Shannon bird breeder, if I told you that I'd have to kill you!

No not really, I've bred clearwings for about 35 years, the best ones I've ever bred were from mating clearwing to dilute. Many years ago I got Res. Champion Young Bird at a diploma show with a dark green clearwing bred from a dilute hen.

 

Shannon bird breeder, if I told you that I'd have to kill you!

 

Yes that is my plan Clearwing .....Dilute to clearwing

Shannon bird breeder, if I told you that I'd have to kill you!

No not really, I've bred clearwings for about 35 years, the best ones I've ever bred were from mating clearwing to dilute. Many years ago I got Res. Champion Young Bird at a diploma show with a dark green clearwing bred from a dilute hen.

 

 

dont kill me okay thank you now to get sume good dilute that are not spilt greywing

can you post a photo off one of your clearwings

thank's shannon

What you plan to do takes discipline and a very good eye for whats in your aviary and that speaks of knowledge and experience. I am not sure I am at that stage yet, but I aim to be. While we novices do our own culling and not let the bigger boys who have offered, in to do it for us, I guess we are held back. The bigger more successful breeders in our state do offer to do our culling but a prime fear would be to lose all bar a small handful of our birds in the aviary and stand there like.. :rofl: It would makie us think we were going backwards to see what little we had left after someone's elses cull of our birds. BUT I guess its what we have to do at some point and most likely sooner rather than later.

Re the naming of birds.......some special ones here get names, some members of BBC expect names of our birds and the rest I recognise by eye and confirm by ring numbers and records. Who could keep track of 30 odd grey greens that all look the same and still give them names...........not me Naming some birds is a part of what started us in this game......breeding pet type budgies in the beginning. So some of us still do it, but minimally. If some of my old original pet breeding stock were to find its way into my aviary now, I would wonder what that pin headed budgie was doing there.

C~est la vie

I think Shannon when you put a clearwing to a dilute or young will be clearwing.

Yes Shannon I will post some photos soon, at the moment my birds are in a heavy moult and look shocking. FYI dilutes are recessive to other varieties and as such a good dilute is an excellent bird to have in the birdroom as it will help all minor varieties, but please remember it must be a GOOD dilute. this year I will breed dilute to dilute for the first time, maybe someone can tell me if they have tried this mating before.

Kaz I had someone come here yesterday (CW) and I closed my eyes and said go for it , didn't even care if they were pedigrees I was working on as I haven't the room for a lot of birds and I am aiming on keeping the best of the best.

And gee did CW go for it, he was shucking them left right and centre into my cull cage, no just joking CW but quite a few went in there.

C'Mon Splat I was gentle.

Kaz I had someone come here yesterday (CW) and I closed my eyes and said go for it , didn't even care if they were pedigrees I was working on as I haven't the room for a lot of birds and I am aiming on keeping the best of the best.

And gee did CW go for it, he was shucking them left right and centre into my cull cage, no just joking CW but quite a few went in there.

 

 

Yep, gotta bite the bullet and do exactly the same here.

 

okay feeling guilty, yes you were very gentle

Edited January 21, 201015 yr by splat

Yes Shannon I will post some photos soon, at the moment my birds are in a heavy moult and look shocking. FYI dilutes are recessive to other varieties and as such a good dilute is an excellent bird to have in the birdroom as it will help all minor varieties, but please remember it must be a GOOD dilute. this year I will breed dilute to dilute for the first time, maybe someone can tell me if they have tried this mating before.

 

 

that will be good cw how has good dilute's you will get all clearwings but thay will be spilt dilute am i rite

Edited January 21, 201015 yr by shannon bird breeder

While we novices do our own culling and not let the bigger boys who have offered, in to do it for us, I guess we are held back. The bigger more successful breeders in our state do offer to do our culling but a prime fear would be to lose all bar a small handful of our birds in the aviary and stand there like.. :grouphug: It would makie us think we were going backwards to see what little we had left after someone's elses cull of our birds. BUT I guess its what we have to do at some point and most likely sooner rather than later.

 

i did that not long ago remember kaz ..lol after he was finished i am left with the remainder of

mabe 30 birds could be less but i chose to do this as so i can get ahead start Early and not waste time with breeding some good hens for myself

i feel that his advice was good when i asked what he did he basically said he culled to what he saw recently at show stranded (if that makes sense) i totally trust hes put me in the right direction

whats more he did not ask questions on who breed what just weather i was happy to let that bird go

i did cull them from show breeding but have kept them for my pet stock so i didn't really let go

im going to bite bullet and take them all to pet shop once my new chicks come out of nest i guess im all for the hard cull theory but i know show breeding is not easy and one single genetic trate that's faulty or weak could wreak years of hard work

so im quiet happy to be strict on my breed chicks and keep only the best and breed them again to a cock whom i know to be prepotant

Edited January 21, 201015 yr by KAZ

It is the time of year when I start evaluating last years chicks, it has become obvious [ as I'm sure it always has] the best chicks came from the best birds. Therefore I intend to change my breeding methods this year. Taking a leaf out of the racing or stud cattle industry, I'm going to use only my best six cock birds, they will be mated to the best 18 hens, with each hen having two rounds. Therefore each of my best cocks will have six rounds increasing the number of chicks they produce.

Then my only problem is keeping all the other cocks I need to show, as I like to support both Diploma shows and club events, I will have to fly quite a few birds in the avairy which will never be used to breed. Anyway these are my thoughts for the upcoming season, I'll start breeding in March. I'd love to hear yours. Clearwing

 

How have you chosen the 6 best cock birds? I know you are running with 3 different lines, so 2 cocks per line? and are the hens specifically chosen from the line or chosen on feature alone?

 

Are the different lines been bred for different features that one day the will become 1 line??

 

We each have differnt ways of doing it, and its interesting for other breeders to understand how and why??

Good question Heath.

Yes three lines are each being bred independantly ie: two cocks from each line being mated to six hens from the same line.

Eventually these lines will be crossed to combine the dominant features together.

Line 1. Excells in bone structure and frame.

Line 2. Excells in width of shoulder.

Line 3. Has dirrectional feather [mannes line]

Whilst all three lines have these features to some extent, I have highlighted the best features of each line eg. line 2 is from Bruce Sheppards stud and he and Colin have spent years developing a stud with shoulder width[thats no secret]

Good question Heath.

Yes three lines are each being bred independantly ie: two cocks from each line being mated to six hens from the same line.

Eventually these lines will be crossed to combine the dominant features together.

Line 1. Excells in bone structure and frame.

Line 2. Excells in width of shoulder.

Line 3. Has dirrectional feather [mannes line]

Whilst all three lines have these features to some extent, I have highlighted the best features of each line eg. line 2 is from Bruce Sheppards stud and he and Colin have spent years developing a stud with shoulder width[thats no secret]

 

 

Thanks Geoff - I think its important for breeders to understand that while each of these lines are being bred for that particularly feature, that's not there only feature. Example Line 2 being bred for width of shoulder, i'm sure that they would be good depth of mask, good spots, good cap feather, and have no obvious faults.

 

The mistake breeders make is selecting a bird which excells in a certain feature and creating a line at the expense of other important features. In a very short period of time that have cemented that feature, but have also cemented faults, by choosing the wrong birds to start with.