Breeding a new color to size

[FloorCandy]

Many people will add a new roo every so often and then start breeding the offspring of that roo with the offspring of the existing Roos, often some are half siblings etc. if you don’t have space for 3 breeding pairs or more, than it will take longer, a lot of 2 steps forward, 1 back.

I have 3 Roos, I have a batch each from 2 separate Roos, with the same hens who have the desired traits. So I will breed 1 roo from each batch to the hens in the other batch, while I breed a group from the third roo with the original hens. Then I’ll go into winter with a wide genetic variety to play with small specific groupings to get the colors and traits I want for the new spring flock. At some point, maybe another year or 2, I will want to add some new genes to the pool, and I will order some eggs and choose a new roo to rotate into the cycle.

 

[sylviethecochin]

OK, I've talked with a lot of people about breeding quail. Some say don't breed brother to sister, some say it will be fine for a number of generations, others say its not reccomended.

I never said inbreeding is ideal, only that it is far less harmful in livestock populations than it is in human ones. Inbreeding depression is real, and even in the best managed inbred populations, it eventually occurs, but you can get a good long way before then.

What you're saying is that if the original gene pool is good, then breeding brother to sister will not cause issues?

Breeding brother to sister is not recommended. Unlike breeding parent to offspring, it doesn't isolate genes, as much as randomly match them. It does cause issues. You start breeding with the assumption that your gene pool is average to good (it's why you chose the breeding stock you have in the first place) and you get rid of any offspring with issues, so that they aren't passed on.

If it turns out the original gene pool is bad then you would have to add new breeders to dilute the bad genes?

In the short term, you don't "dilute" the bad genes; you remove them by culling any animal that isn't what you want. Of course, since you're culling the majority, you'll have to hatch a lot of animals to get a good breeding population.

In the long term, you do have to introduce new stock. You can only go so far with a small operation.

Doesn't breeding brother to sister effect fertility pretty sharply?

Enh. Not the first time (I've got a couple incestuous pairs) and probably not the second either. Third onwards? Never gone that far, but I've been told that this is so. Which is why you plan your inbreeding, as with the circular breeding scheme suggested above.