By Kenny Troiano
It goes without saying that we should select and keep only the very best fowl for breeders. Every brood cock and brood hen should be, not only good representatives of their breed, but in the best health and vigor.
Starting out with healthy brood fowl is an important factor when creating and maintain a strain. You’ll find that eggs produced from high-quality, vigorous brood fowl will always hatch well. And the results of well-selected brood fowl will produce birds that are uniform in size, color, and conformation of body, as well as, vigor, vitality and great performance ability. And offspring from healthy broodfowl will also have good reproduction qualities.
Here are important fundamentals to look for when selecting brood fowl:
- All brood fowl must come from vigorous and well-tested line-bred parents, which have proven their ability to produce high quality offspring.
- Never hatch eggs from birds that show, or have shown in the past, signs of illness.
- Birds showing even the slightest tendency towards weakness should never be used as breeders. This includes genetic defects.
- Make sure to secure the best matings possible. Hens used for breeding purposes should be confined within good strong enclosures during the time their eggs are to be saved for hatching.