By Kenny Troiano
“Founder of The Breeders Academy”
When you become a member of the Breeders Academy, there are 5 important steps I would like our members to take before diving into the breeding programs and beginning the process of improving their strains.
By following these 5 steps you will be in a much better place to make real, lasting progress. This process will help you to avoid many hurdles that most breeders tend to trip over, that could keep you from achieving your goals as a breeding, and from creating a true superior strain.
If your objective is to someday become a Breeders Academy member, or have any aspirations to create a pure strain, I suggest that you follow these instructions to the letter.
Let’s begin the process of improving your strain. But, first, I have a couple of questions for you:
- Do you have an established strain, or, are you creating a new strain from scratch?
- Do you have pure fowl, from an established breeder, or, are you starting out with hybrid crosses or mongrels?
If you are starting out with an established strain, great! If not, no worries. We can certainly start where you are with what you have. This is why I created TheBreeders Academy, to get you started on the right foot, whether you are starting with pure fowl or crosses.
Either way, we will need to clean up the bloodline. Let’s start by cleaning up your yard and determine the potentiality of your strain.
Here is a list of steps that you must follow before beginning the process of improving or creating your new strain. Think of this as a cleansing of the blood.
Before we can talk about breeding and breeding programs, we need to take a good look at your fowl, both their phenotypical and genotypical characters and qualities. It’s important to determine what we have to work with and uncover what is possible with what you have on hand.
What I would like you to do first, is examine your fowl, each bird, one at a time. Let’s take a good look at them and see what we have to work with.
The 5 Step Process:
- First, it’s important that you become familiar with the parts of the bird,and what each part is called. When we discuss the various parts of the birds, knowing what they are called allows you to better understand the parts that make up the bird, and what those parts are called. This is especially important when studying the breeding programs and specialty courses throughout the website. Breeders Academy Members shouldcheck out a page we call, “Description of Parts.”Here’s the link –https://americangamefowlbreedersacademy.com/description-of-parts/
- Secondly, Cull all sick birds.You cannot create a strain with birds that are not healthy, or do not have a natural resistance to disease or tend to express low vigor. Poor health and vigor are genetic weaknesses that can be passed to future offspring, and is the number one fault to cull for. Never breed to a bird that has expressed sickness in the past or is presently sick.
- Next, look for obvious defects.Any bird expressing a defects(s) should be culled. Trust me, this is important. Defects are recessive genes that are passed down to their offspring, and all future offspring. Next to health and vigor, defects, if not culled, can ruin an otherwise good family or strain. Breeders Academy Membersshould take a look at the program, called “Seeking Perfect.” Become familiar with the defects that exist within our fowl, and cull ruthlessly! No exceptions. Here’s the link – https://americangamefowlbreedersacademy.com/recognizing-common-defects-and-disqualifications/
- Now, check their conformation of body.There is no trait that is more important to your strain, and the breed, as conformation of body, otherwise known as “Type.” If the conformation is wrong, then they lack proper form, and are not good representatives of their breed. The fact that form is related to function, makes it a significant requirement. Birds that are not good representatives of their breed should be culled. Breeders Academy Membersshould checkout this link – https://americangamefowlbreedersacademy.com/proper-form-and-function-of-american-games/
- And lastly, you should examine and evaluate the quality and correctness of their color of plumage.What variety of American Games do you raise? For example, are they Black Breasted Reds, or Black Breasted Silver Duckwings? There are over 30 varieties of American Games. Knowing which variety of American Games you raise, or want to raise, is important, especially if you want to breed a strain that is uniform and consistent, and is a good representative of their breed and variety. I have a number of varieties listed within the Breeders Academy Website. I have dedicated a page, called the “Standard of Perfection” for this purpose. If your variety is listed, I encourage you to check it out. Study this Standard and compare it to your fowl. Observe how closely your fowl matches the Standard. Breeders Academy Membersshould checkout this link – https://americangamefowlbreedersacademy.com/standard-of-perfection/– Color is important, but I don’t want you to cull off-colored birds yet, but know that through selection and by following our breeding programs inside the Breeders Academy, color can be improved. We’ll talk more about this later.
Now that we have culled all the defective and substandard birds, let’s look at the family as a whole. Ask Yourself – Do they look uniform (conformation and color)? Are they consistent in all their character and traits? (comb type, leg color, feather type and color of plumage, eye color, etc.)? How is their temperament, are they calm, flighty, or tend to become manfighter) And lastly, how is their form, function and performance ability?
Okay, this is where the real work begins.Now that we have determined their phenotype (outside visible traits) and have cleaned up their characteristics, it’s a good idea to evaluate their genotypic traits.
For example:
- Some traits are desirable, some undesirable.
- Some traits are dominant, some recessive.
- Some traits are sex-linked, some are autosomal.
- Some traits are based on polygenic inheritance, and some are determined by only one gene, one factor.
- And, some traits are the result of genetic triggers/traits, which are expressed later, as they mature or grow older.
I know this can sound complicated and confusing, but, not to worry, this is why The Breeders Academywas created. To help you determine the exact genetic makeup of your strain, and to give you the tools you will need to create, improve, and maintain a superior strain of fowl.
It is my goal to give you a greater understandingof the process of selective breeding, which includes all areas of genetics, evolutionary biology, laws of inheritance, and the principles and practices of breeding). Together we will establish a breeding program that will help you to breed more intelligently, and increase your knowledge of breeding, advance your skills as a breeder, and improve the quality and performance of your strain. And, to create a strain you can be proud of.
These steps will get you started on the right foot. If you have any questions, please contact me, Kenny Troiano, at breedersacademy@gmail.com.
To Join the Academy, and take your breeding and your fowl to the next level, visit https://www.breedersacademy.com
