 Building A Family
It sure seems like building a good family of Rollers should be fairly easy to do, but in reality is very hard to do! Not only is a good consistent family hard to start but even harder to maintain. I think this is the hardest lesson to learn and understand in breeding Rollers. A Fantail breeder taught me years ago that like produces like. What I had to learn was that you can’t spread the gene pool too far or this will probably decrease your chances of raising birds as good or better than what you are breeding from. This hurts a lot of breeders because they expect to buy good birds and raise good birds from them. This seldom works for most. For years now, I’ve seen people spend big dollars on good birds and think they should raise good birds that will put them on top. Sometimes these breeders get lucky and may raise one super bird. The odds are against this happening. When or if this does happen, they might put this cock or hen on their best cock or hen they have. This will open up the gene pool again if they are not somewhat related and this breeder will be throwing the dice once more. I’ve seen people both in Rollers and Fantails buy birds every year from several people. They sometimes get lucky and have a good year or two but seems they soon fall by the wayside. If they would have kept some birds that were somewhat related, I think they would have been much happier. This is another reason I feel people get disgruntled and soon lose interest in showing birds or get out of the hobby completely. Yes, sometimes you need to bring a certain characteristic into your family. This might only be able to be done by using an outcross. Most of the top master breeders probably seldom have to do this because they know their family or families and know how they breed. If they do bring in a bird or two they are very careful.
Building a family of Rollers is almost the same as baking a cake. If one is going to back a cake, there are certain questions you must ask yourself. Do I have the right ingredients? Do I have a recipe? Do I know what I want this cake to look like? Can I make this cake taste the same each time I bake it? The first ingredient would be to start off with the best stock birds you can afford to buy, preferable some that are related to each other. The reason for this is “like produces like.” I’m not the brightest candle on the cake when it comes to genetics, but I do know the more you mix up the gene pool the more you are throwing the dice and hoping for the best. If anyone wants to know more about genetics, you can consult Nancy Kehl or Bill Koenig. They probably have forgot more than most of us will ever know! The recipe would be how to put your birds together to produce this family that will do well year after year. I have to admit that I cheated while building my recipe. I picked people’s minds for years to learn what they thought was working for them. I then experimented with some results. I bought birds from George Petro year after year. I asked George how he would put these birds together. I produced some nice birds because I watched very carefully how I put these birds together. However, I could not quite get the recipe right. My birds had plenty of type, not bad style, fairly good heads, but were a little on the small side. When I bought out Mike Carroll, I know a lot of people thought I was crazy, having been showing better than Mike for some time! His birds had big bodies and heads but were a little coarse and long cast, which were some of the ingredients I needed. I also remembered George Petro saying to me, ”Put your two biggest birds together each year to raise big birds.” By being able to breed some big birds each year, this would help keep the size in the family. George thought inbreeding and line breeding caused the birds to get smaller. I did this and started a family of big birds, but they still did not have the type and style needed to win. When I combined the two families together, the ingredients began to blend. I now continue to breed one family for size and one family for type and style. Breeding these two families together doesn’t always work, but now the cake is looking and tasting much better!
When I decide to mate my birds each year, I look real hard at the ingredients I now have to work with. I study the pedigrees and look for birds that are somewhat related to each other. I then look at the ingredients the pedigrees have to work with and ask myself if these ingredients will blend together. I match the birds together on paper first. I then put them in show cages side by side and study their faults. Even the very best have some faults. NEVER put two faults together when breeding birds that are related. Remember again “like produces like.” Try to put birds together that compliment each other’s faults or compliment their good characteristics you want to bring out. Now you are starting on your way to baking that cake that will look good and taste good also!
This is how I bake my cake. Maybe Joe Grimes, Roger Besemer, Bob Evertson, Bill Koenig or some of the other Master Breeders will let us know how they bake their cake. Don’t be afraid to ask them. They did not become Master Breeders without a recipe and vision on what they wanted their cake to look like. They also didn’t become Master Breeders overnight. Also, don’t forget to study the standard to help identify what your ingredients should look like.
Lastly, I hope when you bake your cake, it will look and taste as good as mine has these last couple years. Good luck and good baking!
Ron Simpson
4436 St. James Rd.
Waldo,Ohio 43356
Phone (740) 726-2960
|
|
|
