Pcmandooo
Chirping
I am working on a hobby experiment, breeding and setting a line. I have a trio of my own crossing who’s description would be a thread in itself so thats as far as ill go into that. I have a newly built “poultry palace” that has two, fly pens that are 4’widex6’longx7’tall, each having access to separate outside runs. The building will have 4-5 broody hen/hospital pens and an egg layer battery for measuring egg production and holding bitties in the spring.
My plan is to contain one line of 3 family's, with 2 hens each, within this space (8’x’12 building) starting with my chosen cockerel he will breed to family A. Ill hatch 30-40 in the spring and cull through them over summer until i end up with 2-3 good cockerels and the best pullet to replace a hen if there happens to be . The next spring ill take the best remaining family A stag to two hens from family B and proceed forward in similar fashion.
This system would return to family A every 4th year and so would be a terribly slow system. However I am focusing on longevity and genetic sustainability. What i like about this system theory is that it would be such minimal record keeping. Im only keeping 7-10birds over winter and the families recycle at around the same time they’re due to fall out of lay anyway. By the time i am recycling them i will have seen their true potential and any faults.
The only information i can find is big operations breeding all the families every year. Last season we did 11 lines and crosses and it was just too much record keeping. I need a simpler system to give me eggs through the summer and broth in the winter and so this is what i have come up with. Is or has anyone run a system like this before?
My plan is to contain one line of 3 family's, with 2 hens each, within this space (8’x’12 building) starting with my chosen cockerel he will breed to family A. Ill hatch 30-40 in the spring and cull through them over summer until i end up with 2-3 good cockerels and the best pullet to replace a hen if there happens to be . The next spring ill take the best remaining family A stag to two hens from family B and proceed forward in similar fashion.
This system would return to family A every 4th year and so would be a terribly slow system. However I am focusing on longevity and genetic sustainability. What i like about this system theory is that it would be such minimal record keeping. Im only keeping 7-10birds over winter and the families recycle at around the same time they’re due to fall out of lay anyway. By the time i am recycling them i will have seen their true potential and any faults.
The only information i can find is big operations breeding all the families every year. Last season we did 11 lines and crosses and it was just too much record keeping. I need a simpler system to give me eggs through the summer and broth in the winter and so this is what i have come up with. Is or has anyone run a system like this before?