Picking a breeder

[Guest]

Hi guys need a little help here picking between these 2 cockerels to breed from.. Give me your honest suggestions and oppinions on type color ect.. You won\'t hurt my feelings if you think neither of them are worthy to breed.. Chris

[John]

At a glance I pick number 2.  The comb on the first one goes up in the back.  That is one thing that I select against.  Number two seems to have more of a back to him and the first bird seems to go from his neck/hackle to his tail with very little back area.  They both are carrying their wings too low in the photos.  Number two has better color in his wing bay area and over all just looks like he has better type in my humble opinion.

[Mike Gilbert]

I\'ll just echo John\'s comments.   I like number two the best, but would not be afraid to use number one as a decent back up.    I don\'t like number one\'s high tail carriage, so would try to select females to offset that fault.   It looks like you are doing a real good job with those wheatens.   Do they go back to that trio you picked up at Sedalia in October 2005, or are they from other bloodlines?

[Guest]

#1 is out of a Blue wheaten male that we got as a chick from John out of one of your females, #2 is out of the male and other female from you.. What conserns me about #2 is he has large dark sploches in his hackles I\'m pretty sure it will pass on to his daughters making the a little less desireable as show birds..

[Mike Gilbert]

Chris, I couldn\'t see the dark splotches in the number two hackles from the picture.   That being said, I would still take him first on the basis of beautiful Ameraucana type and tail carriage.   Why not try both and keep track of what each one  produces?    As you well know, sometimes the best show prospect is not the best breeder.    If you are interested in selling number two let me know, I have a home here for him.

[John]

I didn\'t notice the dark in the hackle, but would probably use both of them over all the females, rotating them in and out of the breeding pen.  I like to rotate males on Sundays and Wednesdays to give a wider gene pool and better fertility.
My other suggestion is to set up two pens using one cock in each.  Toe punch the chicks so you know which pen they came from.

[Guest]

Thanks for the advice guys.. Think I\'ll sit down with the females look them over split them accordingly with weakness in each male.. Toe punch chicks see where we are next fall..