Forming a line?

[ZachsRabbits]

How do you form your own line?. What is your method? I will tell my experience this summer I had my first live dutch litter which was a total outcross. I did not like the results of markings and type I got in this litter. How do I improve this? I also like to get stock out of the same line as well so I am working with an established line already?

 

[sunrise]

I'm not the greatest at this, but I believe the best way to start would be to take the best marked kit or two with good type (even if not perfect) and breed them back to the opposite sex parent.

 

[Chicken-Farmer]

We raise Californians for meat, not show. We start with a doe and a buck that both have traits we deem important. Line breeding is a very controlled form of inbreeding. Daugters breed fathers and sons breed mothers. The offspring should at the very least carry the same traits as the parents, but you are hoping they exceed their parents traits. Only keep the best animals as breeders, cull the rest. Good record keeping is a must. Eventually grandsons will breed with grandma/ granddaughter to grandfather. Each successive generation is further removed from the previous. After 4 generations two seperate lines have been established and those offspring can technically be bred to each other because they are gentically similar, but genetically diverse as well.