Another fact many breeders of domestic chickens (which includes ornamental, general purpose breeds, as well as the commercial breeds and strains) don’t know is that all chickens that exist today owe their very existence to the Gamecock. All chickens today have a percentage, be it very small in most cases, of gamefowl blood running through their veins.
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GAMEFOWL COULD VERY WELL BE THE SAVIOR OF ALL CHICKENS
Today, there are many breeds of fowl that are in danger of genetic implosion, where the gene pools are losing their genetic variation. Many ornamental and commercial strains are heavily inbred. Because of this, they have become less resistant to disease, and lack the constitutional vigor needed to survive a serious outbreak, such as an unknown virus.
Breeding Better American Games
If we look at what Mendel learned from studying pea plants we can also see how this affects certain characteristics in chickens, such as pea-combs are dominant over single-combs. A pea-comb cock crossed with a single-combed hen will result in pea-combed offspring, but only in the first generation. But if breeding is continued, such as in the case of inbreeding or line-breeding, using the pea-comb offspring, bred back to their parents, this would give you, in the second generation, a mixture of pea-comb and single-combed offspring. Although the resulting offspring all came pea-combed, they now also carry the recessive trait for single-comb.
PREPARING EGGS FOR HATCHING
If you find it necessary to hold onto eggs until you have a good broody hen, or you are waiting for available space in your incubator, here are some guidelines to follow when storing eggs.
ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION OR NATURAL INCUBATION
I’m often asked, which do I prefer, the incubator or the setting hen? I like to use both, but for different reasons, and at different times of the breeding season. For example, I’ll use the incubator in the early part of the breeding season, and use the hens at the end of the breeding season.