12.5.4.1 The establishment of a local rooster line (2024)

At the start, a broad gene pool is set up: roosters and hens are collected from various local small farms. This brings together a lot of genetic variation and prevents starting with a highly inbred population originating from only one location. Before the animals are placed together, they first go into quarantine. In the first generation (F0), the roosters are mixed with hens from another location (outcrossing) and data collection begins. A good start can be made with 40 roosters and 400 hens. The production of a new generation is usually once a year and must be adjusted to the demands of seasonal markets for meat and eggs. When selecting in the first generation (F1), it is important to keep the different origins of the F0 animals to safeguard a wide genetic variation. Because the generation usually takes a year, a selection can already be made on the best producing hens before collecting the eggs for the production of the next generation. On average, these hens are around 45 weeks and production information is available for 20-25 weeks. The offspring are weighed at 10-12 weeks and other phenotypic characteristics are recorded. After selection based on this weight, egg numbers and, if possible, other characteristics  such as conformation,  egg weight, broodiness and hatching percentage, 1 rooster is placed with 10-12 hens. The relationship is taken into account so that inbreeding increases minimally in subsequent generations.