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16

Breeding / Re: Quality vs Quantity

« on: May 18, 2020, 06:47:45 PM »

The birds I had acquired were from a breeder. Got them as day old chicks. I ended up with two cocks and two hens. The blue cock had very bad leakage and there was no question he had to go. We continued to show the blue hen and the black cock. Our other hen was a black and died very young. Since getting serious about quality birds for showing I have inquired a better trained eye to give me feedback on the two we had. The black cock is lacking in his fullness of chest and his tail is a little too high. He is now a year old and went through his first molt and now is showing silver leakage on his hackles and is also shy on the right color of eye. The blue hen is showing some slack spots on her feathers and some are hidden unless you pick her up and examine closely. She is ok but her blue coloring is light and very faded lacing. Her tail is high not bad but high. She has good muffs and beard. With these things mentioned above I was told they were lacking in quality. From my stand point with four chicks and 3 out of the 4 not being better quality that seems a fair judgment to me. Maybe I am wrong. My expectation for other breeders and I hold myself to this standard too is that we must do our best to attain quality vs quantity. This goes for anything in life really but I will stay on topic. Haha! My question really is how do you that are far more experienced not get sucked into that "quantity" column.
Sorry for the late reply. I forgot that I posted this.

17

Breeding / Quality vs Quantity

« on: May 15, 2020, 05:28:57 PM »

Afternoon,
This has always been a topic that I feel should be talked about more often. And maybe it does. I have set personal goals to not only to breed my birds towards the standard but also be breed quality. Susan Mouw posted recently in regards to this on the FB Ameraucana page. What I want to ask those that have done it respectively is at what point do you draw the line at quality vs quantity? To be more specific when do you or how do you try to not to stray away from quality? Breeders can get pressured to produce volume, its up to the breeder to dictate(in my opinion) how much to sell as far as eggs and day old chicks. I have two birds now that are poor quality. And I am bummed about that. But I have some new ones now from two other breeders that I hope to correct the situation I am currently in. What advice or tips can you give? Please. Thanks. This is for discussion not argument please. Thank you for your time.