I was looking tonight at my birds and was really chuffed with those that I have bought in and those I bred last year.

I have two 'main' lines, an FA1 side with birds from breeders that are predominantly FA1 lines and what I call my continental side. The continaentsl sde is mainly based on birds thst have been bred from Mannes/Bock lines. No actual continental rung birds but again birds bred by UK breeders from those lines.

This seemed to be going quite well as a theory until I visited a well known breeder with a friend of mine, who apparently very rarely lets birds go. Well that theory was soon dispelled as he offered me three spangle brothers and another spangle which is the nephew to a bird thst did very well at the club show. I won't say who it is as I don't think he would thank me.

These are the brothers

This is the other bird which is related about three generations back

The question is how to use them? Initial thoughts are to use them with three violet spangle sisters that I have, my only concern is that they aren't the best hens I have and these guys seem to deserve the best I have. The sky spangle is going to one of the best spangle hens I have, which is either of these.

The other thing that occurred to me was the idea of 'shutting up shop' for two breeding seasons now and creating a stud from what is effectively a collection at the moment. It feels like I should have all of the parts of the jigsaw in the bird room, now I just need to breed continually for the next 18 months to start to learn more about what I have and how they might gel.

Thoughts?