"Don't Be A Blender Breeder"

 QUICK TIP--DON'T BE A BLENDER BREEDER.

I frequently get asked about bringing in new blood to their flock. These questions usually get asked by new breeders. Honestly, if you're breeding your birds correctly you probably don't need to introduce new blood to your flock. If you're absolutely convinced you need to do so here's how I suggest you go about it.

The most common reason people feel they need to bring in new blood is to prevent inbreeding. So the way most go about this is to get birds that are completely unrelated to their original source. This can be a huge problem and here's why. If your original birds came from a reputable breeder and are a well bred line the chances they have been line bred to concentrate all good genes/traits and eliminate those less desirable genes/traits. If you bring in a completely unrelated line and cross it into your birds guess what? One way to think of doing this is what I call blender breeding. When you practice blender breeding on a regular basis keep scrambling up the genetics in your flock and this will bring out all sorts odd, frustrating problems for you.

So is there a better way to do it than bringing in completely unrelated genetics? Yes indeed there is. Go back to the original source you got your start from and get a female or two to cross into your line. They will be related to your line but not too closely. This way you don't scramble up the genetics of your line.

You may have noticed I advised getting females and not males, why do you think that is? If you bring in a female and mate her to a male of your line and hatch twenty chicks hopefully you will raise all twenty chicks to maturity. Then take your two best pullets and cross them into your line and you're on your way.

If you bring in a male the tendency is to mate him to several females of your line. Let's say for the sake of argument you mated him to five of your females and hatch twenty chicks from each hen. You now have 100 chicks to raise to maturity. Do you have the facilities, time and money to do that. If the cross doesn't work you will have 100 birds on your hands that won't do you any good.

Having said all of this I would encourage you to ask yourself a few questions before introducing new blood to your flock.

1. Am I having a problem with fertility or hatchability?

2. Is there a trait that I need to add to my birds that I can't get without new blood?

3. Am I seeing a lot of genetic problems cropping up in chicks that hatch?

4. Is the overall quality of my flock decreasing rather than improving?

If you answered three or four of these questions with a “No” chances are you don't to need to introduce

new blood at this time.

I would encourage you if you want to up your skills as a breeder to buy yourself a copy of the book

“Start Where You Are With What You Have”. It was written by an old master breeder, Ralph

Sturgeon. He is a legend in the Plymouth Rock world and new how to breed outstanding birds. You

can purchase this book online from the American Bantam Association.

Next we'll taking a look at breeding by family lines to build uniformity in your flock.

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