Basic Genetics

It is possible to breed for almost any attribute:- vigor, type, temperament, body weight and plumage colour.

 

The main consideration is to choose healthy parents, and the ideal is that the offspring will exhibit and carry the qualities you are looking for.

 

If you pick up a book on Genetics you are usually hit with letters and numbers and formula making it look like the Maths lesson from Hell. Unless you want to spend hours immersed in these things, then you are better off talking to the ‘experts’ - the people who have been involved with chickens for years, and know what makes a good bird. After all breeding of chickens began a long time before the study of Genetics - Genetics simply attempts to explain what is actually happening when you breed a pair of birds and get offspring that may or may not be exactly like their parents.