Joejr14 said:
But now Rich, what do you do when you have something 'unique' pop up from a clutch of a female that happened to breed with 3 different males? Do you spend the next 3 years testing out each male with that female?
That seems a bit counter productive....
I still have the female (hopefully) that produced it as well as that animal itself. Yes, it does seem counter intuitive until you consider the alternative. Yes, it would be nice to know that each and every male were fertile, but what does it cost you in order to find that out? Well, one clutch from a female, at least. But it is not at all unusual for males to temporarily become infertile, so do you just cut your losses with one attempt? Even if you do, there is absolutely NO guarantee that those males that proved fertile this time around will have to be NEXT time.
I remember way back when, the guy who produced the very first Blizzard Corn (Art Meyer) loaned me that male on breeding loan. I bred him to about a dozen of my females, figuring I would try to capture that gene in as many projects as possible. Well, every BLASTED female he bred threw slugs! That was a VERY hard lesson for me to learn, and one I have obviously never forgotten. So no, I much prefer the methods I am now using.
I thought long and hard about this, and came to the conclusion that it is better from my perspective to run the risk of getting a one in a million animal that I could not prove which male was the parent rather than losing the entire production from a single female trying to prove the fertility of a given male. If the animal is all that unique then I simply keep ALL the males and then try to figure it out using them individually with that same female. Hoping they will all still be alive through the three seasons necessary to do this. Not all adults will live through the breeding season, unfortunately. Some losses are inevitable.
Not that this has happened particular situation has happened yet, however. Yes, I have gotten some unique animals, but nothing that made me regret my procedures here at all.
But, your mileage may vary, of course..........