Richard A.
44 posts
Jul 06, 2005
7:36 PM
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Once you have brought your Stock of Rollers up to their Maximum Level of Performance, how long can they remain there, and what can you do in order to try to keep them there?
Richard
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fhtfire
159 posts
Jul 06, 2005
7:47 PM
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I myself think that it is very hard to keep them there. I used to bodybuild years ago. You can't keep the body that you have on competition day...you have to peak on the competition day and then kind of start over. For one it is unhealthy and two it is a lot of time and energy to get there. You are pushing your body to the limits...just like most athletes..you can't hold the peak. Records are broken on any given day!
Our birds are the same way. You have to build them up and peak them on fly day. IF you try and hold most families to the upper level...they will crash on you or get sick from being pushed to the edge. I feel you should be consistant...and have your birds a nice level of performance that they can hold...and then tweak them just a little to get them to the next level.
I have mixed feelings about starving the birds down for perfomance..or pushing them to close to the edge..these birds are athletes...you would not starve a sprinter to perform or a football player. It think that more people get burned on fly day...pushing the birds to hard...to have them go South...it has happened to me....instead of being consistant and doing what you know works. I am rambling...LOL! Just keep it simple....and keep them right in the middle...not to lean and not to fat. keep them in tip top form (Healthy)and let the birds perform when they are feeling good...not stressed out. Just my birds and my two cents.
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Richard A.
45 posts
Jul 07, 2005
3:50 PM
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What I really mean is: Supposing that you have made the correct decisions in your breeding program and you have your stock producing the very best that it can produce, how can you hold that level, and for how long?
Richard
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motherlodelofts
162 posts
Jul 07, 2005
4:01 PM
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Richard I don't think that there is a such thing as maximum leval, things are allways changing , I think that the best that we can hope for is to move forward, and at time's for myself there are steps back also.
Scott
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Richard A.
47 posts
Jul 07, 2005
9:49 PM
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By studing the stock that you have, and discovering the body type in your stock of rollers that is superior to the other types that your stock is throwing, you can begin to weed out the undesireable types by breeding for a specific body type that will improve your stock. If all are the same body types,then by studing the balance of your matings which you have to do anyway. This is how I breed. I use to fly a roller out and then consider it as a possible breeder, but after so many years, I realized that if it isn't the right body type, the percentages will not be as high whether I fly it out or not. Once I started breeding for a specific body type, my stock improved alot and the percentages went way up. I used to study the kit birds for hours looking for the differences that made one superior to another, but finally came to the conclusion that the emphasis should be on the breeders, more than the kit birds, because the kit birds prove the breeders. Of course, the kit birds have to be right also.
Richard
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Alohazona
29 posts
Jul 09, 2005
1:47 AM
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Richard,could you give me an example of how you balance your matings, to move your stock forward?Are there specific body parts[wing,head,legs,beak,eye or feather color]?Are there there performance attributes[short to deep rolling,style of roll,velocity,kitting]?Temperment[calm to wild,like to like]?ALOHA,Todd
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Richard A.
50 posts
Jul 13, 2005
7:05 PM
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Look at the old Birmingham Roller books from some of the greats and you can see what was considered to be the best type then. It really hasn't changed. I use a muscular cock on a medium or smaller type hen. My stock is pretty refined though. Iv'e seen some roller breeders breed from what I would almost consider a chicken size, and come up with the some nice kit birds. The best thing that I can tell you is to study your birds and what they are producing. The goal should be to have pairs that will give you a high percentage of good kit birds. I put my emphasis on the breeders, not the kit birds. I judge my breeders by what they produce, not the other way around. The output is all that matters to me. I find that if I want to duplicate a hit pair and I have the parents to both, I go to each of the families and try to clone each one, and mate those the same as the original pair. Try it and tell me if you are sucessful. Iv'e done this for years, and have achieved self satisfaction.
Richard
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