The Selection in Poultry, how can we define it? Selection means choosing the best from among all the good ones. Naturally, any poultry farmer who manages or operates a farm must engage in selection and conclude that all—or at least most—of the birds are the offspring of breeding stock that has been previously selected.

And fixing in their descendants the external and internal characteristics that have been deemed worthy of preservation and perpetuation, and eliminating those others that constituted defects, whether physiological, pathological, etc.

That is why we can say that most of the birds in a poultry flock are of good quality; they all possess a minimum set of genetic traits that we strive to preserve. However, among them, there are some that stand out for their characteristics.

Selection involves precisely choosing these outstanding birds, then using them to form breeding flocks, and—by applying the various procedures we know regarding inbreeding—perpetuating those remarkable traits that we also know are hereditary.

“Selección,” though it may not seem so, is a Spanish word that has been filtered through the English language. It is a variant of “elección,” from which it undoubtedly derives and with which it has become conflated, with one being used interchangeably for the other—a phenomenon undoubtedly stemming from the fact that, regardless of which term was used, the intended meaning was the same.

Selection is preceded by the process of choosing something from among its peers, and it is followed by the actual selection that separates the chosen items from the rest, conferring upon them the status of favorites. What results from selection carried out in this manner is the “select”—a term that is synonymous with exquisite, superior, superb, excellent, magnificent, etc.—set apart from its peers by characteristics that make it worthy of any of these descriptions.

And you might ask, “What’s the point of all this?” Simple: to constantly improve our breeding stock. The best produce the best, and consistently breeding the best leads to success in refining our hens’ characteristics—both physiological and morphological—in line with the breed standard.

When a poultry farmer, hobbyist, or anyone aspiring to be one takes charge of a flock or several flocks of hens in their chicken coops or barns, the first thing they should do is examine them to set aside those they consider useful and cull those with any defects.

We call this “entresaca,” from the verb entresacar (to pick something out from among others), and here are some examples of what to look for to do it right.

• The health of our birds: at the slightest sign of illness, discard them.

• Chickens with a clearly defined biotype (in terms of their characteristics, species, variety, or breed); we will select them based on color, size, comb shape, feathered or bare legs, etc., always in accordance with the breed or variety standard.

To carry out the practice of inbreeding, we draw upon the experiences advocated by the American Feleh, or Anderson. And we obtain strains of higher layers, which have the genetic factors dominant, transmitted by inheritance.

This selection can be of two types: First, phenotypic selection, that is, based on the birds’ external appearance, ensuring that they possess all the external characteristics typical of the breed being bred and that have previously been defined in the breed standard.

Such as the color of the beak, earlobes, and tarsi; the shape of the head, back, and tail, etc. These external factors determine, at a glance, the degree of purity of a bird. The beauty of the individual is a key characteristic within the breed.

This type of selection is within the reach of any amateur poultry breeder; however, there is another, far more interesting type of selection known as genotypic selection, which refers to the set of hereditary factors present in an individual and expressed in a dominant manner.

A bird may be phenotypically sound but not genotypically so; in other words, it may be perfect in appearance but possess hereditary traits that are detrimental to our objectives. The primary goal of selection is to produce a type of individual that is considered outstanding both phenotypically and genotypically.

You may be wondering if you need to know something about genetics to do this; that’s right—without that knowledge, we won’t be able to interpret the results or use the tools at our disposal to classify laying hens based on their fertility.

In my view, there are two methods we can use: the one developed by Oscar Smart, based on experiments conducted at the U.S. Experimental Station in the state of Maine by Dr. Raymond Pearl, the discoverer of genetic factors; and the one developed by the English geneticist Hunts.

Which of the two systems is better, given that they are very similar but have some differences, since both deserve recognition as pioneers of this type of chicken, which Hurts called ideal?

But I believe the English method is more comprehensive, as it more accurately determines the fertility characteristics of a hen. Both procedures achieve the same goal; however, the American method classifies the hen as good, average, or poor, using the letters L2, L1, and L0. The English method, in addition to this, determines the degree of each of the seven genetic steps that determine the phenotypic value—or, in other words, the performance of a laying chicken.