July 2011

Monday 25

The last four nests are out and showing signs of being ready to be taken away. The breeding season has been my second most successful (by 2 chicks!) since i started breeding Fifes over 10 years ago.The step up in quality from last year is evident and the volume of quality is also very pleasing, indeed visitors to the birdroom have been quick to point it out which is always nice to hear.

The first round young are coming through the moult nicely and several have caught my eye as stand out, there's a couple of nice blues, some lovely little green yellow hens and a couple of very typey three parts dark buff cocks. I hope to be able to compete across the range of colours showing a couple of cinnamons this year for the first time in 6 or 7 years and the first time as a champion exhibitor.

On reflection, looking back at the quality and volume of birds i've bred this year, i think that my approach of priority pairs combined with good quality stud birds has paid real dividends this year. I've gone on record on more than one occassion as saying that the system for breeding is only ever as good as the birds in it, all too often in my opinion people get caught up in the theoretical adoption of breeding systems rather than focusing on the most important element - the birds.

For my own part i now feel that i have developed, with the help of Gerald who has provided me with some exceptional quality birds over the last few years, two quality strong family lines to take the stud forward. I'm unconcerned about the colours of the birds but one of the lines seems to have lighter birds and the other darker birds, whilst there was an element of design in this for me its always about the quality. Although I'm looking forward to the show season this year thoughts are already on next years breeding team.

With this in mind i'm looking at some draft numbers and ideas at this stage, although won't firm things up until after the moult. I've identified 9 cocks that i'm keen to keep from this year, 4 from line A, 4 from line 4 and one from my cinnamon line, and 6 hens, 4 from line A and 2 from line B. So from what i've bred i'm looking for 4 cocks to go into line A, 4 cocks to go into line B and 1 cock to go in to the cinnamon line. Line A will have an additional 8 hens from this years birds (thats going to be a struggle because i've identifed at least two times that number that i like), Line B will have 8 hens, again that will be difficult to do the final selection, and i'll retain 2 unflighted cinnamon hens. At least thats the plan so far!. Each line will have 4 generations of birds in it, with the primary stud cock (who'll be four next year) still retained for the quality he continues to produce.

So here's hoping for a speedy moult and a good start to the show season!