Wrather Farms - Columbia, TN

08/31/2026

Are you familiar with this common phrase? Bissonnette Acres did a great job explaining why this analogy isn't as simple as it sounds.

There’s an old saying that many serious and dedicated breeders live by:

“Build the barn before you paint it.”

The meaning is simple - establish and perfect the structure and conformation before becoming overly focused on color.

I’ve always found value in this philosophy, particularly when working with breeds that are still relatively “new” or undergoing significant refinement. But I also think there is a fine line in taking the phrase too literally.

Breeding is rarely that black and white.

A breeding program isn’t a construction project where we spend five generations building the barn and then suddenly pick up a paintbrush. Every generation is an exercise in balancing multiple traits at once. Every bird we select brings strengths and weaknesses to the table, and every breeding decision involves some degree of tradeoff.

Sometimes improving one area means accepting a setback in another.

That doesn’t mean the saying has lost its value. To me, it means we need to understand what the barn represents.

The barn is more than structure alone. It is the foundation of the bird - type, balance, proportion, soundness, health, and vigor. These are the qualities that allow a breed to remain functional, sustainable, and capable of carrying its foundation and future forward.

The paint is the finishing touches, which can refer to color and other desired expressions or traits.

And just as a beautifully painted barn isn’t much good if the foundation is failing, a bird with an exceptional color trait isn’t necessarily a bird we should build a breeding program around if we have to overlook serious weaknesses and structural faults to keep it.

This is something I believe is particularly relevant when looking at breeds such as the Índio Gigante and Ayam Cemani here in the United States.

The Índio Gigante is still a relatively young breed in the grand scheme of breed development. While the 1980s may feel like a lifetime ago, compare that to foundational breeds such as the Malay and Shamo (which have been bred, selected, and refined for centuries) who have had generations upon generations to establish consistency, improve structure, and breed away from undesirable traits while locking in the positive.

It should therefore come as no surprise that we still see a wide variety of expressions, proportions, type, and structural interpretations within the Índio Gigante. There is still a great deal of work to be done in establishing structural consistency.

The Ayam Cemani presents a different version of the same challenge.

With the Cemani, the pursuit of exceptional fibro expression (particularly the coveted black tongue) can sometimes become so strong that breeders overlook type, structural faults, disqualifying traits, or even shortcomings in health and vigor.

And this is where I believe the “barn” matters most.

Health and vigor are not optional finishing touches. They are part of the crucial foundation. A breed cannot prosper if we continually make exceptions to foundational health and stability in exchange for an exceptional expression of one desired trait.

A black tongue is valuable - but a black tongue cannot compensate for a weak foundation.

At the same time, I don’t believe the answer is to simply ignore color or fibro while we work on structure.

Every generation matters.

If we completely disregard color for several generations, we may create our own problems when we eventually try to bring those traits back into alignment. Likewise, if we chase color at the expense of structure, conformation, health, and vigor, we may find ourselves with beautiful paint on a barn that was never built to last.

That is the grey area - finding the balance between the two.

There is more than one way to cook a goose, and breeding is as much an art as it is a science. There isn’t one perfect path, and there will inevitably be setbacks. Sometimes we may accept a little less perfection in one area because a particular bird brings something valuable to another. The important part is understanding the tradeoff we’re making and having a clear direction of where we want to go.

For me, the principle behind “build the barn before you paint it” isn’t that we should stop selecting for color - it is that we should never allow the pursuit of color to make us forget what holds the entire bird together.

08/27/2026

Edit: ***Claimed***

I've been going back and forth on keeping this guy, but I think I'm going to let him go.

Ayam Cemani cockerel, 8 months old. He is homozygous extended black and homozygous Fm. Grey tongue with some black ridging. He does have some hormonal flushing between the wattles when stressed or excited - normal for his age.

He is an extremely friendly bird with me (lap baby). He will need grace to get to know someone else. Both his sire and dam have amazing temperaments. His dam is my best and most consistent layer. He has a lot more good qualities than he has flaws, which is why I have held onto him as long as I have.

4 years ago, I would have been beside myself excited to have started my breeding program with him. Today, I'm so happy to say I have even better birds to keep and work with.

I need this guy's pen ASAP for other cockerels, so I will not hold him. A Benjamin Franklin will take him home.

08/27/2026

I will be processing some birds today if anyone is interested in learning how it's done here. Donations are appreciated.

08/25/2026

Everyone wants to know if I have pullets available.

I do.

But you can't have them.

Yet.

I will be picking my favorites out of this pen soon. Most of the pet/layer quality pullets have already been sold. What is left here will be show or breeding prospects. Expect those to be priced accordingly. I will have Splash Ameraucana and Black Copper Marans pullets for sure. My Ameraucana project pullets will stay here.

I can bring birds to shows. My first show will likely be the IL-MO show in Highland, IL on September 12.

08/13/2026

I'm not even sure what kind of feeling this evoked in me.

I ran to the store to pick up a few things I can't make myself.

Clearance things always catch my eye. But this...? Why. Whyyyyy does a product like this even exist? And at that price?

What has gone so wrong with society that we can't even make our own ice cubes anymore?

08/09/2026

This platform seems to be taking it upon themselves to message new followers at random. I don't like this one bit, and if you have received an unsolicited message from us, I sincerely apologize.

It has happened twice now that I'm aware of, and it struck me that those happen to be two instances where the messaged person actually responded. So who knows how many messages have been sent and I was never the wiser. There is no timestamp on the original message. What else might AI send on my behalf that I have no record of?

So if you receive a random message after following some pages, just be aware that they may not have been sent by an acual person.
..Hating technology a little bit more every day.

08/09/2026

We couldn't resist bringing the last hatch of Ayam Cemani of the season into the house with us. Ok, ok, truth be told...I don't have an outside pen available for them at the moment...so, twist my arm. In the house they go.

Anyway...

It shouldn't really come as a surprise that a certain personality has already arisen. One chick in particular has decided that Keith is his favorite thing in the whole world and has staked his claim.

May I introduce to you...JellyBEAN. More details to come as this story develops. 😉🥰

08/07/2026

I have a meatbird project cockerel on the cut list today unless someone wants to use him. He does have 1 copy of the fibromelanosis gene and should produce a percentage of offspring with dark skin and spotted meat. I do suspect he has a s*x linked Cornish gene for growth. Him's a big boy. This photo was taken a couple weeks ago. He's ready to go to work. Message me asap if interested.

08/06/2026

The two pullets here are 16.5 weeks old. They are F1 backcrosses (F1BC), which means we took their F1 (Bielefelder x Cornish) sire and put him back over a commerical Cornish hen. These girls are 3/4 commerical Cornish.

Commercial Cornish are strategically bred to pass specific s*x linked mutations in a certain order over several generations. A mutation is just a way of saying the gene has changed from its original wildtype form. All domestic chickens are mutants in color and type. Commercial Cornish aren't genetically modified, they're just genetically managed for these mutations that the production poultry industry found value in and leveraged. In the terminal Cornish cross we are able to purchase from hatcheries, the combination of those s*x linked genes results in birds that grow faster and larger than their bodies can support - especially in the males, who have two Z s*x chromosomes. The Z s*x chromosomes are where the s*x linked genes reside. Females have one Z chromosome and one W chromosome and are not as severely affected in the terminal cross.

But the s*x linked genes are not the only genes responsible for exceptional meat production. The right combination of autosomal genes are important too. Before the commerical Cornish rose to popularity, breeders of dual purpose breeds like the Delaware, New Hampshire, Bresse, and others, would pride themselves on fast growing, meaty birds. Most modern-day examples of these breeds have lost these exceptional autosomal genetic qualities because of poor selection and prioritization of quantity over quality. Good breeders with good birds can still be found if one searches diligently. APA shows are a great place to network and find those breeders.

If we manage to raise a commerical Cornish female to s*xual maturity, she will pass her s*x linked Z chromosome genes only to her sons. If she passes her W chromosome, she will produce daughters that do not have the s*x linked traits. What I have observed though, is that the daughters still inherit those amazing autosomal meat qualities. They feel really nice in your hands, all the way through maturity. As adults, the females are really solid birds. Picking one up can be quite a surprise, as they are much heavier than their appearance would lead you to believe.

I think I'll be happy to work with the autosomal genes alone in this project eventually. But for now, I am keeping the s*x linked genes going through specific chicks. The F1 males will pass their s*x linked mutations 50% of the time, whether it is to their sons or daughters. The F2's or F1BC's that inherit the mutations grow much faster and larger than the chicks that did not inherit them. The F1BC males that inherit a copy from both their F1 sire AND their Cornish dams are very similar to the terminal cross commercial Cornish, and must be processed as a matter of good stewardship. The F1BC females that inherit the mutations from the F1 sire perform much like their single copy Cornish dams. These females will be replacement breeders for their Cornish dams.

The infusion of Bielefelder in my hybrids is evident in their increased vigor, softer feathers, broodiness, and improved foraging capabilities. The F1's are very agile, and prefer to roost at night. The F1BC's are ground sleepers like the Cornish. The speed to point of lay may be a hybrid trait as well. Both the Bielefelder and the commercial Cornish generally do not lay until 24 weeks, but the F1BC's have begun laying as early as 18 weeks.

I will say I am taking a bit of a lazy approach in this project. I'm not tracking the amount of feed or rate of gain. I admittedly have too much going on around here to gather all of that data right now. I am instead relying on my eyes and hands. The breeder pen gets fed once per day. 3/4 of a coffee can of feed for 9 birds. They clean it all up by bedtime, and although they would eat more, I don't give them any. They are the only pen I do not leave feed out for free-choice. The two free ranging pullets in the video below get fed a small amount of feed in the morning with the rest of the free rangers and have thrived on whatever else they can find the rest of the day.