Please tell me about inbreeding

I have one roo, and have kept 3 of his recent babies. 2 are pullets (as far as I can tell so far) and on is a cockerel (same as before). My questions are:

1. Can a roo mate with his offspring with no consequesnces?
2. Can a hen mate with her offspring? I know they CAN, but would it be bad?
3. Can half/full brothers and sisters mate?
4. What are the possible health issues with first generation inbreediing?
5. When would it be best to swap out an old roo for a new one to keep the inbreeding down?

I do not have a huge operation, just enjoy hatching birds, raising them and selling some. This is my first experience breeding and returning chicks to the flock. Most of my birds are different breeds, so the offspring are mutts. I'm not trying to sell purebreds for showiing or anything.

Thanks for your knowledge and information.

Quote:
its ok to mate fatherxdaughter and faterh grand daughter if you select for vigor.. and since you wont be showing its ok too..(Show breeders do a lot of line breeding to, its not bad is you select against inbreeding depression )

The full brothers to sisters would be considered "inbreeding". The only problem with this, is you are doubling up on the same genes, so whatever faults are lying in wait will quickly pop to the surface! Sometimes you can get lucky, and the good traits will come forward. Most times not though, at least in my experiences. Dad to daughter, Mom to Son, is considered more as "line breeding". Just make sure you go forward with good traits instead of breeding a mediocre bird to another. The quest is to improve quality with each new generation.

1\\2 brothers and sis can also be good mateing

u would have in breed a lot to get health problems not just once or twice

Thanks for the info. I don't know if any of the three i kept are full brother/sister, as I just took several green eggs to hatch, and I have 4 possible hens those eggs could have come from.

Good to know these things tho. Much appreciated. Any ther comments welcome as well.

All breeding of related animals is considered in breeding or PURE BREEDING . It comes in many form, or I guess the proper way to say it is "It comes with many labels" . Back crossing = progeny to parent g parent etc . Heterotomy= least similar sibling crosses. Line breeding is vague when most are discussing it basically because it is more acceptable to say line breeding than in breeding . Line breeding generally describes niece/nephew to uncle/aunt cousin to cousin so is a more distant form of inbreeding. Most breeders develop 2 or more lines, or families, that are all closely related individuals- lets say cousins and choose from within those families to breed to each other for selection and to fix the family traits. They then use another line/family that is less closely related to that group and has complimentary traits to use as an outcross. These two lines are kept separated genetically as much as possible to improve genetic diversity between the groups for optimal use of the outcross.
In the first out cross you will see many variations in the traits you seek but hopefully some improvement in the standard after a few generations of crossing back to the original family/lines or breeding within the resultant family. This is all done to fix desirable traits in the future generations and to strengthen them by selection over generations.

It boils down to Purebred = Inbred

What happens is that inbreeding selects and makes apparent any hidden genes- this in itself is not a problem as that is how many color varieties are discovered and refined. The problem is that recessives can be fatal, disfiguring and generally detrimental in some cases when factors are multiplied within a family by close inbreeding. They may increase cancer risks, produce deformations (some of which can be refined into breeds if they are not seriously detrimental) or generally reduce fitness for survival. IN BREEDING DOES NOT CREATE PROBLEMS it only brings them out into the open.

These cases are not in themselves a problem, that is what culling is for . You remove them from the family and eventually you have a family that does not contain these defects. You must also look at the individuals that produced them and determine if they should be bred from again or culled from the gene pool. Giving them away as pets is not an acceptable answer if the animal will be less healthy. It is far more humane to kill the animals than let them survive in a state of ill health. Congenital disease cannot be cured. This is the real problem with inbreeding in livestock on the level you are speaking of. So be cruel to be kind. If it looks weak, kill it. If it is deformed kill it. It won't suffer but a moment rather than a lifetime.

It will take many generations of poor selection and poor record keeping to get to the level of inbreeding that will cause wholesale weakness and deformities that come with inbreeding depression. Inbreeding depression makes it's first strong hold in the immunity, fertility and fecundity of the line and so Inbreeding is self limiting in the long run.
That is why you need an out cross if you plan to run families together for many generations. All manner of inbreeding failings can be buried in one outcross.
Buried but not removed

Thankks you soo much Diornisexton, for taking the time to write so thoroughly on the topic. The info is greatly appreciated.