breeding between the same clutch

[jerrysgirl1984]

Is it not recommended for birds in the same clutch to have peeps? I am thinking with a common-sensed mind that its probably not good to allow chickens from the same clutch to multiply, am I correct?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Depends on how inbred they already are. Every chicken breed was developed by inbreeding. Every grand prize winning champion was created by inbreeding. It's not as horrible as some people think but here can be some downsides.

Part of it depends on the genetics of the chickens. If they have genetics that cause deformities then inbreeding will bring those out. After a certain loss of genetic diversity over time you can wind up with less productive chickens or they can lose fertility. Breeders and hatcheries have certain techniques that can avoid too much inbreeding for a long time.

A method that has been used for thousands of years on small farms is that you keep replacement chickens from the same flock for several generations. How many generations that works is dependent on the size of the flock and whether you have one or more roosters. The more chickens (male and female) that are the parents the longer you can go. Then, when it is time, bring in new chickens to reintroduce genetic diversity. I grew up on one of those farms. Dad kept one rooster and 25 to 30 hens. About every five generations he'd bring in a new rooster.

Some people will tell you that parent to offspring is OK but sibling to sibling is not. That is not correct. If you do the math (good luck, it gets complicated) the loss of genetic diversity is the same between full siblings as it is in parent to offspring matings. If they are half-siblings (say the same father but different mothers) the loss is less. Most breeders us parent to offspring matings because they concentrate certain traits that way, but the actual loss of genetic diversity is the same. One method breeders use, spiral breeding, mates cousins to cousins, not parent to offspring or sibling to sibling. They can go a lot of generations.

As with practically everything there some tricks or things to look out for. In this, do not mate defective birds. Only keep your best birds for breeding. If you allow defective birds to breed you are breeding for defective birds. That's where common sense comes in.

 

[BlueBaby]

Thank you for this explanation on this @Ridgerunner

 

[jerrysgirl1984]

thank you so much excellent information-I got these BB Red English bantams from a wandering mother that hatched them near our driveway-my son collected them up and brought them inside it was still pretty chilly early spring. Initially there was like 5 or 6 Roosters and about a dozen hens, they all of a sudden showed up wandering the neighborhood, as they matured some got picked off by hawks, we never did find out who in the neighborhood brought them in, one of our other neighbors gathered up the remaining hens and last rooster, he also created a coop he allows the ones he caught to free roam daily but puts them up at night, I do not allow the ones we raised to roam, with all that being said I have 4 Roosters and 8 Hens, I wasnt sure about letting the hens hatch any littles because I wasnt sure if it was the right thing to do.

 

[BlueBaby]

thank you so much excellent information-I got these BB Red English bantams from a wandering mother that hatched them near our driveway-my son collected them up and brought them inside it was still pretty chilly early spring. Initially there was like 5 or 6 Roosters and about a dozen hens, they all of a sudden showed up wandering the neighborhood, as they matured some got picked off by hawks, we never did find out who in the neighborhood brought them in, one of our other neighbors gathered up the remaining hens and last rooster, he also created a coop he allows the ones he caught to free roam daily but puts them up at night, I do not allow the ones we raised to roam, with all that being said I have 4 Roosters and 8 Hens, I wasnt sure about letting the hens hatch any littles because I wasnt sure if it was the right thing to do.

4 rooster's to 8 hen's isn't a good ratio. Is there a way that you could add more hen's for the boy's?

 

[jerrysgirl1984]

I can but I will have to wait until the spring or when I can expand the coop, in the meanwhile I will just collect the eggs, I feel bad that little mama isnt happy with me stealing her eggs lol

 

[BlueBaby]

I still have one hen sitting on 3 plastic egg's that she has been trying to hatch.

 

[aart]

4 rooster's to 8 hen's isn't a good ratio. Is there a way that you could add more hen's for the boy's?

....or remove all the 'extra' males

I still have one hen sitting on 3 plastic egg's that she has been trying to hatch.

Why not break her?

I feel bad that little mama isnt happy with me stealing her eggs lol

Is she broody?

I got these BB Red English bantams from a wandering mother that hatched them near our driveway.... Initially there was like 5 or 6 Roosters and about a dozen hens, they all of a sudden showed up wandering the neighborhood

Who knows what breed(probably a mix) or relation they are to one another?<shrugs>

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[mandelyn]

This chart breaks it down and shows how related they are with the shading. Ideally you want to do paired hatches, so that you can use offspring from a pair to cross to a different bird of the original group and keep track of who is who. Bringing in additional hens would help a lot.