Chcicken Indreeding

[purosaviparos]

Obviously it's not a good idea to breed sons and daughters with parents when crossing any animal, as degeneration and other weaknesses can arise. But what is the real deal there. Currently living outside of the US and I don't have the option to buy a batch of chicks online (or local for that matter) from one breeder and then another batch from another, especially when it comes to rarer breeds. I purchased a set of Silkies and have not seen them anywhere else where I live or anywhere close (and I do get out, doing a lot of chicken projects) I'm assuming that the pair i bought are brother and sister, but am unable to know for sure. They have since grown and produced several healthy chicks and with the passing of time (and the good use of my incubator) I have sold probably 50 of their chicks. I have notkept/ raised any of their chicks and then crossed them with their parents but out of those 50 chicks I'm sure that somewhere somebody is breeding them. I have heard that just with time you will have a weak degenerated chick that kind of just dies for what ever reason (slight cold or what have you) not a resistent animal at all. If i could (and believe me i would, and plan to do so someday) I would buy another female or pair from a different place and sell them as unrelated pairs, but since for the moment that i am not able to do so, what kind of risks are being ran?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Every chicken breed has been developed by inbreeding. Practically every grand champion at a show has been developed by inbreeding. The big difference in them and us is that they know what they are doing. There are techniques they use to keep the potential problems away and they cull heavily to keep the traits they don’t want out of their flock. If you want you can look up “spiral breeding” to see one of the many techniques they use. It involves setting up separate breeding pens and keeping real accurate records of which chicks came from which parents.

When you inbreed, you lose genetic diversity. If you lose enough genetic diversity the chickens do become more susceptible to certain things. It’s not so much that they become weak. It’s more that since they share more of the same genetics, if something hits that one is susceptible too, you are likely to lose them all. If they had better genetic diversity, some would likely be more resistant.

If you inbreed, any recessive genes are going to show up. If those happen to be genes you don’t want, that could be a problem. It depends on what is in the parent stock and all that to start with. Usually if you remove the ones that show up with traits you don’t want and don’t allow those to breed, that’s not a huge problem for the future of the flock. It’s a good way to get those bad genetics out of your flock.

On the flip side, if you select your breeders for traits that you like, (color, pattern, egg laying, egg shell color, whatever), you can develop a flock that is more to your liking over time.

It is possible, especially if you don’t really know what you are doing like me and I suspect you, after a few generations the flock can develop bad traits like maybe not being as fertile as you want or other problems. The way almost every small farm in the world that had a chicken flock handled that for thousands of years was every four or five generations, bring in a new rooster to get the flock genetic diversity back up.

One thing you might consider is trading roosters with someone that has some of your stock in a few generations. If they have inbred for a few generations, each flock will have lost genetic diversity. But they will have lost different genetics. By introducing one of those roosters, you will really increase the genetic diversity in your flock.

 

[donrae]

Actually, from the serious breeders here I see it's more desirable to cross sons back over mothers and daughters under fathers than breeding siblings. I think it depends on the traits you're looking for, and what bad traits are present in your parent stock.

Once you sell those birds, you've lost control with what happens to them. So, really, no risk to you at all. The person who buys sibling chicks from you and breeds them together takes the same risk you took breeding your (probably) siblings. You could have had deformed or unthrifty chicks, but you didn't. They have the same risks. If you get bad results from a specific mating, you quit mating those two birds. You can try mating each of them to another bird if you're determined that particular bird HAS to pass on its genes, or you just cull them from your breeding program.

 

[purosaviparos]

Every chicken breed has been developed by inbreeding. Practically every grand champion at a show has been developed by inbreeding. The big difference in them and us is that they know what they are doing. There are techniques they use to keep the potential problems away and they cull heavily to keep the traits they don’t want out of their flock. If you want you can look up “spiral breeding” to see one of the many techniques they use. It involves setting up separate breeding pens and keeping real accurate records of which chicks came from which parents.

When you inbreed, you lose genetic diversity. If you lose enough genetic diversity the chickens do become more susceptible to certain things. It’s not so much that they become weak. It’s more that since they share more of the same genetics, if something hits that one is susceptible too, you are likely to lose them all. If they had better genetic diversity, some would likely be more resistant.

If you inbreed, any recessive genes are going to show up. If those happen to be genes you don’t want, that could be a problem. It depends on what is in the parent stock and all that to start with. Usually if you remove the ones that show up with traits you don’t want and don’t allow those to breed, that’s not a huge problem for the future of the flock. It’s a good way to get those bad genetics out of your flock.

On the flip side, if you select your breeders for traits that you like, (color, pattern, egg laying, egg shell color, whatever), you can develop a flock that is more to your liking over time.

It is possible, especially if you don’t really know what you are doing like me and I suspect you, after a few generations the flock can develop bad traits like maybe not being as fertile as you want or other problems. The way almost every small farm in the world that had a chicken flock handled that for thousands of years was every four or five generations, bring in a new rooster to get the flock genetic diversity back up.

One thing you might consider is trading roosters with someone that has some of your stock in a few generations. If they have inbred for a few generations, each flock will have lost genetic diversity. But they will have lost different genetics. By introducing one of those roosters, you will really increase the genetic diversity in your flock.

Good stuff, thanks!

 

[purosaviparos]

Good stuff, thanks!

Does this apply to all birds; TUrkeys, water and other fowls?

 

[purosaviparos]

Actually, from the serious breeders here I see it's more desirable to cross sons back over mothers and daughters under fathers than breeding siblings. I think it depends on the traits you're looking for, and what bad traits are present in your parent stock.

Once you sell those birds, you've lost control with what happens to them. So, really, no risk to you at all. The person who buys sibling chicks from you and breeds them together takes the same risk you took breeding your (probably) siblings. You could have had deformed or unthrifty chicks, but you didn't. They have the same risks. If you get bad results from a specific mating, you quit mating those two birds. You can try mating each of them to another bird if you're determined that particular bird HAS to pass on its genes, or you just cull them from your breeding program.

Also good information, thank you