The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club > Breeding

Leakage - Keep or Cull?

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Temple DaSilva:
I wanted to ask the group if having a cockerel with leakage is an absolute deal breaker for breeding or not.  Of course, one of my typey-est bantam black cockerels has gold leakage.  He has lots of other positive attributes so I wasn't sure if the leakage was a lesser-of-the-evils kind of thing or if I should just pass on him having any value at all to a breeding program.

I'm looking forward to hearing opinions on how to rank the leakage against other faults like poor combs, crow-headedness, and even nasty temperaments.

Thanks,
-temple in CT

Don:
How much leakage, do you have any pictures?  Do you have any other good males to switch out in this one's place?   

Susan Mouw:
Well, my own rule of thumb is type first, color second.  So, if he has the type, then it comes down to how much leakage is too much. Obviously no leakage is best, but sometimes we have to deal with what we have.

Like Don said - post some pics and let's see what we're dealing with here. :)

Jen Mitchell:
Agree, pics say it best... :)

If he's all you have to work with, OR you have the capacity and capability to set up a separate pen for him, then I would try him out if there's a heavier weight of pros than cons in him... I would aim for producing another cockerel comparable to him as close as possible but without leakage to replace him with... and I would either mark every pullet from him to test breed for leakage once they grow out, or cull them since they'll hide the leakage if they inherit it...

I dealt with leakage before in my Am's and actually ended up pulling out a nice cockerel for a friend from that line... so it *can* be worked with/around/out, just depends on if what he brings in positives is worth the time, effort and headaches, lol...

Temple DaSilva:
Thanks for the quick response, everyone.  I'll post some photos in a couple of days (when I have some light in the afternoon) to poll the group on the amount of leakage he has. 

It is good to know that leakage shouldn't be an immediate decision to cull.  I do have plenty of other blacks with no leakage but just a few things about this guy keep calling me back.  And I do have enough space to segregate.  I was thinking that if I did use him, only keeping cockerels might be the way to go since I wouldn't be able to see it in any pullets he produced.  Or does leakage have a tendency to skip generations, meaning that a clean F1 male from him could produce leakage (assuming he wasn't bred to a female who was hiding it)?

Thanks again!

-temple

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