We spent considerable time and effort in an attempt to get the
absolute best stock to start our aviary. We tried to be very
discriminating, and with the help of a few very special breeders, we
started with outstanding, unrelated breeders. Our goal was to acquire
at least two unrelated pairs of every Quaker color mutation available in
the United States.
When we purchased Scott Doak’s Exotic Flock breeding stock in late
2005, we increased our breeding stock to 56 pairs. We added his 2 Blue
and split Blue pairs, 2 Pallid (Dark-Eyed Cinnamon) pairs, 3 pairs that
produce Pallid Blues (Dark-Eyed Cinnamon Blues), 2 pairs that produce
Cinnamon Blues (Red-Eyed Cinnamon Blues), his original pair of visual
and split Lutinos, 2 pairs of Lutino and Greens, a pair working towards
combining the Pallid and Cinnamon traits, and his pair of Greens, as
well as the birds he had held back for future breeding.
Each and every one is big, healthy, beautifully feathered and is proven
to be free of Polyoma, PBFD and Chlamydia before being allowed into the
aviary. Their health is maintained by Dr. Paul Welch DVM, MS. He is
located in Tulsa, OK. Board Avian Certified, he is th eprimary avian
vet for all Oklahoma Zoos. Because our aviary is completely closed, it
is easy to keep it disease free. We quarantine each new bird for 60
days before introducing it into our aviary.
We made a concerted effort to obtain birds that were as unrelated as
possible from breeders, whom we know emply reasonable breeding practices
and for out-crossing frequently, Scott Doak, Bob Nelson, Brenda Piper,
Christine McDonald, Ben Liverman, and others. Though with relatively
new mutations, such as ours, all birds are more related than their wild
counterparts. We have taken special care to make sure that no bird is
paired with a bird from the same aviary or bloodline. We used Avian
Biotech to DNA sequence them and specifically determine their
relatedness to ensure safe pairings. In the case of our Dark-eyed
Yellows, we determined that they were closely related; therefore, we
out-crossed our Dark-eyed Yellows to produce stronger bloodlines of this
mutation, and so that we can offer stronger, more viable pairs.
Our Blue lines, Pallid (Dark-Eyed Cinnamon) lines, Pallid Blue
(Dark-Eyed Cinnamon Blue) lines, Cinnamon and CinnamonBlue (Red-eyed)
lines, and Lutino lines, and now our Fallow lines, are all safely
out-crossed so that we can offer unrelated pairs for interested
breeders.
|
|
Content