Why Use Line Breeding to Keep Your Stock's Traits Fixed?
Mar 15, 2014 Gamefowl101 - Information about gamefowls, specially breeding programs/methods, keeping and conditioning, treatment for some gamefowl's sickness and diseases, gamefowl management and etc. The Clarets Gamefowl History The making of ClaretIn a recent article in one of the magazines, the theory was presented that the White Dominique was infused. Gamefowl101 - Information about gamefowls, specially breeding programs/methods, keeping and conditioning, treatment for some gamefowl's sickness and diseases, gamefowl management and etc. The Clarets Gamefowl History The making of ClaretIn a recent article in one of the magazines, the theory was presented that the White Dominique was infused. From this breeding he had 17 black birds with white specs in them and over 40 brownred looking birds, he then crossed these back on the Brown Reds-having the Kearny White Hackle in them and Hatch blood. They came all dark fowl with green legs. Mike gave Lun Glimore 6 hens and one dark red cock to breed over them.
Old school cockfighters have preserved several different breeds of chickens for a long time. During that time they maintained type and vigor toan unparalleled degree. The methods of breeding to maintain a champion breed actually involve INBREEIDING to understand how to preserve a bloodline's traits.
A famous cocker, Tan Bark once said that “Good breeding is only a matter of intelligent selection of brood fowl…” (Tan Bark, Game Chickens and How to Breed Them, 1964, p. 27). The gamefowl breeder must ALWAYS select for vigor and type regardless of the breeding system in use. Old cockers always strove for prepotency. The goal of any system is to predict with reasonable accuracy the outcome of any particular mating.
For this reason, no gamefowl breeder worth his salt will consistently USE crossbreeding. Cross breeding is only a choice when the cocker has maxed out the potential of his Bloodline's traits and needs to infuse new traits that cannot be accessed except by cross breeding. Old records from breeders consistently indicate that when they do cross breed they do so using the same strain of fowl they were hoping to improve.
Gamefowl Breeding Methods Videos
Gameness is always the top choice of traits. One method utilized by William Morgan, of Morgan Whitehackle fame, and some of the English cockers is called “3 times in and once out.”
This is actually a way of inbreeding to produce a “pure strain.”
The following chart will explain how the system works.First Generation Hen Cock ½ hen ½ cock
Second Generation Hen to son Cock to daughter ¾ hen ¾ cock
Third Generation Hen to grandson Cock to granddaughter 7/8 hen 7/8 cock
Fourth Generation Hen to grandson Cock to granddaughter 15/16 hen 15/16 cock
Now in the 5th generation you breed the 15/16 hen to the 15/16 cock.
Then, choosing the best hen(s) and cock(s) you start over again from the top.
If the cocker chooses to continue line breeding these fowl were what they termed “seed stock” or broodfowl. Seed stock was never used as fighting gamefowl or battle fowl. Instead, they were crossed to a different strain to produce their “battle cocks.” Battle fowl are never used in breeding pens if this system were employed.
In this particular system of 'seed stock' line breeding you choose the three to five best hens and begin the clan mating system. Medal of honor allied assault spearhead widescreen patch. You line bred your best pullets to one cock. Line breeding for experienced game cockers produce excellent offspring with no loss of vigor or gameness.
Old school Gamefowl cockers were able to beat the system so to speak by loading the dice for the inbreeding process—all textbooks on poultry genetics will tell you that inferior results will result from an inbreeding system.
Several key answers can be pinpointed for the success of the inbreeding system.
Sage draughts 9.0. First, A cocker must inbreed only from his most vigorous specimens
Second, weak or substandard offspring are culled ruthlessly.
Third, in any form of line breeding the youthfulness of the stock used is crucial.
Fourth, the same mating is maintained (One cock to one hen) for four or five years. Therefore in 20 years it is possible to have only produced four or five distinct generations. If cockers chance upon a cock and hen mating that produces winners in the pit, then they are mated year after year.
Fifth, keep accurate records of every mating and practice just single matings.
Sixth, only attempt close inbreeding on free range coops. Give the birds every advantage of producing constitutional soundness and vitality
Many cockers practice variations of the line breeding systems. When practicing the rolling-mating, cockers often include side matings of line breeding. When using the clan system the large breeders often kept five to seven clans. (called “yards”). With clan matings, a matriarchal system is used. “New” clans are created or yards of full sisters when a particular hen within the clan produces exceptional sons. That one hen becomes prepotent in the new yard with her daughters.
Of course there will be ridicule and dismissal of these methods by modern experts. But for serious preservationists and small flock owners, gamefowl line breeding methods are tried and true as well as the surest ways to turn simple matings into serious breeding and systematic flock improvement. Traits of winning birds are FIXED or maintained over generations despite the books telling you that the traits will lose gas.
The most awesome thing about raising gamefowl is that the breeder can choose his own system of breeding to create your “own strain” which is a finely tuned mix of inbred fowl with the best traits of that line as the system will permit. And you can even experiment!
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Inbreeding
Inbreeding mates gamefowl within a single bloodline or a single broodhen and fighting stag mating. Here are the methods available:
1. Mating brother & sister- 25% (intensive inbreeding).
2. Mating half-brother & half-sister- 12.5% (moderate inbreeding).
3. Mating uncle & niece; aunt & nephew -12.5% (moderate inbreeding).
4. Mating grandparent & grandchild 12.5% (moderate inbreeding).
5. Mating first cousins - 6.3% (mild inbreeding).
Remember that the purpose of inbreeding is to fix like genes and produce the best traits for your stock. Genes are what make the hereditary traits of the bird appear in its conformation, health and innate fighting traits. The more you inbreed; the more like genes are fixed. These will be further boosted by inbreeding birds having the same phenotype characters tied to some genotypes. Since traits are lessened from one partner to the other by any mating by 60 percent, inbreeding allows you to breed back the traits to come up with offspring as close to the original champion through careful culling and there CAN be consistent production of good birds throughout generations.
When you inbreed fowls, there will eventually be recessive gene-dominant by-products and these must be ruthlessly culled. Genetics is an exact science and one only need keep very comprehensive records to single out what traits and what genes come from which fowl from bloodlines being crossed. Some breeders maintain highly inbred strains of gamefowls as their seed fowls. These breeders do not fight broodfowls (males that sire a bloodline); they only fight battlefowls (males that fight in a derby).
Of those breeders who maintain inbred strains and cross them for hybrid vigor (heterosis), broodfowls and battlefowls are not the same. Chosen broodfowls do not fight nor are battlefowls bred. The idea behind this method, the more inbred your seed fowls are the greater will be the 'nick' or hybrid vigor when they are crossed.
This method relies on line breeding the broodfowls before crossing. Line-breeding is inbreeding mates to one individual broodfowl. And in each generation, the breeder 'double ups' the genes of the offspring. By line-breeding we try to produce individual(s) as genetically as close to the original broodfowl sire as mentioned earlier. If you are a backyard breeder, chances are you do not have enough space to accommodate too many broodfowl for line-breeding.
In this case, line-breed only to one broodfowl. Choose your most potent stag and hen as far as fowl traits appear, and breed back to that individual. Then you can cross the line-bred progeny with other broodfowl.
Heterosis or hybrid vigor will not be as strong as a pure inbred fowl for line-bred crosses, but will produce fighters with traits that complement other traits or add lacking traits from the inbred lines. All depend upon the fight performance and potency of traits of your original pair of broodfowls and the selection process of each mating prior to the cross.
One method of inbreeding made popular by Frank Shy is the Narragansett Method.
This method advocates the continuation and fixing of traits of the bloodline of a potent gamefowl sire to its progeny in 'small doses' by repeated crossing of bloodlines from several mates (cousins to cousins) rather than intensive inbreeding (single bloodline). Using an outstanding broodcock. Single mate him with several hens and choose which ones produce the best offspring. If two hens produce very good fighters with similar fighting traits—the offspring of these two unrelated hens should be crossed. This will be half-brother and half-sister mating which is 12.5% inbreeding. If you want to infuse new blood, be sure the fowl is the same as your original trio in conformation and fighting style.
Crossbreeding is the mating of different bloodlines to each other. This manner of breeding is made to combine the good qualities of 2 different broodfowl bloodlines.If your gamefowl has good gameness and needs better cutting traits or endurance, this is when you infuse new blood via cross breeding.
Gamefowl Breeding Method Bloodline
Three methods of cross-breeding gamefowls are:
1. STRAIGHT-CROSS--In this method, two strains are mated. If one likes the power-speed blend of Ruble Hatch and Black Traveler, the two are crossed and the male offspring will take after the hens.
2. THREE WAY-CROSS--A family of Kelso that cuts better in open sparring and needing more wallop or power hitting, can be matched with an even cross like a Hatch-Claret and breed it over the Kelso hens. The progeny out of this mating will retain the desired traits of the Kelso, cutting ability of the Claret, and the power of the Hatch.
3. FOUR WAY CROSS—Two straight crosses are matched like the mating of a Hatch-Claret to a Kelso-Roundhead cross.
One sure thing to watch out for anyone who does cross-breeding is that cross breeds or hybrids almost eventually pass along their worst genetic traits, so keep strict records so that dominant traits are kept within the crossed bloodlines and cull weak birds.
Another breeding method worth mentioning is Out-Breeding. Out-Breeding is the mating of the same strain of fowls that belong to different breeders but kept almost pure. If you have a strain of Kelso and you do not want to inbreed or if you have maxed out the traits from your matings, you can procure a Kelso cock from another breeder and breed him over your Kelso hens. Progeny from these matings will still be pure Kelsos.
Oriental Grade BreedingSome backyard breeders blend native Orientals with Western gamefowl. The IVY Method of grading Orientals favors the 1/4 Oriental either in a two or three-way cross. You only need a single Oriental cock to produce 1/2 grade hens.
The key to success in the production of native Oriental grades is as always selection and culling. Select gamefowl with perfect timing that could cut and always top the opponent on every fly. The native cock you should breed should have grade A-plus, gameness when fought at two years old. Oriental types are worth breeding because they are easy to condition for fights and are very resistant to diseases.
There you have it. A basic rundown on the basic breeding methods for gamefowl. Don't discount the tried and tested method of inbreeding for maintaiing a bloodline for as long as you keep meticulous records of mating matches and know how to cull you will keep your champions running for generations.