A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[R2elk]

It is done though.

Yes inbreeding is done. Sometimes it is done intentionally in an attempt to enhance certain traits. The rest of the time it is done by irresponsible breeders which is one of the reasons that there are so many poor quality birds being produced by backyard breeders. Inbreeding is also the quickest method to bring out the bad recessive traits.

 

[JRNash]

Just weighed George,in the last two days he has gained
.5oz so things are progressing in a positive direction

 

[duluthralphie]

It is done though.

It is done, but when it is done it needs to be done very carefully and hand in hand with heavy culling. It can cement a desirable trait into a line, but it can just as easy bring out a poor gene, weak hatches and bad chicks overall.

Many times a person does not know what they are getting, if they are brothers and sisters.

Some of the most obvious cases of inbreeding occur because of Greenfire Farms and places like that. They import a limited number of "rare" breeds from some other country, then breed the numbers up and start "letting them out" in limited numbers at a ungodly inflated price. Being a breeder of Cream Legbars I am painfully aware of this. I am hoping the Cream Legbar will be the last "flavor of the month" chicken I ever get tangled up with.

Even with a "heritage breed" like us and our turkeys, how many of us get them from more than one place? I venture to say "not many". I am bringing in some new Slates (I hope) from my Porter eggs. But I have some birds I know I will end up breeding brothers and sisters.

Inbreeding goes even further than just brothers and sisters. Many think they are safe by breeding cousins. This is only true if they are not double cousins ( both birds parents were brother and sister).

I know I am not as good at this as I should be, but when a lame chick or sickly chick shows up they should be sent to the happy hunting grounds. Instead we save them, hopefully to never breed them.

I have a couple cripples, I am hoping to make their pathetic lives worth while. There is a feral cat hanging around here that needs to have a swimming lesson inside a live trap. I am going to put the cripple inside the live trap as "bait". The darn Spelled with a "mn " instead of a 'rn" cat will not go into a trap with dead bait. The poor chick will be the "goat" in a lion hunt.

Off my soap box..

 

[duluthralphie]

Yes inbreeding is done. Sometimes it is done intentionally in an attempt to enhance certain traits. The rest of the time it is done by irresponsible breeders which is one of the reasons that there are so many poor quality birds being produced by backyard breeders. Inbreeding is also the quickest method to bring out the bad recessive traits.

When will I learn to read further before throwing out my 2 cents?

 

[JRNash]

Lol. Ralph, I don't have young kids,as a matter of fact I abhor the little smelly noisemakers. I'd pretty much decided George won't be in abreeding program and that outside blood is a must since there is already a problem (maybe) with genetics from this line. It's not as much a problem for me since these guys were purchased with an eye towards looks not meat.
I'm wanting the midget Holland for the meat birds.

 

[JRNash]

As far as them getting dangerous, Lucky the asil I raised in the house learned the hard way. I do NOT tolerate anything biting the hand that feeds it. Now biting other hands....lol just not mine

 

[JRNash]

R2elk, I maintain a very wide gene pool with the birds I breed. I've got enough idiots running around the neighborhood now.

 

[JRNash]

Let me rephrase the "not a problem" None of these birds will be intentionally bred together. As a matter of fact Ive got serious doubts about breeding them at all. They will be an excellent smoke screen with the dear wife WATCHING.. got to keep her distracted

 

[JRNash]

I'd already made up my mind that the quail were definitely inbred.Anytime I see colony cages it throws up a red flag.
Even the chicken breeds I'm experimenting on have multiple bloodlines and various breeds.
The university of Arkansas did a study on the effects of hybrid vigor. One of the things they found was that when breeds of the same type,
Leghorn x Leghorn were bred together they exhibited hybrid vigor if the birds came from different geographical locations,ie.west coast x east coast.
They concluded that most regional flocks were too closely related resulting in a loss of genetic diversity

 

[feedman77]

I still had a broody hen in a secure pen. I caught her off the nest.

She was setting on 5 eggs. So I removed those and replaced with 3 I had to move to the hatcher.

All 3 hatched last night. She now has a palm poult, bourbon poult, and tri color mottled black.

She is a good mother as there are a couple other poults that hatched a couple weeks ago from another broody and she let's those 2 go in and under her whenever they want.