Culling Your Birds - Consider more than just Visual Qualities
By Brett Doran
Most literature on culling birds concentrates on visual qualities and pedigree. Lets look at other areas that should also have an influence over your decisions. We often read about the super budgies of today being very poor breeders. The first thing we blame is the modern heavy feathered show birds we all desire for the exhibition show bench. Perhaps we should look at ourselves as stock persons. I believe there is too much emphasis on the show qualities of the bird and not enough on the genetic and physiological aspects of our birds when culling.
We are all guilty of keeping birds that meet the criteria as far as looks are concerned but perform poorly in the breeding cabinet. We end up cementing their poor breeding traits into our best lines over a number of years, then wonder why our productivity drops off. While breeding big headed, magnificent feathered specimens for the show bench, we also need to carefully cull out those specimens that show lethargy, produce small clutches, poor shaped eggs, display negative temperaments. We need to balance the visual exhibition qualities against physiological and the hidden traits. Too many breeders put the show bench first and forget the rest. Perhaps settling for a slightly lesser quality more fertile bird may pay dividends in the long term.
COCKS
- Do you keep the big, buff cock that sits in the flight showing no interest in other birds? OR The slightly lesser quality brother who flies around chatting up anything that moves and even things that don't?
- Do you keep for your breeding team, the BIS winner who cowers in the corner of the breeding cabinet whenever the hen comes out of the nest box? OR The slightly lesser brother who chases the hen out of the nest box to mate on a regular basis?
HENS
- Do you keep the big, buff hen who sits in the same spot in the aviary, all day every day, showing no interest in participating in any activity around her. OR The slightly lesser sister who chases after the cocks and who is ready to be tread by the cocks at every opportunity.
- Do you keep the quality hen who lays one or two eggs per clutch? OR The slightly lesser sister who consistently produces clutches of 6 or 8 eggs.
- Do you keep the outstanding hen that lays poor shaped and sized eggs which seldom are fertile or don't hatch? OR The slightly lesser sister which lays consistently shaped and sized eggs which consistently tend to hatch.
These are just some of the factors which contribute to productivity in our breeding rooms. Knowing your birds and their habits is vital in producing consistent results. Record keeping regarding the above traits is important for future pairing decisions. We make notes on anything significant or out of the ordinary that takes place in our birdroom or breeding cabinets.
Maybe it is time for the many breeders throughout the world who are experiencing fertility problems to consider the above. As stated earlier a small step backwards now may result in great leaps forward in the future. As I have stated many times " If you can't breed 'em, you can't show 'em."