Getting The Most Out of Your Key Breeders

As most roller fanciers are probably already aware, the ultimate goal is to produce and maintain a kit of 20 birds, wherein the kit not only rolls together, but most importantly, where every bird in the kit rolls straight, fast and true. By "straight, fast and true", I am referring to those birds which roll with their wings showing in the upright position or the so-called "H" position when viewed from the front or back. This is the minimum standard of a Birmingham Roller that is rolling correctly and while there are birds which can surpass this type of performance, the vast majority fall somewhere short of this minimum due to either the changing of wings during the roll, some sort of resistance to the roll or due to a lack of velocity between each individual revolution that the bird executes. It is no easy feat to produce (let alone keep!) a kit of 20 birds that roll straight, fast and true, and in fact, this is the greatest breeding challenge in the pigeon world. In my nearly 40 years around rollers and having traveled a bit, I can tell you that in all honesty, I am still yet to see it personally. Most of the truly great kits that I've seen personally, contained 5 or 6 birds that rolled correctly, the rest of the kit being composed of birds that show some sort of deficiency in quality that classifies them more as a sort of "regular roller".  

It is also well understood by the majority of roller fanciers that the pathway to producing a kit that contains only birds that roll correctly, is with the creation of a true family of Rollers. When I say "family", I am referring to a loft of birds where in the vast majority look like the breeder must have used a cookie-cutter to produce them all, because they very closely resemble each other in type, size, color and markings. When the birds are uniform in these characteristics, chances are, they will also be relatively uniform in their flying and rolling characteristics as well.

Ultimately, in sharing similar characteristics, these birds will also tend to share the same strengths and weaknesses as one another. The advantages of having such birds, whether created by their owner, or obtained from another breeder, is obvious. Such families of birds can only be produced through very judicious breeding selection and the utilization inbreeding or linebreeding, at least in the very beginning. Assuming that one sets his standards high, as well as remains relatively far-sighted in his goals, as each generation goes by, the breeder can produce a higher and higher percentage of birds that roll properly, and also hopefully, gradually improve the overall quality of his birds. This is why you read and hear stories about such and such person's birds who respond or don't respond well to flying in certain regions or don't or do respond well to certain kit handling techniques or that such and such birds tend to develop late or tend to produce more unstable pigeons than others. These "family quirks" exist simply because these pigeons are a bonafide family or bloodline wherein the majority heavily resemble each other.  

This is in complete contrast to those persons who seem to believe that good rollers are something to be purchased or otherwise procured from others, opposed to something that they can or should produce for themselves. These fellas are always on the hunt for another pair or two of birds and will obtain them from just about anywhere and everywhere. While some of these fanciers are still searching for the "right birds" to build a family, most of them are continually on the hunt for more birds. While some of the latter may fly some pretty fair kits and also produce some nice rollers, perhaps even enough to be proud of themselves some seasons or to even establish some notoriety among others, they will never attain the goal to produce a kit composed of only birds that roll correctly unless they can breed and fly out birds by the many hundreds each year. This is largely because their breeding program is not moving in a single direction and as a result of outcrossing a bunch of different families with no particular goal in mind beyond merely choosing them from the air, the pigeons in their kit come in all different types, sizes, markings, colors, flight habits and rolling style. It is just about impossible to make much progress as a breeder and flier in such a situation unless you breed and fly out a very large number of birds each year.  The above facts remain true not only of breeding and flying Rollers, but also other breeds of Pigeons, as well as of Poultry, Waterfowl, Dogs, Cattle, Horses, Cats, Tropical Fish or other types of domestic animals. Throughout the history of organized competitive animal breeding to some particular established and widely accepted standard of perfection, which for the most part is something that started in the 19th century, the vast majority of breeders who made positive impacts on their breed of choice were those who developed true families or true bloodlines of animals through the use of sustained inbreeding and linebreeding.

As I have mentioned elsewhere, my business interests are in mostly re-publishing historic texts on animal breeding, and in doing so, I have been in the very unique position of having thoroughly reviewed many hundreds of books on breeding various breeds of animals that were written by many top breeders of their chosen interest. I can say with absolute certainty, that the vast majority of these fanciers were very firm believers in breeding their animals as closely as they could and that history proves that it works.

On the issue of families, even though some of their "quirks" may be considered some sort of serious inherent fault - such as an overly high percentage of birds that tend to roll down or routinely bump at a given age, as one single example - it is much easier to correct one common fault in a fixed bloodline than it is to correct a wide cross section of varying genetic faults amongst what could best be called a "collection" of rollers.  As a general rule of thumb, most families of well bred animals, pigeons or otherwise, are generally derived from a very small handful of specimens that represent the "best of the best" that a breeder either owns or has access to. While the novice roller flier may still be in the process of figuring out what his birds are producing, most established pigeon breeders have stock birds or breeding pairs that are of a much greater genetic value than the others that reside in their lofts.  

Where the person who is really just starting out in rollers is concerned, it is perhaps best, that before proceeding with the idea of building a family, that he instead concentrate on doing his best to test his birds out in an effort to see what sort of breeding stock he has in his possession before he decides to allow any given bird to completely impact future generations of birds. In my estimation, it generally takes about three seasons to properly test a stock bird, by breeding the bird to three different mates and then breeding and flying out 8 to 10 youngsters from each mating. Three years, just to see if the bird has any real value as a breeder as well as to get a general impression of his/her genetics. If a new fancier has only a small start in Rollers (say three to five pairs), it may be possible to speed that process up a bit and do it in one or two seasons, but it would be very difficult to do so with more than only a few pairs of birds. More on that subject as we proceed. With this in mind, it is always best for the novice to try to start with proven breeding stock, which I would define as pairs of birds that have not just been proven to produce youngsters, but in fact, have been proven to produce good rollers. As you can imagine, birds of this quality do not grow on trees and they are by no means inexpensive. If such birds are not available or are beyond your means, the next best choice are the offspring of these types of proven stock birds.

 For the best results, a fancier starting out will be many, many years ahead of the rest if they can befriend a top fancier who will become their mentor. I consider myself as having been very lucky when I was a young fella to have had such a mentor in Rollers, the late Chandler Grover, who despite his fairly widespread reputation as a "crotchety old man", actually willingly gave his time to many, many novice Roller fanciers. A good percentage of those novices also were able to obtain birds from him. While I was not personally lucky enough to obtain any birds from Chan directly, he did refer me to someone who had birds directly from him and I was able to finally procure some that way. Much the same way, he was always there, willing to give advice to me very freely. I also received much help from the late Roger Baker of Arkansas and the late O.D. Harris and late Bill Barrett both of England, in the form of the regular sharing of correspondence. Of the four, only Ollie Harris I was unable to have met personally. Much of what I know about Birmingham Rollers I learned from my discussions with these men, most of it fortunately in the form of letters that could be gone back over and studied again and again. I feel very lucky to have known these legendary breeders, each of whom had not less than sixty years with this breed when I knew them. Regrettably, as it has always been, there are far fewer potential mentors out there than there are potential protégés, but if you are serious about Rollers, you will find one if you seek one out. If you do manage to procure any birds from them, treasure them.  

Only after a stock bird is proven out, should it be utilized in the development of a close knit family or bloodline as it would be folly to begin allowing an unproven stock bird to spread its genes throughout your stock loft without knowing exactly what the effect is bound to be. Assuming one has established which of his birds are the best suited to meet your goals for developing a family, it is of paramount importance to begin making the most of those individual birds. As Chan Grover explained to me (and I think he was actually quoting the late J. Leroy Smith in this regard), "When you've got something good, you work it, you work it and you work it some more". Putting it another way, when you have a bird of great merit, you make the most of that bird by trying to obtain as many youngsters as you can from it in the hope that you can perpetuate its effect throughout your family. If you are lucky, you have more than one such bird. And if you are truly blessed, you have a great "click pair" where almost everything they seem to produce ranges from good to exceptional. As a general rule, it would be an advantageous thing to be able to breed a very large number of offspring from any "click pair" like this, in that this would allow you to make the absolute most of them in the shortest amount of time.

Now some people don't like this idea because they are afraid that they will "burn out" their stock birds, especially the hens. However, it is important to point out that if you have done everything correctly in the way of testing a bird in the air and also in the stock loft, the bird is going to be a minimum of four to five years old and that is just to prove the bird out and to get an idea of what it can or can't produce. As mentioned earlier, there are ways to test stock birds out in a shorter time (the real subject of this article), but as a general rule, a proven stock bird is a middle aged bird by time it is established that the bird has real value. Anyone who tells you something different is either completely deluded or is simply full of it and doing you a disservice by telling you something otherwise. Either way, you aren't going to live forever and neither are your birds. You must make the most out of your best birds while you have them available if you wish to take the best advantage of them.  The best way to take the most advantage of a valuable stock bird is to produce as many good offspring from the bird as it is physically possible for the bird to produce during its lifetime.

How many offspring a bird produces during its lifetime is determined by many different factors. In the first place, its actual productive lifespan plays a major role. This time period is influenced by numerous factors, including genetics, the impact of diseases, how the birds are cared for and also mishaps. Good sound loft management in the form of quality feed, clean water, plenty of mineral rich grit, loft cleanliness and proper housing plays a major role in insuring maximum productivity. Feeding cheap feed to your breeders, especially feed that is low in protein, can lead to numerous problems. For the best results, the breeders should be fed a diet that is between 15% to 20% protein, 5% to 11% fat and at least 1% calcium. This is just for starters. As a rule, pelleted feeds tend to be the more balanced than grain mixes. The fact of the matter is, not feeding a balanced diet with all the required nutrition can lead to numerous breeding problems, including adverse effects on fertility and egg production. Proper housing is also a must, in that bad ventilation or moisture can lead to health problems, while lack of sufficient sunlight can lead to sterility or make hens temporarily barren. Another factor influencing a pigeon's production lifespan is actually the sex. As a general rule of thumb, even if heavily utilized, cocks can continue to fill eggs to the age of 9 or 10 years, with some lasting much longer even though old age issues like arthritis effecting the flexibility of the tail joints can adversely impact a cock's ability to procreate properly. Some things can be done to assist them, but is a subject best saved for another article. Hens, on the other hand, have a much more limited production lifespan. Just like chickens, female pigeons are born with every egg they will lay in their lifetime already contained within their reproductive system. (See photo on link). Once the physical supply of these ovum are exhausted, the hen becomes barren and nothing can be done to change the condition. We do know, using chickens, ducks, geese, quail and others as an example, that the egg production capacity of birds is undoubtedly genetic and can be increased through breeding selection. While chickens, as one example, have a very high capacity of lifetime eggs (between 500 to 1600 based on varying studies involving many different breeds), pigeons have a much lower number of ovum in their system, in large part due to not only evolution, but also selection. For the most part, the production abilities of most Domestic Pigeons has not been improved greatly over those of their wild or feral counterparts in large part because of the fact that pigeons feed their own young. No scientific data seems to be available on this subject, but the number of eggs that a pigeon can lay in a lifetime is suggested as being between 50 to 100.

One backyard pigeon keeper on a forum mentions a hen that has laid "two eggs a month for the nine years that we have had her", which would equate to 208 eggs during her lifetime, but one has to wonder if any actual records were kept, let alone how accurate the statement is, as it seems much more of a generalization opposed to actual data. Whatever the case, the number of offspring that a hen can produce is dramatically lower than that of a cock for obvious reasons. Despite this, even the lifetime production capabilities of the average hen is a fairly large number of potential offspring. Since most fanciers breed only two to five rounds of young per pair each season, it becomes clear that the majority do not take full advantage of their key stock birds.

There are a number of methods that a fancier can use to increase their use of their best stock birds. While these are widely practiced among racing fanciers, as well as many show fanciers, only a small number of roller fliers utilize them. These methods range from the relatively simple to the more complex. The first of these methods is the utilization of foster parents or "pumpers" to increase the production of a key pair of pigeons. The general premise behind this method is that the eggs of a pair of birds are taken away immediately after the second egg is laid and given to another pair of birds to hatch out and raise. Doing so results in the key pair going immediately back to work for another round. The process is then repeated again and again. So long as the key pair is kept healthy and attention is paid to their nutritional needs (especially the hen's) and all goes right, a large number of offspring can be bred from a single pair in one season. In my experience, in most breeds of pigeons, the "spread" between each clutch of eggs - that is, the period between the second egg of the first clutch and the first egg of the next clutch - is about 10 to 16 days depending on the particular hen. It is therefore possible to produce 4 to 6 youngsters from a single pair each month using this method. Several considerations must be taken into account to make this system work for you. These include controlling the breeding, keeping good records and having adequate foster parents. Where the breeding is concerned, for the best results, the pair should be kept in an individual breeding pen to insure parentage of the offspring. Contrary to the popular misconception that pigeons are always faithful to their mates, infidelity is far more common in an open loft than usually expected.

Exceptional breeding records are a must, which may mean keeping better records than you may keep at the moment. These records should include a record for each pair which includes the color, band #, a short pedigree, assorted notes and also plenty of space to record the pair's production. Where the production is concerned, the following should be noted for each clutch: the date that each egg is laid, the date that the eggs are fostered, to what pair are the eggs fostered (or from what pair the eggs were received), the date the eggs hatched, the resulting colors and band #'s of the youngsters, as well as any notes. In the future, I hope to compile and offer for sale, a breeding record book suitable for a project like this, but one can also use lined paper or a records form in a binder or a bound journal.

As a rule, I do not recommend relying on computer software. While there are good pieces of breeding software out there and this software often can be of real value, something as simple as a computer virus or a hardware failure can result in the total loss of your breeding records if you have not made it a point to also keep a hard copy. As well, with the speed that computer technology seems to progress at, it is only a matter of time before the computer files in a piece of software become more or less obsolete and more difficult to utilize or access. In the spirit of helping to improve our breed, one wonders what kind of legacy we are going to leave behind for future generations of fanciers, when we are so reliant today on digital photographs and computerized records.

In addition to keeping good records, it is also helpful to mark each egg with a soft lead pencil, noting the pair # and date laid for "just in case". Be sure not to press too hard.  

The third and most important consideration with this system, as well as other similar systems designed to increase the output of some key birds, are the foster parents. While some fanciers will suggest this or that breed to use for fosters - cull Rollers from anywhere and everywhere, Homers, Flying Flights, Tipplers, "Commies" or what you have you - for the best results, I would suggest using birds that are actually closely related to the birds that you intend to multiply, as they are bound to have a more similar breeding cycle to the birds you are trying to multiply. That being said, I have generally found that Racing Homers and Utility Kings do a truly exceptional job as fosters for rollers and will rarely leave a squab malnourished due to the fact that they are adapted to covering to feeding much larger squabs. Both breeds do a good job of really stuffing little rollers crop's full. All of your foster pairs should be experienced breeders for the best results. Some breeders who routinely rely on the use of fosters actually develop families of pigeons that are specifically bred and selected for their parenting abilities, as well as their behavior in the nest and around young squabs. As Clint Robertson, a Canadian Jacobin breeder explains in an article on the subject, "You would not know it to look at them but my current family of feeders has had just as much genetic selection as my stud of Jacobins but for different abilities rather than physical features of appearance". Read his article on the subject here. Also more on the subject of fosters here
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Where fosters are concerned, the general rule of thumb is to have two pairs of fosters for every pair that you intend to multiply. In my opinion, while this is adequate in theory, it is inadequate in actual practice once the first round of eggs are under a pair of fosters. This is especially true when a fancier is interested in multiplying only one pair and as a result, only sets up two pairs of birds for fosters. By the end of the first month, one is suddenly out of fosters (because one pair is probably on young squabs and the other on eggs) and now must allow the key pair to raise their own young. While six potential youngsters in the first 30 to 40 days of the season is certainly a good thing, if we are forced to allow the key pair to sit their own eggs and raise their own young, we have essentially returned to a normal breeding cycle and our plans have been defeated - even if only temporarily. A more reasonable number of foster pairs to keep on hand for this system is actually a minimum of four pairs and six pairs is a much better number.

 The following example illustrates why:  

1st Clutch moved to Foster Pr. #1: 03-01-16
2nd Clutch moved to Foster Pr. #2: 03-17-16
1st Clutch hatches under Foster Pr.#1: 3-18-16
3rd Clutch moved to Foster Pr. #3: 03-29-16
2nd Clutch hatches under Foster Pr.#2: 04-04-16
Foster Pr. #1 lays 2nd Round: 04-05-10 (eggs discarded after 5 days due to no eggs available - 04-10)
1st Clutch weaned from Foster Pr. #1: 04-10-16
3rd Clutch hatches under Pr. #3: 04-16-16
4th Clutch moved to Foster Pr. #4: 04-17-16
Foster Pr. #1 lays 3rd Round: 04-20-16 (eggs discarded after 5 days due to no eggs available - 04-25)
Foster Pr. #2 lays 2nd Round: 04-21-16 (eggs discarded after 5 days due to no eggs available - 04-26)
5th Clutch needs moved: 05-01-16
2nd Clutch weaned by Pr. #2: 05-04-16
4th Clutch hatches under Pr. #4: 05-05-16
Foster Pr. #3 lays 2nd Round: 05-06-16
Foster Pr. #1 lays 4th Round: 05-07-16
Foster Pr. #2 lays 3rd Round: 05-08-16  

As you can see, going into the second month, the availability of foster parents for the 5th Clutch of eggs from our key pair becomes somewhat problematic with four pairs of fosters. While it is possible that we may be able to swing it, we cannot do so without taking the chances associated with storing eggs such as is done with poultry hatching eggs, or with holding eggs under the key pair for almost a week and then giving them to the fosters. While eggs can be stored (be sure to do properly), embryo viability can decline during storage even if done properly. Much the same way, while there is some flexibility when it comes to swapping eggs around, it is important that the eggs from your key pair will hatch either within a day or two of when the eggs of the fosters would have hatched, or that the eggs being fostered will hatch before those that the fosters had. At the same time, as a general rule of thumb, it takes a pair about 10 days of egg incubation before they begin to produce pigeon milk. This means that giving eggs that have been incubated for more than about seven days to a pair with newly laid eggs can become problematic. Sometimes, you can give younger eggs to a pair of fosters as most pigeons will continue to sit on a clutch of eggs up to about 20 or 21 days from laying. (Levi, 1941, reported one pair that sat dummy eggs to the 28 day mark).

To avoid these problems, it is best to have as many foster pairs on hand as possible.  For the best results, I suggest housing the fosters in individual coops and if at all possible, make an effort to try to time the egg production of your fosters with your key pair. This can be done by separating the sexes of the unworking fosters and then pairing them together in an individual coop one or two days after you've pulled the eggs from your main pair. For the best results, two or three pair should be paired up at a time.  As can be realized, this is quite the "large production" to keep even a single key pair going and it becomes even more complex if you are pushing more than a single pair. That being said, the program is much more efficient when it involves two or three pairs for the simple fact that the large pool of foster pairs that are kept on hand seems to always insure that eggs can be swapped out to another pair.  While this may seem like a lot of work (and it is), the results are well worth putting forth this sort of maximum effort. For a single pair, a minimum of an entire kit worth of offspring can be produced in a typical breeding season period (ie. Feb. 14th to August 1st). It is possible to raise 20 to 30 offspring from a pair in one season utilizing this program. If you can run 3 or 4 exceptional pairs on this program without wanting to throw the towel in, it is possible to breed 60+ to 100+ offspring combined.  While the system outlined is not the only way to increase the production of key pairs, it is the simplest program.  If one has a truly exceptional stock cock, it is also possible to produce VERY LARGE QUANTITIES of offspring utilizing a Polygamous Breeding System or the so-called "Bull System". While only a few roller fanciers have used this system (several with very notable success), it is becoming widely used by Racing fanciers. In some cases, as many as 75 to 100 offspring are being produced in a single season from an exceptional stock cock.  The video below should be enlightening.

https://vimeo.com/10123218