Wow! I really liked this video and that you were showing some adult characteristics. Those of us still reaching for better type can actually see what some of those things are. I’m sold on the peat moss, too! So tired of the pine flakes because they take forever to compost down 🤦♀️
For the hatch room brooders, I switched over to a super fine chopped shaving, but the jury is still out on breakdown time. It mixes well with the Peat Moss though once we get it piled. At some point I want to get the adults into the sort cage for more trait breakdown videos, especially the girls.
I have the same problem or blessing (all at the same time). I have 5 lines of Partridge Chanteclers, with a 6th hybrid line coming next year (this is a total experiment I am doing with another breeder). I have cast the net wide to get the genetics that I need to perfect my line. I am not at all against line breeding or inbreeding, but you can breed that way till dooms day, and if you do not have the genetic characteristic you need in that line, you will never get it. I like they way Sigrid Van Dort explains it. You are making soup, the soup is your best line, and the other lines are there to add the correct seasoning to perfect the flavour. So my best line gives me really nice birds, my best penciling and type, but they are too small and too light in hackle and somewhat light in ground colour. I also had fertility problems with the males. So I was able to get some nice size birds from a distantly related line and it fixed my fertility problem, which really was my biggest problem. But that line did not fix my hackle problem, most of this cross are light coloured birds, and this line gave me a bit too much fluff which obscures the penciling in my females (I did get 2 excellent show birds from this cross). I had the opportunity to get three more lines through hatching eggs, so I took them to see what is useful, the one line has really nice size, the second line has nice reddish colour, not straw colour in the hackle, and the third line has given me a nice penciled female with tighter feathering, unrelated to my original birds. I cull lots and hard, and I have managed to keep a small flock of my original birds pure. I add new blood through the females (they breed truer) and with the exception of my first infusion to fix my fertility, I will not add any outside blood to my main flock until they are 3/4 related and have gone through a rigours selection process. I will keep 1 or 2 pullets from these lines, only excellent birds, but it gives me the seasoning I need to perfect my flock.
Yes! Exactly! I'm starting to get past the hump of "soupy", transitioning over to better consistency. I always say "3 more years" and this time I think it's true. My line has gotten pretty reliable in picking up a bit of a "bowling ball" shape between 6-8 weeks, when compared to other breeds or lines.
@@arcadianorchard I have two lines that I keep to support my main line with genes I might think they need, or down the road to add some fresh blood because they are getting too tightly bred. But I am wondering if I should just cross those two lines, get a sizeable hatch, and do a hard selection, after all, every year of selection improves a line, and then I have one line out of two, but hopefully have kept the best genetics, just to keep my flocks manageable! I have too many birds!
@@pseudopetrus I always "keep too many" and select hard as they mature towards 2 years old. From there, rather than known relation/pen, I spend much more time aligning who the better birds are for each. So for a given male, I will select out the best match in females and most of his girls will end up looking pretty similar. I'm very much "survival of the fittest" and keep a firm grip on vigor/health. There's been some pretty nice birds in type/color that we ate for not being as strong as they should be. I'm hoping that keeps me out of the corner of infertility or line breeding suppression. I never, ever keep a male that was picked on or submissive but I also don't retain the heathen aggressors who don't know when to stop. An old timer once told me that he keeps the wildest males but I prefer to look for the sanest and most active. The ones that give off the impression of intelligence and who actually manage a flock well. I try to keep a male in each pen and back ups with growouts, but sometimes I'll find a reason to cull one and will use another over 2 pens, escorting him back and forth. I haven't yet had a male who wouldn't willingly walk himself back and forth between pens, once he knew what I was asking of him. 😂 As they start coming of age is when I go through the older pens and sort/select/merge or cull, back filling the pens with young stock that sorted out as "promising, grow longer" I started with a pretty soupy mess of genetics, so it's taken a systematic approach to tease out traits, cull through junk, breed past flaws... Just to get them cleaned up. Over the years I've seen a lot of folks complain that the Bresse have weak genetics and a shallow gene pool. I disagree. I think they were sloppily bred when first brought over and not even the original importer did their due diligence of scrubbing the genetics, leaving them riddled with recessive traits and flaws. Then spiral/clan breeding to keep that mess going. All they need is proper breeding work, hard selection and ruthless culling to get past the 3rd generation "hump", to breed onward into better and more predictable birds. THEN split those better/clean birds into lines and THEN spiral/clan breed once they're ready. Another old timer explained to me that if you want to see what faults/flaws are in a line/genetic pool, breed known siblings together. That'll show you every problem they carry. Look for the unaffected birds to move forward with. I haven't tried it directly but have worked through half siblings, which showed that he might be onto something. He had been breeding for quite awhile and is a bit of a geneticist. Here soon I need to start pair hatching, to really amp the quantity from the best of the best. Then I can do the sibling test which ought to show what progress I have made over the last several years, in terms of undesired trait elimination. It took a LONG time to hatch myself into having males that were worth breeding back to. Some folks start off by breeding daughters back to sires and then wonder why they have such stubborn flock problems further on down the line. I did the reverse and would use sons/grandsons back into the female line, with decent results.
@@arcadianorchard Crossing half sibs has worked for me, always one side on my best line, and the variety comes from my other lines. I do it both ways, relatedness through the males or the females, as long as each bird is quality! I hope your followers are reading these posts, you give such good insights!
@@pseudopetrus I hope so too, there's some good ones on other videos from Kerby Jackson, he makes me feel like I don't know much when he starts up with his knowledge. 😅 I have noticed a direct correlation of the females throwing their structure stronger than the males, or their "prettier" details. I've used some fairly fugly looking males because they were extra meaty and it was the female choice that cleaned up the offspring in looks, so long as they were just as meaty.
That's a good looking Rooster.
I see you have few hens with the raw back also.
Good stuff pal!
Always on the Go and very informative thank you
managing separate pens is a constant challenge, never seem to have enough space.
For me adding new bird in a pen at night always works out for the best
Wow! I really liked this video and that you were showing some adult characteristics. Those of us still reaching for better type can actually see what some of those things are. I’m sold on the peat moss, too! So tired of the pine flakes because they take forever to compost down 🤦♀️
For the hatch room brooders, I switched over to a super fine chopped shaving, but the jury is still out on breakdown time. It mixes well with the Peat Moss though once we get it piled. At some point I want to get the adults into the sort cage for more trait breakdown videos, especially the girls.
Just candled got 2 from pen 5 ! Another week left 🤞
I have the same problem or blessing (all at the same time). I have 5 lines of Partridge Chanteclers, with a 6th hybrid line coming next year (this is a total experiment I am doing with another breeder). I have cast the net wide to get the genetics that I need to perfect my line. I am not at all against line breeding or inbreeding, but you can breed that way till dooms day, and if you do not have the genetic characteristic you need in that line, you will never get it. I like they way Sigrid Van Dort explains it. You are making soup, the soup is your best line, and the other lines are there to add the correct seasoning to perfect the flavour. So my best line gives me really nice birds, my best penciling and type, but they are too small and too light in hackle and somewhat light in ground colour. I also had fertility problems with the males. So I was able to get some nice size birds from a distantly related line and it fixed my fertility problem, which really was my biggest problem. But that line did not fix my hackle problem, most of this cross are light coloured birds, and this line gave me a bit too much fluff which obscures the penciling in my females (I did get 2 excellent show birds from this cross). I had the opportunity to get three more lines through hatching eggs, so I took them to see what is useful, the one line has really nice size, the second line has nice reddish colour, not straw colour in the hackle, and the third line has given me a nice penciled female with tighter feathering, unrelated to my original birds. I cull lots and hard, and I have managed to keep a small flock of my original birds pure. I add new blood through the females (they breed truer) and with the exception of my first infusion to fix my fertility, I will not add any outside blood to my main flock until they are 3/4 related and have gone through a rigours selection process. I will keep 1 or 2 pullets from these lines, only excellent birds, but it gives me the seasoning I need to perfect my flock.
Yes! Exactly! I'm starting to get past the hump of "soupy", transitioning over to better consistency. I always say "3 more years" and this time I think it's true. My line has gotten pretty reliable in picking up a bit of a "bowling ball" shape between 6-8 weeks, when compared to other breeds or lines.
@@arcadianorchard I have two lines that I keep to support my main line with genes I might think they need, or down the road to add some fresh blood because they are getting too tightly bred. But I am wondering if I should just cross those two lines, get a sizeable hatch, and do a hard selection, after all, every year of selection improves a line, and then I have one line out of two, but hopefully have kept the best genetics, just to keep my flocks manageable! I have too many birds!
@@pseudopetrus I always "keep too many" and select hard as they mature towards 2 years old. From there, rather than known relation/pen, I spend much more time aligning who the better birds are for each. So for a given male, I will select out the best match in females and most of his girls will end up looking pretty similar. I'm very much "survival of the fittest" and keep a firm grip on vigor/health. There's been some pretty nice birds in type/color that we ate for not being as strong as they should be. I'm hoping that keeps me out of the corner of infertility or line breeding suppression. I never, ever keep a male that was picked on or submissive but I also don't retain the heathen aggressors who don't know when to stop.
An old timer once told me that he keeps the wildest males but I prefer to look for the sanest and most active. The ones that give off the impression of intelligence and who actually manage a flock well. I try to keep a male in each pen and back ups with growouts, but sometimes I'll find a reason to cull one and will use another over 2 pens, escorting him back and forth. I haven't yet had a male who wouldn't willingly walk himself back and forth between pens, once he knew what I was asking of him. 😂
As they start coming of age is when I go through the older pens and sort/select/merge or cull, back filling the pens with young stock that sorted out as "promising, grow longer"
I started with a pretty soupy mess of genetics, so it's taken a systematic approach to tease out traits, cull through junk, breed past flaws... Just to get them cleaned up.
Over the years I've seen a lot of folks complain that the Bresse have weak genetics and a shallow gene pool. I disagree. I think they were sloppily bred when first brought over and not even the original importer did their due diligence of scrubbing the genetics, leaving them riddled with recessive traits and flaws. Then spiral/clan breeding to keep that mess going.
All they need is proper breeding work, hard selection and ruthless culling to get past the 3rd generation "hump", to breed onward into better and more predictable birds. THEN split those better/clean birds into lines and THEN spiral/clan breed once they're ready.
Another old timer explained to me that if you want to see what faults/flaws are in a line/genetic pool, breed known siblings together. That'll show you every problem they carry. Look for the unaffected birds to move forward with. I haven't tried it directly but have worked through half siblings, which showed that he might be onto something. He had been breeding for quite awhile and is a bit of a geneticist.
Here soon I need to start pair hatching, to really amp the quantity from the best of the best. Then I can do the sibling test which ought to show what progress I have made over the last several years, in terms of undesired trait elimination. It took a LONG time to hatch myself into having males that were worth breeding back to. Some folks start off by breeding daughters back to sires and then wonder why they have such stubborn flock problems further on down the line. I did the reverse and would use sons/grandsons back into the female line, with decent results.
@@arcadianorchard Crossing half sibs has worked for me, always one side on my best line, and the variety comes from my other lines. I do it both ways, relatedness through the males or the females, as long as each bird is quality! I hope your followers are reading these posts, you give such good insights!
@@pseudopetrus I hope so too, there's some good ones on other videos from Kerby Jackson, he makes me feel like I don't know much when he starts up with his knowledge. 😅 I have noticed a direct correlation of the females throwing their structure stronger than the males, or their "prettier" details. I've used some fairly fugly looking males because they were extra meaty and it was the female choice that cleaned up the offspring in looks, so long as they were just as meaty.
First