eggs from each pen to start with from each wheaten pen. I plan to do several batches and see what I come up with.
Please Feel free to help me as I go along.
Thanks
Jess

Beth C:
I\'m too new at this myself to offer much more than an observation, but my blacks are all very closely related, as are the lavenders, and I\'ve had low hatch rates and high mortality, and the birds that made it are unthrifty and slow to mature. My buffs are from different, but related, flocks. I\'ve had nearly 100% fertility, think I had maybe 3 clear eggs all year, very high hatch rates, low mortality, and they\'re tough as nails. My w/bws, from unrelated flocks, fell in the middle. Again, just an observation from a small number of birds, so may have no meaning what-so-ever, but I was surprised at the buffs, since low fertility/hatch rate seem to be a problem in that variety.

I know what you mean about shooting in the dark. This past year I took a shotgun approach - hatch as many birds as possible and hope something stands out. A couple of offspring have, so going into this season with a more conservative (and hopefully less expensive) approach.

John:

--- Quote ---work with a line before introducing new blood to the line
--- End quote ---

I understand the logic and what the consequences can be, but with LF wheatens from those sources I don\'t think there will be a problem.  To the best of knowledge all the LF wheatens trace thier origin back to Wayne Meredith and I assume they are all based on eWh (or e^y if it really exists).  I know that Barbara has purchased stock from Wayne in recent years and wouldn\'t doubt that Jean has also.  I even bought a cockerel from Barbara last fall that was 1/2 her strain and 1/2 Wayne\'s.  I don\'t think the out crossing Jess is doing is far enough out to do any damage and it may bring about some great results...along with the culls.
The wheatens need some serious out crossing to other varieties (black is my choice...buff is Mike\'s) within the breed to give them the standard size and type that the blacks, whites and buffs have.      

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