Breeding Records

[Rosto]

What do you use to keep breeding records? Is there a book I can purchase to record my crosses. Do you make your own? When I bred dogs. I kept a computer spreadsheet with each dog's faults and strengths. I recorded the outcomes and made a binder with each dog's 7 generation pedigree, historical champions, hunting style, etc. Show wins and hunt wins were recorded. Color photos of each dog helped too. I carefully made crosses and kept detailed pedigrees. Everything was planned. With chickens you don't have pedigrees at the onset. I want to make one. Keep careful records of each bird's faults and work to correct them in each successive breeding. I think it will be important to detail each bird's traits recessive, sex linked, and dominant. So I can plan ways to improve my lines.

 

[Tevian]

The spreadsheet like you did with your dogs sounds like a good idea.

I keep my cattle bloodlines in a book, with a page for each heifer or cow. It’s a bit of a business to keep up with, but it works. And I keep stuff like bull sale pamphlets etc in a file.

Air table is a mobile app I’ve seen used for animal records (or anything, really) and you can link between them. Kind of like a spreadsheet, but with the individual animal profiles. It takes some work but it could be useful. I think you can put it on the computer too.

 

[Rosto]

I’ll check it out.

 

[AGeese]

Glad you asked this question. I've asked about software before but crickets in reply. So I am thinking about using this https://www.worldanvil.com/ (scroll down to family tree)

 

[Rosto]

That looks promising! It’s so important to keep accurate records if you want to make good crosses.

 

[AGeese]

Yeah I like the idea of being able to have ancestry for chickens. One place you can store all the information and make it presentable.

 

[Reave]

Does anyone have any hands-on experience with something like Kintracks?
https://www.kintraks.com/

It's free for 200 animals and has some interesting species-specific features, but I don't have the experience to say whether it's useful in a practical sense.