Double Mating for Exhibition Poultry

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I refuse to participate in this thread because I am whole heartedly against double mating. I think the standard should reflect a male and female bird that can be single mated and produced in a single pen! I want to change the world to suit my ideas and feelings.......who wants to join me in a revolt?!
No Double Mating
No Double Mating
No Double Mating
(feeling awfully lonely here)

I am with you coopslave!!

I think with heritage breeds practicality needs to come first. Double mating = not practical. If both sexes can't be produced from one pen then either a compromise should be reached or two separate color varieties introduced as with the brown leghorn. Because when you double mate you are in practice breeding two varieties. However I don't think adding another color variety would be a good idea because it would spread the breed too thin.

I guess I see this as a tool to get your stock where you want them to be.

Tara can you please explain how double mating could improve barring in barred chickens?

If you have good barring and feather quality in the female but not in the male how would you improve this?
When you talk of a male looking female are you just talking color or a more "unfeminine" looking female and vice versa?
I would love to know more about this...

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Aaaaaaaagh... Many words! Me man. Must keep talk simple.

Will try to reply when I have reset my genetic info overload breaker and performed some other minor tune-ups. According to one report smoke was seen issuing from my right ear so that will have to be looked into. Fortunately an explosion was averted.

One thing that does seem to be filtering through the grey matter is the thought that I need a copy of Dr. Carefoot's book. But that might muddle my marbles more.

Likewise Samwise! I did not realize the reasons for having a pullet line or cockerel line, in order to fix certain traits...
Thank you very much for taking the time to expain this Tara although not sure how much I really understand yet...
I think I will be searching out Dr. Carefoots book myself, hopefully it is still available, especially since he was a barred rock breeder too, although I must admit the pulling out black feather thing does sound a bit dicey to me?!

That's what I love about these threads. I go back and read them over and over again. Then I wait awhile and read them again.

Opppss......not supposed to be posting or acknowledging this....I forgot.

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Maybe a bit off subject here but .. Can this double mating be used with white chants? I'm thinking along the lines of making meat and eggs, a separate line for each and then cross them. How would one approach this selection wise? I'm thinking to put large size hens with large size Roos in one pen and eggy type hens with eggy type Roos in another.

I think what I'm trying to ask here is how to go about selecting without using the colour as a guide.

samwise wrote:I think with heritage breeds practicality needs to come first. Double mating = not practical. If both sexes can't be produced from one pen then either a compromise should be reached or two separate color varieties introduced as with the brown leghorn. Because when you double mate you are in practice breeding two varieties. However I don't think adding another color variety would be a good idea because it would spread the breed too thin.

Actualy, i see double matting as a thing that could have happened a lot in the past.


You are not breeding two varieties of the same breed. Now time to explain why DM, is a good idea, mind you i am sure yall look at this in a different light then i well.

When Double mating they key is to produce a pair of chickens that meet the SOP. This well leave a lot of culls = good. I am guess you are asking why is a lot of culls good? Hens you well get a lot of cull hens from you cock breeding pen. Lots of hens means eggs in 5-6 months. From the female breeding pens you well get a lot of cull cocks, well that means you can produce a lot of meat. Now mind you this depends on what you start with.

reneggaide wrote:Maybe a bit off subject here but .. Can this double mating be used with white chants? I'm thinking along the lines of making meat and eggs, a separate line for each and then cross them. How would one approach this selection wise? I'm thinking to put large size hens with large size Roos in one pen and eggy type hens with eggy type Roos in another.

I think what I'm trying to ask here is how to go about selecting without using the colour as a guide.

Hey there,

Yes and no. Or not that i see working. For meat You could have a heavy hen line, and a heavy cock line. As for egg laying you would need to keep track of what hen lays the most eggs in one yer then breed her. There is no type that makes better for egg laying in cocks that i am aware of.

From what I've been reading the Roos in an egg line would be descended from the best layers, and taking into account the body capacity/depth, width of hips/back etc which are associated with fecundity. So, the eggy type Roos would be very different from the meat type Roos. This is what concerns me, I don't want to take them in the wrong direction through inexperience.

reneggaide wrote:From what I've been reading the Roos in an egg line would be descended from the best layers, and taking into account the body capacity/depth, width of hips/back etc which are associated with fecundity. So, the eggy type Roos would be very different from the meat type Roos. This is what concerns me, I don't want to take them in the wrong direction through inexperience.

But, if you are going to cross an egg laying line and a meat line, you may not get a dual purpose. If you would like a dual purpose, you should focaus on meat untill you have it down, once down you should breed for eggs, with out losing the meat. I belive you have a better change with this.

call ducks wrote:

samwise wrote:I think with heritage breeds practicality needs to come first. Double mating = not practical. If both sexes can't be produced from one pen then either a compromise should be reached or two separate color varieties introduced as with the brown leghorn. Because when you double mate you are in practice breeding two varieties. However I don't think adding another color variety would be a good idea because it would spread the breed too thin.

Actualy, i see double matting as a thing that could have happened a lot in the past.


You are not breeding two varieties of the same breed. Now time to explain why DM, is a good idea, mind you i am sure yall look at this in a different light then i well.

When Double mating they key is to produce a pair of chickens that meet the SOP. This well leave a lot of culls = good. I am guess you are asking why is a lot of culls good? Hens you well get a lot of cull hens from you cock breeding pen. Lots of hens means eggs in 5-6 months. From the female breeding pens you well get a lot of cull cocks, well that means you can produce a lot of meat. Now mind you this depends on what you start with.

Yes this would be a good thing if you want alot of culls...in my case I have pretty limited space so I would prefer a high ratio of breeders to culls. Also I don't have room to keep separate male and female lines, which isn't necessary I suppose (keeping both) but with only one side to standard I'd feel like I only have half the picture. But I'm a complete novice at this, haven't done any breeding yet at all, so I really have no idea what I'm getting myself into. Should be fun!