Rotational Line Breeding White Plymouth Rocks
Two very interesting articles on flock breeding, I highly recommend reading them.
We've decided to go with these traditional breeding programs for our flock. What we'd like to aim for is a large dual purpose bird, which is broody & good at raising chicks. One that is very cold tolerant but won't suffer in the heat either. Also one that lays dark brown eggs. What the actual birds look like I don't care as long as they are healthy and good egg producers.
So we're going to start with an out-and-out program (adding new birds) once we get something going that we really like we'll probably go to a rolling system. I'm very excited to see what our first little chicks grow into. Even if you're just keeping a small flock for your family, breeding is something you should consider. Whether you want to purchase new stock to replace the old, and let others do the work so you always know what you're getting. If you want to breed your own replacement chicks, you may want to introduce new blood, buy from just one strain or breeder, or mix & match and see what you might get.
The good thing about chickens is that if the experiment doesn't go well you can always eat the results!
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