Breeding question

[CluckyCluck]

Okay, so I haven't thought about this because I never raised babies...but now I am.

I have 1 rooster and 7 hens - 7 babies from the rooster/hens. When the babies grow up, isn't the rooster going to "do it" with the hens who are his babies?

What do other people do? Separate them or...you just don't ever accidentally let them sit on eggs?

May seem silly, and I felt like a perv googling dad rooster mating with daughter. Father forgive me. =)

 

[joeyfender]

The roo will uh...mount his offspring.. There was another thread on this and most of the people said that the chicks will not be deformed or anything if the eggs hatch

 

[chooks4life]

Depends how badly inbred the chooks already are, as to whether or not you'll get deformities. I'm developing my own breed out of mixed breeds, and I always inbreed at least once per bird to see what you get. VERY informative... I recommend doing it if you doubt the purity or health of the genetics. All the recessive, weak, damaged genes will show sooner rather than later. There's birds I never would have bred if I'd known what was lurking in their genotype.

The problem with the father-offspring cross is that everyone is told that the first father/daughter or mother/son cross is fine. So everyone's like, cool, I won't worry about that. So we are getting livestock that have already had that done many, many, many, MANY times in their ancestry. It's not ok anymore, not if you're not planning to eat the offspring. (Which I do). Once upon a time it would have been fine, and maybe in such a big country as America it's still fine, especially if you got your chooks from interstate. The inbreeding in Australia is chronic in many breeds. And still, everyone I meet is crossing mothers and fathers and offspring and siblings and other relatives, in every species of animal, because the 'first cross is fine.' Yeah... So who documented where that happened with your bloodline of birds? It's not written on them, unfortunately, unless you've got a great eye for phenotypes and breeds and recessive genes.

 

[NYREDS]

People who are considered knowledgeable breeders line-breed. Line-breeding involves breeding within a strain or family & parent to off sspring matings are the core of a line breeding program. It is possible to line-breed for years w/o adding "new blood". In fact before adding "new blood a knowledgeable breeder would look to bringing in a new male from the same strain that had been bred by someone else. Generally, the best way to ruin a breeding program is to introduce unrelated stock.
This same breeding philosophy is used by dog & horse breeders. There are strains of Arabian horses in the Middle East that have hed no new blood added in over a thousand years.
I bred a strain of Rhode Island Red Bantams for 25 years w/o introducing any new blood. The last year before I passed them along to someone else they continued to lay well, hatch well 7 do well at shows. the last show I went to with them I entered just one bird, a Rhode Island Red cockeral. He was Show Grand Champion.
Advice such as that given above is usually given by people who feel their intuitive knowledge trumps actual experience. In other words by people who've never actually done any serious breeding.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Of course, breeding sons to mother and father to daughters is the basis of line breeding. This creates a "level" look to the offspring. But, if the stock is less than ideal to begin with, all one accomplishes is more and more of the same. Very same.

If your starting stock is great, this is a very good thing. If your starting stock is poor, making "clones" of less than ideal birds doesn't get me excited. Just saying. What's the old saying? Something about a silk purse from a sow's ear?

BTW, NYREDS knows what he's talking about.

 

[chooks4life]

Agree with most of what NYREDS said, except the part where he/she said:


Quote:
Obviously you missed the part where I said:

Quote:
I agree with most of what you said but it simply doesn't apply to all too many birds available in Australia, including those from accredited breeders. Obviously there are good breeders out there but poultry imports suffered a ban very early on and in my experience, the majority of birds of most breeds here are chronically inbred. And yes, I have done 'serious' breeding. I'm so serious about good genetics that most breeders think I'm over the top, too strict. But in my experience a lot of them don't want to accept that their 20-generation-inbred bird with an obvious congenital defect or disorder has less than perfect genes. It's the old 'my kid/dog/animal is perfect in every way' blinkered/biased perspective colored by emotional attachment.