Multiple single mating in one setting
We knew there are ways to single mate one brood cock to a number of hens at a given time. You may do this by separating the hens in single confinements and rotate the brood cock among them, on certain interval. Or you may place a brood cock with several hens in a yard, just like in group or flock mating, but using the trap nest method. But even these methods will only allow you to have sampling of offspring of the brood cock with many hens, not sampling of the offspring of a particular hen with different brood cocks.
In the case of the hen, you are supposed to be only able to single mate one hen with one brood cock at a particular time. So if you want to sample the offspring of a particular hen with several brood cocks or lines, it will take some time.
However, we, at RB Sugbo Gamefowl Technology, have found a way. We can single mate several brood cocks with several hens effecting multiple single mating simultaneously. Thus we multiply the number of sampling combinations that will be available at the same time. If we will put ten brood cocks with a hundred hens in a single yard, then the possible single mating combinations is 1,000 pairs of cock and hen. Knowledge in genetics has allowed us to do this method which we call Simultaneous Multiple Single Mating (SIM).
Sperm competition
One advantage of putting together a number of brood cocks with a number of hens is the principle of sperm competition. This works to the hens benefit in producing better offspring.
Sperms between different roosters sometimes compete in fertilizing the same egg during sexual reproduction. Sperm competition happens when females have multiple potential mating partners.
Sperm competition offers variety of possibilities from a number of mates. This increases the chances of the hen to produce more viable offspring. For example with a number of rooster around, the hens can choose to which rooster to go and mate with. Hens can identify roosters that are best equipped to provide hens with viable offspring. If a hen is forced to mate by a less desirable male, the hen also has the mechanism to eject the sperm of this male after copulation. There is also the race to the egg inside the storage area. If the hen was mated with two or more males in the yard, the competition between sperms in the storage area will most likely result in the male with the good sperm genes winning the competition. Thus, the more males available to the hens, the greater the chances of producing viable offspring.
By simultaneously single mating several brood cocks with several hens, finding the best pairs will be faster, as well as identifying the best brood cock and the best hen. The easiest way to effect simultaneous single mating is by using wild type or near-wild type hens. Because being wild type, any dominant mutation inserted will clearly manifest. On the other side, the brood cocks should each bear some phenotypic markers, or dominant mutations that will serve as distinguishing phenotype for recognition in the offspring.
The requirements to implement the simultaneous multiple-single mating method are discussed in the online breeding course at Advanced Breeding Academy.
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