Are you going to start over your breeding program completely? What are something’s you plan to do differently then in the past?
Sort of.
I do want to test some things out to make sure the combination is even viable for what I want before I resume the project in earnest, but that's going to take me a few years.
As far as actually developing a new breed out of many, I am taking inspiration from the development of the TAMUK composite rabbit for the specific, unique purpose of heat tolerance.
I have an idea of what I want from each breed I plan to incorporate, but the question I need to look more into is when and in what order to add more of each of the progenitor breeds to strengthen necessary traits without diluting the composite.
But for everything else, I am looking to ethical dog breeders' programs, because dogs have the strongest welfare laws and standard practices.
Panels for genetics testing don't exist for pigeons yet, but with more of us taking them to see vets and asking for vets who will see them, eventually we breeders and care takers won't be solely responsible for compiling medical information, and maybe some patterns can be found that will lead to the development of health testing similar to what dogs, cats, horses, and other pets and livestock have.
I have had a lot of time to sit and consider everything I did, what benefits came of it, what consequences came of it, what I need to avoid doing, and what I need to do differently.
From the time I stopped breeding show birds and started the Assistance Pigeon Project, I allowed the birds to pair as they would.
All I was doing to direct breeding was removing birds whose genes I didn't want from the dating pool.
It gave me a ton of great sociological and flock dynamic data and a few interesting case studies for breed mixing, so I can't consider it wasted time or effort, but that's not so much breeding towards a goal as allowing babies to hatch.
Genuinely ethical breeding has to be much more carefully directed than that.
Every single peep needs to hatch with a purpose towards furthering the program, not to fill out a wait list.
That was my single biggest mistake, but not the only one.
I had 20-40 people on that list at any given time, and thought "That's how many homes I have lined up, so that's how many I can safely hatch."
There were two major flaws with this thinking:
I focused on meeting demand over the actual needs of my program. That's how programs deteriorate.
That sense of security was false. People wanted a baby right then and just went elsewhere without telling me, or circumstances changed for them, or they just changed their mind about wanting a pigeon, or the none of the babies that hatched fit all of their breed, size, color, sex, and temperament requirements. Not a single one of those homes was guaranteed, and I should never have let myself hatch as if they were.
When I can resume, I will be hatching exclusively to further the program.
No second clutches unless I actually need those babies, and no third clutches, unless I need something like a specific sex that the previous two did not produce. (Two brothers or two sisters in a clutch is rare, but it happens.)
There is no need to allow a pair who do not produce offspring better suited than themselves to continue hatching. That's just making more birds, each of whom will need a home to live out their hopefully 25 year lifespan.
I do not want to produce any more birds than are necessary to develop and maintain the breed.
When the time comes, I will need to plan specific pairings towards specific desired outcomes.
Now that I have an idea of what traits I want and what breeds to get them from, I will have to seek out stock that exemplifies their respective breed.
That means attending shows, visiting lofts when I can, and discussing programs and socialization and other aspects of training with breeders serious about preserving and improving their respective breeds so that I can preserve the traits of those breeds that I want to pass along.
Planned pairings will required pen breeding.
Because of how promiscuous pigeons are, I can't guarantee the parents of a clutch unless they are penned, but I don't want a stack of little cages.
Each pair is going to have a 42in, 2 door dog kennel, fully furnished with two perches, a large nest box in a back corner, a mirror, and a brick.
Breeding pairs will only need to stay penned for the duration of time needed to rear the planned clutch. Otherwise, the enclosures will be left open during the day for the birds to enter and exit at will and any other clutches will be hatch controlled with plastic feggs.
When we start up again, I will only allow one pair at a time to hatch a clutch.
Because this breed is being developed for Therapy work, they will need to adapt naturally to tasks not asked of other breeds.
During the first eight and a half months of their development, babies will be socialized carefully, kennel trained, harness trained, and taught as much language as I possibly can.
Only hatching one clutch at a time will give me time to devote to detailed training sessions that carefully evaluate the peeps social and cognitive development against their parents and each other.
Another mistake I made was selling my best, brightest, most human social babies, because they were the best fit for what my clients wanted in their birds.
Those should have been the ones to stay and improve the program.
Once I have my keeper, the parents will be retired and made available as a bonded pair, and the sibling as either a Therapy Prospect or a Companion, depending on whether or not they pass the selection criteria for a Therapy Prospect.
Only after the parents and sibling go home will the keeper be added to the roster for a pairing to be planned.
Because my bird room is so spacious and planned breedings will be so infrequent, I'll be raising our first new babies there while my husband and I continue to save up and work on breeding loft and quarantine building construction.
The list of currently available birds, break down of the currently planned overall breeding program, and the order of planned clutches will have to be their own later posts.
This one is already long enough.
