- I've got a small stud and from the management side I won't/can't handle too many pairs. That's why I decided on 6 main cocks and 4 second grade/backup cocks. I don't want to keep more then 6 main cocks, if I don't have the quality I'll even use less. This year I only used 3 main cocks.
- As a consequence of using a hand full of cocks I'm left with almost all (closely) related birds. Having an outcross cock die before the breeding season and another, less related, cock producing nothing didn't help either.
For example I've got 4 to 5 useful but closely inbred hens. An top of that they are closely related to anything decent in my stud. So I was thinking of getting 2 outcross cocks for them.
That leaves room for 4 main own bred cocks. So I went through my own cocks and came up with this order based on their visual qualities:
1. young blue cock from the (AC62)131 x GOAC pair
2. young A. yellow face cinnamon cock from the AC x (AC62)112 pair
3. young light green cock from the AC x (AC62)110 pair
4. young sky blue opaline-cinnamon cock from the (AC62)131 x GOAC pair
5. (AC62)131: A. yellowface cock from the AC x (GOVAYF)62 pair
6. AC: light green cock
7. (AC62)136: A. yellowface cock from the AC x (GOVAYF)62 pair
As you can see everything traces back to the light green cock AC. It was an outcross I acquired 2 years ago. Also the GAOC hen that I acquired last year increased the quality significantly. Hopefully I can get outcrosses this year that will have the same impact.
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