| Setting Up Modern Game Breeding Pens
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by Jennifer Floyd
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Breeding - type & soundness come 1st, & you need plenty to select from. Your goal should be to try for at least 30 chicks from each of the 2 pullets for the next breeding season, & toe mark the offspring at hatching so you know what you've got (set up each pullet in her own pen, & rotate cockerel, so you know the mothers). You've bred trios before? If not, the idea w/a trio is you are setting up several bloodlines - breeding sons back to mothers, & daughters back to sire. 1/2 sibs & cousins can be bred also, until you have a related, but sufficiently diverse gene pool. This last spring, I bred from 3 trios, & 2 pens (cock w/multiple hens), & hatched about 150 chicks, of which I'm down to the best 40 at the moment (not counting adults held over).
I grade birds on type & color both, & don't necessarily look to have both in the same bird in breeding stock. I cull between 6-12 weeks for obvious physical flaws (crooked legs or toes, weak prop toes), then around 5-6 months start culling for lack of type, poor eye color or feather color, non standard leg color. Preferred traits include the gypsy face w/dark eye, all dark toenails, dark earlobes, & breast lacing; I may keep a few overly dark birds w/better pigmentation, as well as some overly light ones, to improve lacing & head color.
Final cull is done at about 8-10 months. Culling can be fatal, or it may just mean sold locally as layers/fryers. A very typey bird may be kept (who has color faults), or an exceptionally well marked bird (that could use more reach), as well as back up birds from important bloodlines. Trio or pair matings are done to influence a particular trait, & pen matings to get the "wild card" factor, making sure I've enough genetic spread, as well as uncovering good traits I didn't see in the parent, but were in there.
I've found that large Modern chicks need a high protein pheasant/turkey starter (26-28%) for the 1st 8 weeks, or they develop leg problems. After 8 weeks, I switch to a breeder crumble (20%), with a little grain mix (14%) for about an 18% general ration). I also feed a lot of green stuff - including alfalfa hay in the brooder, as the chicks are prone to picking if bored or crowded. I usually raise mine under hens (Modern hens work well :), 10-20 chicks in a 4 X 8 pen, then at 10 weeks they are either free-ranged or moved to a 12 X 24 pen (lots of roosts, some small juniper bushes) to grow out (about 30 bird capacity).
For showing, you want you birds to be hand tame, & used to being fed tid bits. Make a couple of small cages, & have the birds live in them for a few days (make sure they're in an area secure from predators!), getting used to you handing them treats from near the top of the cage, so they have to stretch for it. Bits of soft fruit or that fake hamburger for dogs (Gaines) work well as treats. |
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