Thanks for the info, i guess itll take some years to figure these things out to see what works. Especially if i want to put a bird 7 times in the ped without breeding runts everyyear. The pigeon game i tell ya.
Where did you come up with the 7 from ? I keep thinking of other tidbits of information, and might be worth mentioning here. What you may very well find, is that not all families of pigeons will take to very close breeding. I don't know why this is, but it has come up in conversations enough times, that it appears to be one of those "facts".
Like so many other things in life, and in pigeons, some tools are great for a selected task, but if it is used for the wrong job, it's not going to get the job done, and in some cases, can do more harm then good.
I have always felt, that a fair number of fanciers look at in-breeding as some sort of panacea. If you are trying to improve the quality of your colony, simply breeding every cock in your loft to it's dam, and breeding every hen to her sire, is not IMO going to magically produce a great bunch of racers.
I don't know the truth of this statement, but I was told of a great master pigeon breeder who did very little if any close breeding. The name escapes me. He bred for a very particular type and body style. He constantly brought in birds with the "look" he was after. He chose to breed from a very diverse group, except for the traits he was looking for. Maybe that was er...uh...winning races, and with a certain look ?.....
It has been said on these threads many times, Re Lee had shared this many times. The In-Breeding sets the quality or traits where you are right now....it does not move you forward. Constant long term inbreeding, does not improve the quality of your stock. After awhile, they typically won't even be competitive. The quality of their immune system will often decrease. Their egg production will often decrease. So, IMO, it is not a
long term solution. I suspect that long before one get's to the bottom of that In-Breeding Chart I shared, a complete outcross would be needed and desired.
Well, I have beaten this to death...as long as those interested in the process understand, it's like working with a very sharp knife, if you are not careful, you can cut yourself.