Deductive Genetics
This course deals with the whys and wherefores in gamefowl breeding that the masters failed to explain. It is actually about applied deductive reasoning with the hope of molding a new approach to gamefowl breeding by making the process more scientific and the outcome more predictable. The idea is simply explaining why something is likely to happen. It’s the why that is important, not the how.
In gamefowl breeding, people advance observations without any supporting explanations. And many accept such observations without asking for explanations. How many times have we heard the observation that stags take their traits from the mother? How many times have we heard that the hen contributes 60-70% to the traits of the offspring?
Likely these observations are true. However, have we heard enough explanation, why? None, or very vague explanations, if any. Yet, these observations must have a grain of truth as these have been handed down from one generation of breeders to another, virtually uncontested.
Actually, breeders during the pre-Mendelian era had unconsciously benefited from then already existing but yet unknown laws of inheritance of chicken genes. They reached specific instances without being aware of scientific principles. No wonder, the master could not tell us then, because they themselves did not know about these principles.
Now, armed with knowledge, we can reverse the process and apply deductive reasoning. We will apply the principles of genetics to reach specific instances.
Let it be stated at the very onset, this lesson is not about in-depth genetics. This is mainly an extrapolation on why and how a little knowledge in the science of genetics helps in our practical breeding of gamefowl. In gamefowl breeding, practical knowledge, not in-depth genetics, is most important. After all, there is no science on the study of roosters’ show ability.
Mastering the art of judging show ability and knowing how to produce gamefowl with the right gameness attributes may only be acquired by personally breeding and showing a few hundreds of roosters over a period of some years. Nonetheless, knowledge of genetics is important. A good practical breeder with some knowledge in the science of breeding will enjoy a big advantage as science will complement the art.
The application of science allows the chicken industry—meat and egg in particular--to progress much. Modern-day breeding programs, based on sound genetic principles, facilitate the emergence of better chicken meat and eggs. But it is hardly the case in gamefowl breeding wherein progress is registered in
logistics, infrastructures, and nutrition, but not in genetics.
Of course, because it is easier to understand the genetics behind egg-laying or fast growth than the genetics of a gamefowl’s show ability. And, also, the chicken meat and egg sectors are big business worldwide, gamefowl breeding is not. Giant companies and the best minds are not interested in such expensive research into the genetics of gamefowl.
Thus, gamefowl breeding remains mostly an art. Even today many of the gamefowl breeders are able to produce good gamefowl, not by learning genetics, but by the sheer art of selection. And maybe, logical thinking. Most experienced gamefowl breeding starts with their practical observation and work their way to infer something out of these observations. But without knowledge of scientific principles, they usually end up with nothing.
Not a few old-timers would contend that the hen, not the cock, contributes more traits to the offspring, although genetically both parents contribute 50% of the offspring’s genetic information. This is their practical observation, and they maintain this without knowing why because of the lack of support of a scientific study.
Another common observation in gamefowl breeding is that the stag gets its traits,
especially show ability, from the mother. Another common observation is that black roosters are speed roosters and green legged greys are strong and game. Likewise, they cannot explain why. Although proponents of this kind of conclusion fail to offer explanations, Deductive Genetics can.
Deductive Genetics is combining practical knowledge in gamefowl breeding with the science of genetics, drawing connections between conclusions developed from practical experience and the scientific hypothesis, theories, and principles of genetics. The concept of Deductive Genetics is an application of the science of genetics in aid of the art of selection, hoping to make selection easier and more scientific. And, results more predictable.
When I thought of applying deductive genetics to gamefowl breeding, I never
entertained any notion that it will produce sure winners. I believed it will only make the selection of brood fowl simpler, easier, and more accurate. And, for years now I have been studying and applying the concept, particularly in breeding the Blakliz, a bloodline I originated.
However, I managed to refrain from raising the topic in my writings, lectures, and seminars, and in my blogs. Somehow, for some time I had succeeded in keeping it as my little trade secret. My first mention of deductive genetics is in the study on “Science of Gamefowl” for Warhawk Gamefowl Feeds (submitted in May 2018), I have a humble part in the research and writing of the said study.
In fact, many parts of this course are excerpts from the said Warhawk study. However, in this course are additional examples of deductive genetics in practice and more detailed explanations of the concept.
Right Way of Starting Right
The advice is always to “start right.” What is starting right? Starting right half a century ago meant importing breeding materials from Americans whose roosters
dominated the competition in the Philippines. Starting right a quarter of a century ago meant buying your materials from local big names who consistently wiped out their American counterparts in the WSC.
Invariably the advice meant acquiring good breeding materials. Now starting right could also mean learning a little genetics; setting achievable goals; and of course, understanding what a gamefowl is. Without these, you will not be able to recognize the best materials to start with.
To effectively absorb breeding concepts and ideas you need basic knowledge in genetics in addition to a lot of common sense. This course connects practical observations to scientific principles. Yes, because expertise in gamefowl breeding actually comes from some science and lots of experience in producing and breeding hundreds of roosters.
As a practical breeder, you need fundamental knowledge of genetics in order to enjoy and get satisfaction from what you are doing. You cannot enjoy doing something you are ignorant of. Basic knowledge will enable you to set genetic objectives that you can use as a yardstick to determine whether you had succeeded or failed.
Such objectives could be simple like producing chickens with a straight comb. Or complex like combining different show traits to produce roosters with power, speed, flight, and shuffle--attributes that might be opposites but might yet converge in a bloodline. Without essential knowledge or if you are ignorant of genetics you will not know how to start toward your goal, or you may not even be able to formulate a goal. This knowledge will complement the practical experience.
This part of the course discusses genetic terms, principles, and practical concepts to help you create the gamefowl you want. Also, this will help you set achievable goals in your breeding program.
Understanding good gamefowl
Whatever, your goals are, and regardless of your capabilities, in gamefowl breeding, you have to produce your own gamefowl. The most important thing is to breed for a superior bloodline type. A bloodline must have bloodline characteristics. Individuals belonging to a particular bloodline must breed true-to-type.
Type refers to many things such as body conformation, station, size, plumage and leg color, comb shape, and show ability. Each breed or bloodline must have a specific type. Bloodline types differentiate an Asil gamefowl from a Peruvian gamefowl from an American Game. This is also why a hatch should be different from a roundhead.
It is not however easy to set type. Moreover in gamefowl breeding wherein show ability is most important. You have to proceed to knowing the subject further because to produce good gamefowl you have to understand what good gamefowl is.
What is a good gamefowl?
To plain cockers and gamblers, a good gamefowl is a gamefowl that wins. They will simply ask if a bloodline has won in the World Slasher Cup and other big events. Many small-time gamblers or common cockers follow suit and set this as their standard too, although they themselves do not have the capability to join such events.
To a peddler, a good gamefowl is a gamefowl that will sell for a good profit. That is why these types of gamefowl producers just replicate famous bloodlines and advertise they have pure F1s and seed fowl of such and such. They don’t even bother to check the real meaning of pure, F1, and seed fowl. In fact, some don’t acquire genuine materials, they simply drop bloodline names.
However, there are indeed scientific reasons why a gamefowl is good. But only a serious breeder will bother to study these elements so he can consistently breed based on these scientific principles. The elements of good gamefowl are substance form and function. The substance is the genotype. The form is the phenotype. The function is show ability and pre-potency. The three, in their best perspective, make a good gamefowl. These three are highly correlated.
This part of the course explains in detail what is substance, form, and function. Understanding these three elements is the key to producing good gamefowl.
Achieving good substance. An ideal genotype is either pure or heavy with the traits you desire to constitute your bloodline’s type.
The ideal substance is one that will enable the characteristics you want in your gamefowl to manifest in order for it to fulfill its function. Therefore your aim for seed fowl for the traits you want.
Pure
In gamefowl breeding, the word pure is often used to describe the purity of bloodlines such as pure possum sweater or pure Sanford yellow legged hatch or pure Travis Clark Kelso. One meaning of pure is pure of a bloodline. Most likely people also think of pure as invariably an inbred individual.
There is another meaning of the word pure, though. Pure of a trait or characteristic. This concept, although not known to many gamefowl breeders, is the more correct meaning of the word pure in breeding and genetics.
So what really is pure?
One meaning of pure is pure of a bloodline. In this sense, there is no pure gamefowl nowadays because all new bloodlines are the result of mixing older bloodlines. But in gamefowl breeding, the purity of an individual is judged by the composition of its bloodline name.
In reality, being pure of a name is nothing. Inbreeding being pure of the good traits is everything. There is another meaning of the word pure that is pure of a trait or characteristic. When a real breeder says that an individual is bred pure, it means it is pure of particular traits that are typical of the breed. Inbreeding and genetics, definitely there is pure.
Achieving good substance
An ideal genotype is either pure or heavy with the traits you desire to constitute your bloodline’s type. The ideal substance is one that will enable the characteristics you want in your gamefowl to manifest in order for it to fulfill its function. Therefore you aim for seed fowl for the traits you want.
Purifying traits
Once you have identified the characteristics you want in your gamefowl, and you have acquired or created your seed fowl, you may now proceed to further purify said characteristics. The common practice of purifying traits is inbreeding or the mating of related individuals.
However, since inbreeding minimizes genetic variations, likewise, it increases the risk of inbreeding depression.
Avoid inbreeding
But inbreeding is not the only way of purifying desirable traits. We can purify good traits without resorting to inbreeding. Yes, that’s it. You can purify traits even without inbreeding, and there are even advantages to it. You can make desirable traits homozygous or predominant by selective breeding, particularly positive assortative mating or mating like to like of unrelated individuals.
If you do this, you reduce the risk of unseen identical bad alleles as in the case of related individuals. However, because you select for the desired traits you are nonetheless assured that these traits are common in the individuals you mate and can become homozygous or preponderant even if these
individuals are not related.
Breeding for show ability
Breeding for show ability is the most complex job of a gamefowl breeder. For centuries breeding for game characteristics had been done mostly by trial and error, without scientific principles to guide the old-time breeders. Now, the situation is much better. Today breeders can be guided by genetic principles that make the task simpler and more accurate. Advances in genetics have taken away much of trial and error from gamefowl breeding. However, when it comes to show ability, it is still the subjective assessment of the experienced breeder that counts most. But there are now helpful scientific principles:
Types of show characteristics
From these ideas, we, at RB Sugbo, have found out there are two manners by which traits dictate show ability. The first one is the types of traits and how these traits could be introduced to a bloodline and inherited by subsequent generations. The other aspect is how these type of traits interact with one
another.
First, there are three types. One we classified as “Essential Wild Type” (EWT) traits. Then there are “Improvable Wild Type” (IWT) characteristics. The third type is the traits we classify under “Mandatory Mutation” (MM). EWT are the traits that will naturally manifest in gamefowl. These traits can be easily inherited from the hen. On the other hand, IWTs are traits that will naturally manifest in wild type
form but need complementary efforts by the breeder to enhance.
Finally, MMs are mutations that are not necessary for the survival of chicken in the wild but vital for the survival of gamefowl in the pit. It is the task of the breeder to put these traits and keep them in the bloodline.
The interaction of traits
The second aspect is how the different traits that dictate show ability interact with one another. The different types could interact as either supplement or complement one another. To us, show traits complement each other when only the presence of both will result in certain show characteristics to manifest. For example the EWTs' sharp instinct and quick reflex are always necessary for most show traits to manifest. The two are complementary with each other and often complementary with other fighting traits.
Traits supplement each other when together they work better. Similar to interactions that result in heterosis. For example, gameness, endurance, aggressiveness are supplementary with one another.
Some bloodlines exhibit a higher degree of expression in one class of traits than the others, however, a good breeder always sees to it that all three are present in good grade in his battle fowl. That is why the blending of two or more bloodlines is often necessary because a breeder will want to have these three types of traits adequately-balanced in his battle fowl. This is where the breeder’s knowledge in the interactions of the different types is most important.
Deductive reasoning suggests that wild types are advantageous and dominant so these can be left to the natural law of inheritance. Gamefowl breeders can concentrate on developing, through intelligent selective breeding, the necessary non-wild type traits.
Brood fowl
In gamefowl breeding what is of vital importance is the quality of your breeding materials. After you get an idea of what kind of gamefowl to produce and how to set the characteristics you desire, both phenotype and genotype, then now you have the fundamental knowledge to start your breeding venture or reset your program based on this new-found knowledge. It’s time to acquire the materials you will start with.
When you scout for materials to acquire for breeding, you are indeed looking for seed fowl. A seed fowl is a fowl with which you started a breeding program. But there is another meaning to the term seed fowl. A seed fowl should be a prepotent fowl, meaning pure of or heavy with desirable traits, not necessarily pure of a bloodline name. To a breeder out to set his own bloodline a seed fowl is either pure or heavy of the features, he wants in his bloodline type.
Look for seed fowl
When you are out to breed your own gamefowl, you ought to look for seed fowl for the characteristics you want in your bloodline. Yes seed fowl, not a pure of bloodline name. There are gamefowl pure of bloodline names that are not prepotent, thus, not a seed fowl. A seed fowl can pass on to offspring certain desirable traits because it is pre-potent for these desirable traits.
A seed fowl can be a pure of a bloodline or a blend; an in-bred or a crossbred. It doesn’t matter as long as it is prepotent for desired traits and thus can pass on these traits. Prepotency is the factor that separates a good brood cock from a good battle fowl, and a valuable hen from an ordinary hen. Prepotency is what makes seed fowl.
How to select brood fowl
Selecting a brood cock is much like selecting a good battle cock. Selecting a hen is more complicated and less accurate. Nonetheless, most of the factors that apply to selecting a brood cock apply to selecting a hen. The only difference is that you don’t select a hen based on its fighting ability. Select a brood cock like you select a battle fowl with the additional concern that the individual to be utilized as brood cock has better chances of being prepotent.
So, you have a potential brood cock. Nice looks, great fighting ability. How then do you judge the cock’s potential to be a prepotent brood cock? Well, if you bred the particular cock, you know if the traits it manifested are fixed in its genotype. For example if it manifested speed in sparring, and you have been breeding this particular line for speed over an ample period, then you will know that the speed of the cock was bred into it and not just acquired through some lucky draw of genes.
If you didn’t breed the cock yourself, then, there would be some problem. You can ask the breeder how this particular cock was bred. But, best is to ask the breeder if you can watch spars of the full brothers of this cock. If its full brothers sparring similar to the potential brood cock then chances are good that the characteristics they all possess are deeply rooted in their bloodline and thus can be passed on to succeeding generations.
Order Excelite C Plus OnlineThe situation will become more complicated when selecting brood hens. Unlike cocks, you cannot spar hens and select based on show ability. You can only judge the hens by their looks. Since you cannot select hens based on its individual show ability, you have to rely on the collective and average show ability and pit performance of the family, specifically of their full brothers.
You may select females based on assumptions. For the same reasons as in the case of selecting brood cocks, select hens with full brothers that are uniformed in beauty and superb show skills.
The most important factor, however, in selecting brood fowl is the family’s actual pit performance. If selecting from among your own yards it is not a problem of course, since you would have records. When acquiring from a source then you have to determine pit performance by other means. You can do this by asking around, or observing, yourself, the actual pit performance of the line.
It may take time but you better bear with it than suffer the consequences later of not doing so.
Managing seed fowl
If you are privileged or lucky you may be able to acquire seed fowl from good breeders. Mostly, however, you may have to create your seed fowl to be used as foundation of your own bloodline. The task does not end with acquiring your very first seed fowl. Some of the times you will find out that the supposed seed fowl does not produce offspring with traits consistent with what you like in the brood fowl. In this case you either have to discard the entire line or try to improve it.
Sometimes you will find the seed fowl very satisfactory. But even in the latter case you will have to do something to maintain and improve it. In every generation there might be some variations. These variations will increase in both frequency and degree if you do not know how to manage it.
You have to keep and maintain a number of prepotent individuals in the course of your operation. These individuals will ensure the quality of your flock will be maintained or improved even long after the original seed fowl are lost.
Why the hen is important In my many years as an aspiring breeder, I often heard from experienced breeders that the hen is more important than the brood cock. I did not keep too much consideration to the observation. In the first place, nobody among those who told me, told me why. Later, I realized that the masters were referring to importance of the hen in relation to the parents contribution to the traits of individual offspring or individual generation.
Let’s review a basic law of Mendelian genetics which says that each trait is composed of two parts, or alleles, one coming from the father, the other from the mother. Therefore, the genotype of an individual is 50% of the father and 50% of the mother. How come then that many breeders contend that the mother contributes more traits than the father, particularly to the male offspring. Absurd? No. Modern science has discovered new theories, principles and laws about how traits are inherited since the time of Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics.
Why the Hen's side is important
Experienced gamefowl breeders often talk about some traits that ought to be bred from the male and others from the female. However, we have noticed that many times, the observations vary from one breeder to another. Some breeders prefer that a particular characteristic be bred from the hen side, while other breeders prefer the same trait be bred from the cock side. There is no clear cut designation.
Then as usual, there is no clear cut explanation either. But it is true that in chicken breeding, both in commercial meat and egg and in hobby show breeding, breeders maintain a cock side and a hen side of matings. We made researches and consulted experts on why in many livestock and poultry breeding there is always the male and female side. We got explanations.
These are called inheritance emphasized from the male and inheritance emphasized from the female. Then, from all the data we had gathered, we made our own conclusions applicable to game fowl breeding.
Gene pooling
Another good means of fine tuning and maintaining traits in your bloodlines is by keeping separate gene pools for certain groups of characteritics. We at RB Sugbo has what we call as gene banking, a breeding concept we have been practicing for years. The idea is to pool genes of certain phenotypes and genotypes together along with corresponding show traits.
It is sort of gene banking. When you repeatedly put in a line certain desirable traits then you are banking or collecting those traits in the said line or gene pool. When you combine two individual pools or bank of genes into another bloodline or a cross then you are trying to avail of complementarity by gene variations.
For illustration purposes we will discuss our own gene banking process at RB Sugbo.
The female line
The gene pool in the RB Sugbo female line are mostly essential wild type, because these features are most likely affected by strength or weakness of mitochondria, and mitochondria is inherited from the hen. Essential wild types influence instinct and reflex, which are important to show ability; health and
survivability, which are factors for the line’s viability; and egg, fertility and hatching rates, which are vital to reproduction of the line.
This gene bank also contributes much to show attributes such as speed, agility, intelligence, power and other wild type traits that are affected by the quality of mitochondria. Our female gene bank at RB Sugbo is mostly constituted by genes from certain speed families of the Blakliz. Since we originated the Blakliz, we are most familiar with its genotype. Our assumptions of the
hens’ worth are more accurate. We know the Blakliz hens have strong mitochondria.
We know that the Blakliz has sharp instinct and quick reflexes that enable it to be intelligent, agile and fast. The Blakliz in this pool are mostly from the black gene pool, originally from a black of Richard Bates and later to the Black Bonanza. They come black/brownred plumage; black /dark legs; straight comb. Individuals from this pool are likely to possess all around show ability with emphasis on speed.
The male line
The male line at RB Sugbo is focused on the Improvable Wild Type and Mandatory Mutation. We only put in this gene bank qualities such as cutting and gameness, fine structure, good temperament and right tendencies. These are features observable in sparring and actual show. So these are aspects that
can be observed from the males only.
This gene bank is likewise constituted by genes from certain Blakliz families. The genes from this pool come from the Blakliz families that contain the silver (grey) gene. These are the Blakliz families which were infused with Aguirre Hulsey grey sometime ago and lately with the Art Lopez Mel Sims grey.
Another great contributor to this gene pool is the Doyle Watson Shuffler. Individuals from this bank are either black grey or brown red in plumage; dark legs; straight comb. Emphasis on cutting, gameness, and endurance.
Black and Silver
For years we worked on putting in the Blakliz the show traits we desired. The results of our participation in stag derbies the four years, starting 2014, proved satisfactory for us. It was about time to stabilize these traits further and also about time to set a breed standards for the Blakliz. In 2015 we started stabilizing and standardizing the Blakliz. We are effecting the stabilizing and standardizing process in this Black and Silver gene pool.
The Black and Silver as the name implies is a combination of the black female pool and the silver in the male pool. Whereas the black female pool and the silver
male pool are foundation stock. The Black and Silver is an out crosser or parent stock. Individuals from the Black and Silver pool can be effectively crossed with other compatible bloodlines.
In chicken breeding, including game fowl, it helps to breed from parent stock. Parent stocks are produced to produce F1s. The F1s will serve the purpose they are intended for. If for laying, they will lay more eggs. If for meat they grow
bigger faster. For gamefowl shows, they stand good. There must be two sets
of compatible parent stock to produce good F1s. This multi-layer method of breeding is efficient because desired traits are first stabilized in the foundation stock before they are blended into parent stock.
That’s why it is not easy for true breeders to produce parent stocks. Because to produce parent stock you need to breed from stable foundation stocks. Then, there must be four sets of stable foundation stock to produce two sets of unrelated parents that will in turn produce the good F1s.
Gene banking is one good idea to make a seed fowl. Seed fowl for specific traits.
Seed fowl for speed, seed fowl for power, seed fowl for smarts. Each of these lines can be fought “pure” by itself. Because although each is heavy on a particular show trait, each also receives passing grades in the important aspects of the show, meaning no marked weaknesses. You can also blend these pools among themselves or with other bloodlines to take advantage of complementarity of traits.
Scientific Mating
There are many modes of mating, but here we will discuss only the mode most expert game fowl breeders agree, as best, the single mating. Many gamefowl breeders do single mating solely for the purpose of pedigree identification. In order to determine which cock, which hen and which pair produce the best offspring. However, unknown to them, single mating, also fits well with scientific concepts.
For example, the spacing the interval of matings by rotational single matings, augurs well for quality of sperm. Too short or too long intervals between ejaculations have negative effects on sperm quality. In the yard, a brood cock can mate for as many as 20-30 times a day often repeatedly with a few favorite
hens. Imagine the waste.
Flock mating with trap nest
In contrast, flock mating is the presence of a brood cock and several hens together in a single yard or compartment. This means the brood cock can mate with any of the hens. Identifying the exact mother is difficult. In some instances, all the hens in the yard come from the same family, preferably sisters, so at least the composition of the offspring based on bloodline can be established.
Flock-single mating
However, there is a way you could identify the exact mother, even if you put a cock over many hens in a yard. The trick is to provide trap nests in the yard. Once the hen get inside the nest to lay egg, it will be trapped and will remain inside the nest until someone will come to release it after marking the egg accordingly. Like in individual single mating method, in flock – single mating, you could correctly identify the eggs of the hens individually.
Simultaneous multiple single mating
This is one of the centerpiece lessons of this course. Very advanced. As we have discussed earlier, there are ways to single mate one brood cock to a number of hens at a given time. You may do this by separating the hens in single confinements and rotate the brood cock among them, on certain interval. Or you may place a brood cock with several hens in a yard, just like in group or flock mating, but using the trap nest method.
But even these methods will only allow you to have sampling of offspring of the brood cock with many hens, not sampling of the offspring of a particular hen with different brood cocks. In the case of the hen, you are supposed to be only able to single mate one hen with one brood cock at a particular time. So if you want to sample the offspring of a particular hen with several brood cocks or lines, it will take some time.
However, we, at RB Sugbo, have found a way. We can single mate several brood cocks with several hens effecting multiple single mating simultaneously. Thus we multiply the number of sampling combinations that will be available at the same time. If we will put ten brood cocks with a hundred hens in a single yard, then the possible single mating combinations is 1,000 pairs of cock and hen, and still identify the exact father and mother of every chick.
Knowledge in genetics has allowed us to do this method which we call Simultaneous Multiple Single Mating (SIM). Among its practical applications is that it can shorten the time to start setting a new bloodline. One of the longer process in setting a new bloodline is finding the better crosses to set into a new bloodline.
Another practical advantage is that the method benefits from the natural instinct of hens to choose the mates they feel could provide the best offspring.
Specializing and Propagating
When you already have created a bloodline or bloodlines with characteristics that you want, and more or less uniformed and stable, you may propagate these bloodlines. You may now mass produce your bloodlines either for showing them yourself or for selling.
Whichever is your aim, it is more advisable to concentrate on a few selected bloodlines. After all, most famous breeders are known for only a few bloodlines. They specialize on favorites. On the other hand, there are the so-called collectors who keeps so many bloodlines. More likely these collectors are not famous for any single bloodline. Specialists are better on their specialized fields than general practitioners. So chances of producing better gamefowl is higher if you specialized on a few bloodlines.
When you breed only a few bloodlines, your resources will allow you to produce more samples of the few bloodlines you have. The more samples you will have the more accurate your assessment of the bloodline’s value. If you sell your produce, it is also attractive to showcase many individual gamefowl with the same looks than a few each of many different looks. A cord area with a hundred black chickens is nicer to look at than one with 100 heads of assorted plumage colors such as red, grey, gold, dom, brown reds, whites, and others.
The above are from the point of view of mathematics. In genetics there are more logical and scientific explanations to support the idea of breeding more of few rather than few of many. This part of the course explains what genetic and scientific principle will affect the development of a bloodline with small populations.
Monitor performance and propagate
To improve his stock from one generation to another is the desire of every breeder. Aiming for the current generation to be better than the previous one. This is progressive breeding. The aim is to breed winners, but it is always easier said than done. Genetics, by itself, is a complicated science. In the case of breeding game fowl it is the more complicated because of the purpose for which the game fowl is bred.
There are traits that have little or nothing to do with the chicken’s show performance. Conversely, there are traits that have everything to do with winning and losing. If you want to breed winners focus on traits that have something to do with winning. The more desirable traits and the less undesirable traits in a gene pool, the greater the chances of producing desirable individuals.
Forget bloodline names, forget in-breeding. Just put into your gene pool as many desirable traits as possible, traits that have something to do with winning and losing, and chances are you will be producing killers. This is doubly true when talking of polygenic and quantitative traits such as show skills, station, body
structure and other important characteristics of the gamefowl of such nature.
