The Gallery of Articles

YOUR MASTER PLAN - PART TWO Ó

By DON PEREZ

This page of The Gallery of Articles series is dedicated to evaluating our stock but with an objective in mind. Please note that just about all the information in these articles is applicable to most all the breeds of Type Canaries.

Your Master Plan, Part One mentioned the use of a tool called an “Evaluation Sheet.” Your “Plan”, as I wrote, is to raise the best Glosters, consistently, that you possibly can, in the shortest time possible. Can you do it? Hopefully you have been using the Gloster Fancy Evaluation Sheet.

Fellow Gloster fanciers, this is the time of the year when we study our stud and figure out how the stock will fit into our “Master Plan.” All the inferior and mediocre young and those birds that produced this inferiority and mediocrity should have been disposed of by now. The pet shops and birds fairs are good places to unload your room of birds like this. Even donating some to assisted-living homes is a kind deed.

Hopefully, after this task was completed you still had some Glosters showing some consistency to show and to use in the coming breeding season. Even when we finish campaigning our birds, we are the final judge of our stock before pairing them together. As such we must learn to be objective about all the comments made during this show season by all the judges and judge-wannabe’s at the shows we exhibited in or plan to exhibit in. A judge who saw our show team at an early show might have a totally different opinion of this team today or next week. As we know, our sweet Glosters are continually changing as they mature.

Study your stock and continue to “fine tune” your stud. Why are you keeping the Glosters you will finally keep? What are the reasons behind you selecting the cocks and what do you like about the hens you will be holding back? What is “Your Master Plan”? Do you have one? You have to ask yourself if you’re happy so far with your stud and why. Maybe you’ve been at this game for years and still stuck only at first base? How do you plan on getting further in your quest? Maybe first, you should ask yourself what your quest is!

Once all of your Glosters have been evaluated and recorded for the last time using the Gloster Fancy Evaluation Sheets, you can then begin to use the form accompanying this article. To succeed with “the plan”, you should use a form, entitled, “Master Plan for the ________ Gloster Canary.” (More on how to obtain a copy at the end of this article.)

Once you have a copy of this form, you should write in the blank space on the top of the page either “Corona” or “Consort.” Then write in the band number and age of the cock as well as the hen. As you will find when you study this form, it is what you will be using as your 2009 pairing worksheet.

Why do you need to use it now? Because if you had any kind of good breeding season and you’re proud of some or most of the young you’ve kept back so far, you must still part with some of the good birds because, let’s face it, you can’t keep them all, or can you? I’ll play the hunch that most of our birdrooms are never as big as we’d like them to be, and that being the case, ultimately some must go, like it or not!

When we, as Gloster breeders get to this point in our quest we must look hard at our stock. The task of ending up with a room full of consistent Glosters, becomes ever so difficult. It is this kind of quality stock, we, as true Gloster fanciers should be offering for sale to other fanciers, be they novice or champion.

After you follow this step in your plan, do you now find you need to upgrade? Will you buy birds randomly? Will you buy from a breeder who indeed has been working with a true line for years or will you buy from the breeders who are still themselves buying birds here and abroad and continually “experimenting”? Will you buy from the breeder who works with birds from several birdrooms? Careful! Even though some breeders have and will continue to say this is only a hobby and yet will not give the correct information or for that matter any information on the background of the birds one plans on purchasing, should put one on alert. For as W. C. Fields once said, and I quote, “a fool and his money are soon parted”!

Study your birds and if they are coming along according to plan, your records and evaluation sheets are accurate, and you see an improvement in your stock you are then ready to continue with your master plan!

We need to use this form in order to select the birds we will use in 2009. Very rarely will someone sell us back a Gloster we mistakenly sold him or her. We must have a breeding plan in mind now for 2009 and beyond! When we enter the proposed pair we will write down the characteristics of the cock in this pairing and we will do the same for the hen. Continue filling in the information requested on the form.

Do this for all proposed pairings. Hopefully, after this project has been completed, without realizing it, you have ended up with some brothers and sisters being paired up. Don’t be frightened! This is a good thing! Probably even fathers and daughters or mothers and sons have been matched! Do not be alarmed! I like to line breed and inbreed very closely. Always have and always will. This is the only way to develop and maintain consistency. This is the only way when people buy your birds and others see the youngsters from them at a show they can and will say they came from your strain.

You must understand the form and be consistent in your selection process as you fill it out. You must have goals for what it is you want to achieve in your quest. If line breeding and inbreeding scares you, may I suggest you find some good books on genetics that use terms that are easy to follow.

Quite frankly, I ask you, do you want to win a lot? Or, do you want to produce mediocre Glosters? I don’t believe you want to raise mediocrity. Many out there are already doing that! Follow your dreams. Follow your quest.

You must know what to look for in your Glosters. Understanding feather is key! Quality pairings are key! Excellent environment is key! Super diet is key! Fantastic stock birds to start your program is key! Dedication and stock management are key!

Hopefully this two-part article, the forms and the rest of the articles on this site will motivate you to continue in your “quest to raise the best!”

For those of you that would like a copy of "Master Plan for the ________ Gloster Canary" as well as "The Gloster Fancy Evaluation Sheet", please send an e-mail. If I can assist you in your breeding program in any way, please do not hesitate in calling or E-mailing.

Call: 847.338.5660 or send and e-mail by clicking on the drawing below or on E-mail.

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