Selective breeding is not something new, not even close. Nature for one has been selectively breeding for its entire existence, but early man, 10,000 years ago began keeping animals that began the formation of selective breeding, as we know it today. Selective breeding can be intentional or unintentional, or to look at it another way, more or less controlled. Early man capturing or simply penning up animals together was in a way selective breeding as those animals then were limited in their possibility of mates by whom they were penned alongside. Selective breeding has in many cases become much more controlled. We have identified genes that cause traits and in tern have been able to make more informed choices when pairing animals to mate, selecting for or against identified traits. We have even gone further in some cases and artificially inseminate animals that may not even be capable of mating physically, due to structural differences, for example breeding standard size dogs with miniature size dogs, or even just location as can be seen with the practice of shipping stud semen across the country or even the globe. In the world of chickens, there are some breeding practices that have been utilized for years in achieving various desired outcomes. Many of these can be valuable to us poultry breeders, even if it is simply building a foundation of understanding.
Flock Mating
Two or more cocks are housed with several hens in one pen. Careful concern is required for the co-habitation of multiple cocks. This method allows for some degree of mate choice among hens. Major benefit is high fertility. Major drawback is inability to determine parental lineage.
Stud Mating / Single Mating
Cock and hens are penned separately. Either the cock is rotated into a single hen’s pen or the hens are rotated in and out of the cock’s pen (usually 2x per week). Fertility is usually higher than flock mating. Parental lineage is certain. Drawbacks are the higher level of effort involved as well as larger quantity of defined pen space.
Pen Mating
A single cock is penned with a number of hens. This is the most common method for pedigree hatching. Generally fertility is lower as the possibility exists for the cock’s preferential treatment of particular females.
Clan Mating / Spiral Mating
Three or more breeding groups are setup. All chicks become members of the group of their mothers. During the initial setup of the program, males are mated to the females of the same group. This will be the only time males are put over females of the same group. Subsequent mattings will always be males of one group over females of the next group. For example, a cock from the red clan will never be put over a hen from the red clan. Additionally a cock from the red clan will never be put over a hen from the blue clan. A cock from the red clan will only ever be put over a hen from the green clan.
Rolling Mating / Old Farmer’s Method
Utilizing two pens, the cock from the prior year is put over the pullets of the current year and the cockerel of the current year is put over the hens of the prior year. At the end of the season, the breeding hens and pullets are combined and culled to the number needed for next season. The same is done with the cocks and cockerels. Chicks hatched during the season are grown out to potentially be used as breeders in the next season.
Out And Out Mating
A new cock from a different outside blood source is used over the best hens year over year. All cockerels produced from the flock are culled each year. This method makes for control of traits challenging as each year the new cock brings new sets of genetics.
Flock Sourcing
Similar to out and out mating where a new cock from an outside blood source is used over the best hens year over year, however in this methodology the source of the cock is consistently from the same source. The benefit of this method over out and out mating is the improvement of the traits over time. This method relies on the efforts of the source breeder, whom ideally would be a master breeder for the breed.
In addition to the breeding methodologies, there are some related terms that help to understand the principals of each of the breeding methodologies:
Close In- Breeding
Generally speaking is the breeding of siblings.
Outcrossing
Breeding stock that is unrelated. Minimizes intensity of undesirable traits. Often resulting in offspring that are more heterozygous than in breeding.
Assortative Mating
Pairing of birds with perceived similarities, often based completely off of phenotype. Example would be putting a cock with good eye color over a hen with good eye color.
Negative Assortative Mating
Pairing of birds with unlike phenotypes with the goal of producing offspring less extreme than either parent. Example would be putting a cock with legs that are too long over a hen with legs that are too short.
When breeding your poultry, this information becomes vital as you create breeding decisions and plans that look into the future, beyond your next generation of chicks. Deciding which breeding methodology makes the most sense and is practical for you will be based on your resources. Not everyone has the pen space to single mate their birds, not everyone has the foundation stock to create a spiral mating program, and not everyone has forged relationships with other breeders to consider flock sourcing. Knowing what methodologies have been used successfully in the past will help you to utilize decisions and techniques to continuously improve your birds and in turn continuously improve the poultry breed/species as a collective.
Adapted from work originally published by Jason Fishbein for the Araucana Club of America newsletter.