The
best way to build a family of dependable well-bred rollers is by starting with
6 or 8 birds of exceptional quality. Then over a period of 6 to 15 years slowly
and carefully inter breeding them using the best rollers to form a family where
all birds share similar type, Arial ability, eating patterns, development etc.
The reason it takes so long is because you have to fly them out and put in the
time. There are no shortcuts to real success. The shortest route is what seems
to be the longest when you first begin. Some will fool themselves from time to
time thinking they can somehow inbreed or use birds that look pleasing to
produce quick results. This is far from the truth. If anything quite the opposite
is true. I believe you should always try to have a family where all birds share
common ancestry without breeding too close. Birds inbred too close produce
birds that fly too fast, roll too much or are erratic in their development. The
finest of specimens will become unstable and deteriorate when hard inbreeding
techniques are used. When you’re family reaches the point where all the birds
are related you should breed to the outside of the family. That doesn’t mean
bringing in an outcross. It means to pair birds together in your family that
are related but as far apart as possible. Always using only the best in the air
that has been flown out at least 2 years or more. If the family becomes too
weak you need to breed toward the outside of the family. If they become too
strong you can take them in a bit. If you cannot resist the temptation to mate
up birds that haven’t been flown out properly you should raise a few rounds
then return them to the kit for further development. Another successful method
is to find someone who has put in the time building a family correctly. If
possible try to get youngsters from this family then begin your own being
careful to understand the founder of the family’s methods of feeding, flying,
and pairing. Birds evolve how we allow them to. That is a fact. Differences in
feeding, flying and stocking standards can destroy years of hard work in the
best family of rollers. For example if you have always fed a high protein diet
and selected your stock birds from the ones that responded the best from these
feeding techniques for many years. Then someone else gets your birds and feeds
them a low protein diet. This may cause them to roll down or be too weak. Then
you begin to select birds that respond well to the new technique of feeding.
You have changed the family. It is like starting over again. Think about it. It
is true. There are fanciers that fly rollers that aren’t hungry. They do fine
because they have been selected that way. If you change the way they are bred
to respond you can not expect good results. It would be like putting diesel in
a gas engine then complaining that it does not run good. I noticed birds
usually reflect their owners. You may want to keep that in mind when you are
getting started or starting over. Know it all types are very irritating
sometimes but if they are the real articles, not clones or parrots much can be
learned. Scatterbrain types usually have a hozh posh of several families of
rollers for years. They can’t make a decision. Don’t look there for good birds.
Some guys run to buy birds to start a new family every couple of years. These
guys are rainbow chasers. Build your own rainbow. The best way is the careful long study of rollers through
experience. Look for a source with at least 20 years experience raising
rollers. The answers do not come overnight. The best way to be sure is to put
in the time and gain your own wisdom. You will find that some fanciers are
better breeders and some are better flyers. The better breeders may be able to
pair rollers for optimum results and may also be able to fly their birds quite
well as long as they are by themselves, but when competitions or company comes
around things fall apart. I myself have been guilty of this. They get nervous a
few days ahead of time and start messing things up by changing the feed or
switching out birds. The guy that keeps his head and sticks to his plan of
gradually getting his kit on form will usually be victorious on fly day. A
tremendous amount of flying is what it takes to win, coupled with close
observation. It is far better to fly 16 of your best than to use birds that are
not up to the standard just so you can say you have 20 in your kit. Usually you
can expect to raise 6 or 7 very good birds out of 100 raised in a year. It
would not be unusual to have 3 years invested in a top scoring kit.
In
short, fly them hard, build a family using the best from the air then save up
the best until you have 24 or so to work with in your holdover kit.
Remember
to be patient. Not all birds start out as champions. Sometimes the best birds
on the start are the least valued in the end. I have noticed when you get a
good cock at two years old he was probably trouble when he was young. The cocks
that roll a lot and have a hard time keeping up with the kit when they are
young may turn out to be your best cocks at two years old. Sometimes, the cocks
that roll just right when they are young will grow up to be too strong and
become infrequent. Hens are another story. Hens that roll too much, most of the
time will never straighten out. They usually get deeper and deeper until they
crash and burn. The best hens are gradual in their development getting better
as they age. Generally they have bounced at least one time in their life and
learned their lesson. When they have learned you will notice they will only
tumble or short roll when close to the ground and spin deep when they are at a
safe height. Some birds will get better
after they have raised a round or two of youngsters.
Never
get rid of a bird that rolls fast with good style at the back of the kit as
long as it always gives its best to return to the kit. These birds are full of
roll and just need to learn how to handle it. When they finally learn you will
be pleased with them and yourself for having patience. Not all of these will
turn out good, but the ones that do are generally real good. I would much
rather have a kit of birds that roll than a kit of tipplers that are referred
to as rollers. The best are the ones that shoot back to the kit quickly after
each roll. Rollers go through several stages of development during the first
couple of years. I draw the line on whether or not to keep a bird by how he
goes back to the kit. If the bird is always going back to the kit he will
usually turn out good. When you see a bird that rolls deep and gives up on
going back to the kit time after time, 9 times out of 10 he is destined to be a
cull. He doesn’t have the heart to keep trying. No need to keep birds with poor
character. They will only disappoint you. Save the feed for birds that deserve
it. I also will not keep a bird that bounces every time you open the door.
These are more signs of poor character. The bird doesn’t have the fortitude to
stop committing the same mistake over and over again.
I
like to mate orange eye to pearl if possible. By possible I mean if I have 2
birds worthy of breeding, I prefer to have orange on pearl but it is not
necessary. I like to mate reds of every type to blues of every type. By this I
mean red checkers, recessive reds, red badges, red spangles, ash reds, spread
ash and so on would be better mated to blue checkers, blue bars, blue badges,
silvers, blacks. Grizzles and tortishells can be mated either way depending on
which is the dominating color. I believe this helps to keep balance of physical
traits. But again it is not necessary. Recessive reds can be mated together
provided you know what color is underneath. A rec. red that is blue underneath
will show bluish or gray around the tail. I would not mate 2 blacks together if
another choice were available. The same applies to silvers, grizzles and
tortishells. This is just preference, but preference built on good results.
I enjoy seeing a good stork marked once in a
while, but my favorites are black self’s, black badges, recessive reds, red
spangles, dun self’s, dark check bronze self’s, blue check badges then dirty or
sooty red check self’s. I refer to these dirty spread ash birds as charcoals. I
believe they have a good mix of the red and black, or ash red and blue. I
noticed that the Smokey blue bars are usually good producers when the gene pool
is correct. These are the colors and patterns that year after year have
produced the greatest number of quality stable rollers for me.
It would take a book rather than an
article to explain everything to watch for when undergoing the task of
developing a fine stud of rollers. These are some of my methods, which were
determined by the best results in the air.
The no-brainer method is to mate the best
rollers to the best rollers regardless of any other trait.
A
POSSIBLE RETORT:
a.
When referring to weak or strong in the above-mentioned article I should
mention that I am referring to mental stability. Some inbred birds look and are
very strong physically but may not be mentally, which is usually the case. They
are generally smaller which is a desirable trait. Highly inbred birds usually take longer to develop in regards to
rolling.