Over a number of years of breeding budgerigars, I could not understand why some breeders were having outstanding results and many like myself were going nowhere. Is it luck? The answer is NO of course. It was not until I went searching for the answer that I came across two books. The first book was “The Master Breeder”, a life story on one of the greatest horse breeders of all time, Federico Tesio. The second was “The Principles of Breeding” by Prof. Davenport. The fundamental principles of heredity were primarily discovered by Gregor Mendel as far back as 1822. In brief Mendel discovered that round seed shapes were “dominant” over wrinkled seed shapes, irrespective of the sex of the round seed plant. He called the non dominant factors recessive genes. So we have dominant genes and recessive genes that are transmitted from parents to offspring. This led me to the answer to my searching on how to breed a top quality stud of budgerigars. The word is Gene Pool or Family Genetic Pool.
Line-breeding means the restriction of selection and mating to the individuals of a single line of descent. This system purifies the pedigree rapidly and gives the ancestry the largest possible opportunity to get the best that can be gotten out of the stud. As Prof. Davenport has stated “The nature of results secured by this system can almost certainly be predicted; and when they do appear, and improvement is at hand. It is backed up by the most powerful hereditary influence obtainable, because of the simplicity and strength of the ancestry, which if the selection has been good, all “pull” in the same direction.
Line breeding is the best system for improvement. No other system of breeding has ever secured the results that line breeding has secured, and if the present state of knowledge is reasonably sound, no other system will ever be so powerful in getting the most possible out of a given breed or variety. The only requirement is not to abandon individual selection.
Line breeding carried to its limits involves the breeding together of individuals closely related. When it involves the breeding together of the sire and offspring or of a dam and offspring or of brother and sister, it becomes inbreeding, or breeding “in and in”. It is line breeding carried to its limits. All things considered, no other known method of breeding equals this for intensifying blood lines, doubling up existing combinations, and making the most of exceptional individuals or of unusually valuable strains. Inbreeding is, therefore, recognized as the strongest of all breeding giving rise to the simplest of pedigrees, an advantage quickly recognized when we recall the law of ancestral heredity.