Is it okay to keep a rooster's sisters in his flock for breeding?

[MysteryChicken]

Here's my brother Sister pair. I was gonna share, but forgot.

 

[Ridgerunner]

What should I do? Is there a way I can keep them all and make sure their chicks hatch healty as well? Or do I have no choice but to only keep pullets or only keep a cockerel?

Every grand champion show chicken has been developed by inbreeding. Every chicken breed has been developed by inbreeding. Every approved color/pattern of a breed was developed by inbreeding. If you inbreed too much you can lose productivity, fertility, healthy vigor, and possibly cause physical defects. You need a balance.

When breeders are developing their flock they often breed fathers to daughters or mothers to sons to enhance the superior genes they want. But once they get where they want, they switch to a maintenance method to minimize inbreeding. Spiral breeding is a common one but is probably too intense for you.

For thousands of years small farmers have kept flocks where they raise replacements. That means inbreeding. They may go several generations but at some point bring in new genetics to refresh genetic diversity. That could be as simple as bringing in a new rooster. How many generations you can go will depend on how big your flock is. More hens and more roosters means you can go longer because of the randomness of mating. This may be the model you want to go with but choose your breeding birds carefully. Don't keep defective birds.

 

[LTAY1946]

Inbreeding for testing for genetic defects is one thing but building a flock doing it is something I'd never do. I've seen first hand what it can do in the Bresse breed. Not enough unrelated parent stock is making it hard to breed flocks of the American Bresse. Out of a shipment of 55 20 or so have died. Some are so deformed that they are headed to freezer camp. Rather than try and breed pure Bresse I'm opting to use them in a rotational cross breeding program. I just don't feel safe in breeding them for someone else to have a potential genetic mess on their hands. I'd much rather go to a third breeder for an improved Silky rooster or hens than to chance brother and sister mating. Sooner or later something will become a sad sight.

 

[Cloverr39]

Inbreeding for testing for genetic defects is one thing but building a flock doing it is something I'd never do.

I don't plan on doing this long term. I'll likely change roosters after a year or two. So far I've changed roosters every year, but that's just because none have been worth keeping any longer than that. I might even keep 2 different roosters at once that are unrelated to one another if they'll get along.

 

[Cloverr39]

She looks blue, definitely. The chick picture confirms that.

Great! Another mystery solved then. Hopefully means that all 3 of those blue, dark skinned chicks will be pullets!