Hard truths for serious poultry breeders.
Bred to Perfection treats poultry breeding as discipline, not folklore. Across episodes on outcrossing, hidden defects, antibiotics, and strain repair, it argues for selection pressure, disciplined breeding, and a low tolerance for birds that do not fit the family.
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Bred to Perfection is a specialist show for poultry breeders who think in families, foundations, and long-term consequences. The central argument is plain: strong strains come from disciplined selection, not shortcuts. Recent episodes attack myths around outcrossing, hidden defects, superstition, antibiotic use, and the temptation to keep birds because they look promising enough. The show favors a rigorous view of genetics. Disease resistance is framed as something built inside a family through selection and culling, rather than borrowed temporarily from outside blood. Outcrossing gets especially sharp treatment. It may have a place, but the safer path described in the show is often a separate subline, where results can be tested without damaging the main foundation. That gives the advice a practical edge. Mistakes are expected, but they should be contained. The same philosophy carries into discussions of crooked breastbones, crooked toes, poor type, conformation, color, temperament, and behavior. Environmental excuses are treated skeptically when genetics may be the deeper cause. The show also pushes against breeding culture where defective birds can be promoted, renamed, or sold as something they are not. Its register is firm and corrective. Folklore gets little patience, from scale-counting beliefs to broad claims about “refreshing” blood. The episodes repeatedly return to the idea that a breeder must know what a family is, what it should reproduce, and when a strain is no longer worth saving. There are also classroom-like stretches on terminology, foundation stages, maturity ages, brood fowl selection, and evolutionary knowledge. Kenny Troiano is repeatedly named in the show intro, and Big Mike appears as a co-host in discussion of breeding misinformation. Dr. Gallardo is referenced in connection with antibiotic use and misuse. The result is narrow, demanding, and unusually candid: a show for breeders who want their decisions challenged before those decisions become permanent.
Made for: Serious poultry and gamefowl breeders who care about strain preservation, genetic predictability, and selection discipline. It suits listeners comfortable with blunt husbandry talk and technical breeding vocabulary.
What sets it apart: The show stands out for its uncompromising stance against folklore, casual outcrossing, and masking weakness with medication. It treats breeding as a generational genetic program, not a collection of attractive birds.
Bred to Perfection is a podcast that will help you to master the art of selective breeding, and become a master breeder of chickens and gamefowl. The podcast is hosted by Kenny and Nancy Troiano. Kenny Troiano has more than 40 years of experience, and has authored two books on the subject of breeding. If you are interested in creating, maintaining, and improve your strain, this is the place for you.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Bred to Perfection connects daily flock care with the patient genetic decisions behind building and maintaining a consistent family of birds.
Bred to Perfection treats chicken breeding as a long exercise in observation, selection, and consequence. Kenny and Nancy Troiano lead detailed conversations that push past inherited rules of thumb, testing claims about bloodlines, defects, disease resistance, stress, and flock…
This is the show that makes your chicken-yard folklore sit a genetics exam.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Kenny Troiano advises breeders to test an outcross in a separate chicken subline.
Kenny Troiano's advice on outcrossing starts with a boundary: keep new blood out of the foundation chicken family while its results are still unknown. He recommends raising the outcross as a separate subline. If the birds turn out well, that subline can remain its own family.
Poultry breeders weigh disputed traits, misleading photos, and the promise of new blood.
A good photo can make a chicken look like a promising breeding choice. Kenny Troiano and the other speakers are wary of judging a bird that way.
A difficult breeding year leads to a discussion of foundation birds, patient selection, and maintaining a family.
A breeding year with few males worth keeping leads Kenny Troiano and his guest to consider what it takes to build from a foundation pair. Their discussion of Rhode Island Reds makes a practical case for patience: a male may need more than a year to mature, and a bird's full…
Kenny Troiano and Frank discuss how stress, age, and feed figure into the health problems they have noticed in their birds.
Kenny Troiano and Frank talk through a familiar problem for breeders: a bird can appear healthy until stress brings trouble into view. Troiano says CRD may go unnoticed until then, and they consider whether a weakened bird might also struggle with parasites.
A breeder discusses worms in young chickens and the visible sign he uses to decide when to deworm.
Can a chick hatch with worms, and should breeders deworm it right away? The conversation starts with that worry, then turns to what the speaker has actually seen. In 18 years of work, he says, he has found a worm inside an egg once.
Kenny Troiano and Frank discuss choosing breeding birds, handling illness, and clearing the ground around pens.
Kenny Troiano begins with the chickens he would choose for breeding: healthy birds without defects, with the body shape, color, and plumage he wants. Then he looks beyond the birds to the ground around their pens.
Kenny Troiano discusses the pros and cons of outcrossing in poultry breeding, emphasizing its double-edged nature.
This episode is a promotional segment for the Bred to Perfection podcast, urging listeners to rate and review the show to help spread accurate breeding information.
Kenny Troiano discusses how to identify and fix hidden flaws in breeding bloodlines to improve strain quality.
This episode explains breeding terms and encourages listeners to support the podcast.
This episode of Bred to Perfection challenges common myths and misconceptions in animal breeding, focusing on poultry.
A podcast episode where the host discusses the mission of the show to educate breeders on proper breeding practices and asks for listener support.
This episode discusses when a breeding strain is not worth saving and how to make the decision to start over.
Kenny Troiano frames Bread to Perfection around "purity of blood," and Sue Dobson describes eight years of work on Krivkers and Rhode Island Reds.
Stress hits hens harder than roosters, and a move three cages down can stop laying for a week.
Bread to Perfection turns All About Worms - How Much is Too Much?
Kenny Troiano and Frank Bradley explain how to prepare poultry for breeding season, beginning with healthy birds and completed facilities before collecting eggs.
A Thanksgiving special episode featuring conversations with Kenny Troiano and Brian Reeder about poultry breeding.
Peter Brown discusses protecting poultry bloodlines from Avian Metapneumovirus, a silent but deadly flock killer.
This episode discusses common mistakes breeders make that can ruin their strain, emphasizing the importance of accurate information and good breeding practices.