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In breeding you have to work with two types of genetic variation.The simplest one to work with is the qualitative variation. This means classical mendelian genetics, where one gene controls one trait or characteristic. Feather colours and colour distribution normally show this type of variation. It is easy to get a poultry line constant for this type of "major genes".
When it comes to selection for feather quality traits such as colour tint, feather elasticity, or feather width
breeding work becomes more tricky.
Such traits are determined by many

genes with small individual effects. They show quantitative genetic variation. Thus you have to work with quantitave genetic methods to get
selection results. This means application of statistical methods and heavy computational work to estimate indivdual breeding values for the breeding stock as well as keeping pedigrees. It pays to do that, however, since for each generation you get the a selection response which adds to the former ones with a compound
interest effect.