2SWLs, brother and sister-can he be her roo?

[kickinchicken]

I have one SLW roo and his sister...oh, and a Sultan, Cochin and Sebrite, all pullets. Will I have a bunch of 3 eyed chicks if SLW roo gets busy with his sister? I just visited the breeder who I got these chickies from and her SLW roo, daddy to my SLWs, is soooo handsome and sweet ( he let my 2 year old just pick him up).

I'd love to have him around-so long as he is sweet and queit like his daddy.
I need some advice on this as I'd hate to segregate him from his sister-and best friend.

 

[elmo]

First of all, this will only be an issue if the hen goes broody and you let her incubate and hatch out the eggs. There's no problem with eating fertile eggs that come from a brother/sister mating. They'll taste just as good as any other egg.

Secondly, whether the genetics of this pairing might be a problem have to do with how closely related the parents of these two birds were. If they are the decendents of a long line of inbred birds, then pairing a brother and sister could be problematic for hatching out chicks. Your hatch rate could be low, and chicks might fail to thrive.

But if the parents of this brother and sister were genetically diverse, it shouldn't be a problem. You probably shouldn't continue the inbreeding more than a generation or two more, though.

I have ten chicks now that were produced by brother/sister pairing, but the parents of my birds were so genetically diverse they weren't even the same breed.

 

[kickinchicken]

Thanks! I will call the breeder to check their parents' lineage. Hopefully they are good to go!