Which to make the female, which to make the male?

[LindsayMarie]

I hope I word this right! Not everyone can afford only the homozygous and double homozygous corns. So to make up for this most of us buy them with common het traits in order to produce what we want. My question is, does it matter whether the double homozygous ones are male or female? For example: I want a Butter Motley and Butter het Motley. But I have no idea which one I should make the male and which the female. Both have their cons and pros. For instance, if I make the male the Butter Motley. What if he doesnt perform? Or what if he is sterile (shoots blanks)? Then the money I spent on the double homozygous animal was wasted (for breeding purposes anyways). Say I choose to make the Butter Motley a female. What if she only prefers certain males (that so happen not to be of the butter line)? What if she only lays slugs? Or even worse what happens if she died on me the first year producing eggs (which many females do)? Yet again money would have been lost! *sigh* I know this is a chance you take with anything. I was just hoping maybe someone had an idea as to which is better to make the female and which is better to make the male? Anyone else have any ideas on the subject? Different point of views maybe? Thanks, Lindsay

[carol]

If I am going to get a really cool, and expensive corn, and I can only get one, I always get a male. The more traits he is homo for the more ladies he can breed with for varied results. It is good to have lots of double or triple homo males around to stand in if another male fails to preform. But it really does depend on what you are working with.

[Clint Boyer]

As Carol said, it really depends on your goals.

It is usually better to have the male posess the homozygous traits if you are going to use him with multiple females. But even then you are putting all of your eggs in one basket, so to speak.

I would suggest a minimum of 2.2 carrying the het traits for your desired combination. The more homozygous traits you can afford will increase your chances to produce what you want.

As for buying hets for a morph like Butter stripe?
Well, that may be tough to do. I really don't think hets will be available as long as the Butter stripe itself commands such a high price. I know that if I were at the verge of marketing very rare animals I sure wouldn't be selling the ingredients off cheaply if at all. My only problem would be housing all of the by products until they become common enough on the market to bring the value down. That is just good business.

The other alternative is making your own from scratch. An example would be crossing an amel stripe to a Caramel het amel (or Butter). All of the offspring would be at least het for amel, caramel and stripe. The amels from that clutch would be the best to keep. OK, I think you get the rest. The only problem with doing it this way is that by the time you produce the combination you want, you could probably afford the cultivar because the price has gone down. At least you have the satisfaction of doing it yourself. The trail to success is most enjoyable when you walk every step yourself!

[LindsayMarie]

You both have very good points. I was thinking of making the double homozygous ones the males as well. We will see :)

I wrote the post to Rich about the Butter Stripes really early in the morning before I had been to bed! I guess that was a bad move because it seems as though I ticked him off! Or maybe I am just reading the reply post wrong. I am not that great when it comes to all the genetics. But then I am not the breeder! Thats why I ask the questions I do, to learn. Sometimes I feel like I am being mocked or laughed at. I never was very good at taking sarcasm either. I am far too sensitive. *sighs* Thanks again! You two have helped me make my decision. Take care, Lindsay

[Clint Boyer]

That's just Rich's style, there was no belittlement intended I'm sure. I don't think you upset him either, it's just his way of getting a point across that is sometimes is mistaken for sarcasm.

[HomeBreeder]

Lindsay,

keep in mind how little sleep the poor guy gets this time of year, too. take it as a "curt" reply, not a slam. (At least that's what I'd do.)

^CB

PS - If you have too many hets in your collection you can never decide who to mate with whom! (I'm trying to work out a breeding schedule for spring... great mental excersize :)

[LindsayMarie]

I think the fun thing about having multiple hets and many of them is the ability to produce many cultivars in one breeding :) That to me is amazing! I want hets, homozygous and double homozygous animals. I seem to want them all! *S*

[Susan]

Just for fun, I bred my butter male to both my aneryth stripe female and to my ghost female last year. When their normal offspring grow up, I can breed them to just about anything and get interesting results. I would love to see the expressions on the faces of those that bought the normal hatchlings I sold when they breed them to something, hoping to get hets, and they get homozygous hatchlings!

I bred the butter to my amel zigzag this year and found out that both are het for snow. Now my possible future varieties have just expanded! That clutch only had 4 viable eggs (2nd clutch for her this year), but the 1.0 snow and 1.2 amels that hatched all have a nice partial zigzag. Look for butter zigzag hatchling photos in 2004 or 2005!