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planning for gouldian splits or not

Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 11:57 pm
by ac12
I'm doing some pair planning and wanted the opinions of the experts.

Is it better to breed for pure color or a split where the visual color is what I want. Example BH vs BH/YH, or RH vs RH/BH.

What I'm afraid of is the splits of the offsprings making it harder to plan and predict the next generation.

I already ran into the "surprise" of the splits where I got an OH from a pair of what I "thought" were RH but which were RH/OH. It was a nice surprise, but a surprise that I had not planned for. And now it is a "now what do I do with him" situation, since I am not planning to breed for OH (at least not yet).

Re: planning for gouldian splits or not

Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 6:11 am
by debbie276
It all depends on what your looking to accomplish. There are many that believe you should keep like head colors together to get the brightest and fullest coloring.
You have said many times that you are tight for space so I would just work with a couple you really like for now till you work out your space problem.
good luck

Re: planning for gouldian splits or not

Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 6:03 pm
by ac12
You are right, I would rather not have color combinations that I am not targeting. I want to breed primarily for a RH-WB-YB. The WB-YB hens have been hard to find, and twice I had to settle for PB/WB hens hoping for the WB chicks, but that also gives me PB chicks that I'm not targeting and have to sell.

Thanks, I think I will look for straight colors when I go shopping at the bird mart this weekend.

Re: planning for gouldian splits or not

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 1:42 am
by ac12
Update, I did get the non splits hens at the bird mart
RH-WB-YB
OH-WB-YB

Now to get them thru quarantine and for them to finish their molt.