Learning by breeding.....

Breeding is for me a creative art form. It is what I have always wanted to do. I enjoy paying close attention to minute detail, part of that fascination I have always had with the fowl. In fact the breeding of specific matings has, for me, become the equivalent of lab and field work for a scientist.

Breeding is not quite the same thing as genetics. Genetics seeks to understand the processes of inheritance and development, while breeding seeks to modify an organism with specific preconceived goals in mind. My work takes in elements of both. I seek to understand genes that belong to the wild-type, in the case of the chicken, two wild-types, with the goal of re-creating the unknown wild-type in it's entirety. That's right, I want to create something that went extinct at the dawning of civilization, a regular Jurassic Park.

Sound impossible, does it? Well, maybe, but it's been a great motivator. And I'm sure to develop at least a very close approximation if not the exact creature. With the breeding I learn more with each generation, gain a more nuanced understanding, which modifies my goal somewhat. The way I like to put it, The more I learn the closer I get, and the closer I get the more I learn. I am not so concerned with the minutia of the inheritance as with what would make the most sense in a natural creature, would recreate a natural balance in form and behavior.

As an example, it's not too much of a stretch to consider the Red Jungle Fowl a flyer and the Malayoid a flightless runner. So what would you be looking for? The Jungle Fowl would be light for it's size with hollow wing and leg bones, a light frame, and capable of very swift flight. The Malayoid would be comparatively heavy for it's size with marrow filled bones and massive thighs and that's what we find in the Asiatic games.

 

 This is a Great Indian Aseel cock. As an example of balance I will point out that these Asiatics often carry their wings out laterally from the body. I learned from my Saipans that this trait allows the wings to cover the massive thighs and long legs. It looks odd, but serves a purpose, so must be part of the Malayoid phenotype.

                                                Thank God for pictures.

I would expect the back to be rounded somewhat, emu-like, in a running bird. Many Asiatic Game have an unusually upright carriage which I do not consider natural. The Red Jungle Fowl, on the other hand, does have a straight back.

Perhaps the best take home lesson here is to get to really know your birds. It would probably be good for every student of poultry science to, at some point, care for his or her own birds, shoulder the entire responsibility for say a year or so, for the productive lifetime of the bird.

The thing I admired most about Dr. Cole was that he actually did the hands on care for all the birds at Cornell, was a very practical man. In fact the university kept him on long after retirement for the express purpose of caring for the college poultry stocks.