QUESTION

[George and Morgan]

if you were holding back a yb for stock would it be cock or hen there would be no other birds kept from the pair

[Devo1956]

if you were holding back a yb for stock would it be cock or hen there would be no other birds kept from the pair

It depends on the quality of the youngsters, and what else is in the breeding shed for future breeding. If it's a good cock breeding you could put on bull system down the line, also a good hen in your breeding loft would also be good. Its all about planning future breeding.

[George and Morgan]

from this pair Dev the hen is new only want to keep one yb due to space will send the other out to be raced there may not be any as first round were blank

[Buster121]

if you were holding back a yb for stock would it be cock or hen there would be no other birds kept from the pair

It depends on the quality of the youngsters, and what else is in the breeding shed for future breeding. If it's a good cock breeding you could put on bull system down the line, also a good hen in your breeding loft would also be good. Its all about planning future breeding.

Agree with Dev, you go with the best

[George and Morgan]

possible could be half brother half sister both having same sire different dam

[king]

if you were holding back a yb for stock would it be cock or hen there would be no other birds kept from the pair

Which ever you choose cock or hen you will still need a bird of equal quality to pair to it? which then brings you back where you started. So it doesn't matter. Much of my stock is getting on a bit and I decided last year to keep a bird back from a pair, sire is 12 and dam is 11. It turned out to be a cock but I wasn't much bothered either way as it's spare at present. It will remain spare until a hen becomes available or I decide to retain another bird. Then I'll want a hen if nothing changes.

[MIL]

if you were holding back a yb for stock would it be cock or hen there would be no other birds kept from the pair

If it were for my own breeding purposes I would retain the one that I felt was the better of the two

I wouldn't really look any deeper into than that (unless you were say 1 hen short for instance)

[Trev]

I suppose a Cock would be good as potentially you get more from him in a season and out of of several different hens !! However in your position, as others have said, I would just keep whichever one I preferred when they are at weaning age.

[George and Morgan]

thanks lads not got any ybs from the pair yet

[Andy]

I don’t know why but I do put a bit more emphasis on the hen from a breeding pair. So I would rather keep a hen. But only if I felt she was good enough.