I am getting ducklings the first week of Feb. from Randall Burkley hatcheries. I will get 5 of each of the following Rouen, Cayuga, Blue Swedish and Kahki Campbell. I am hoping out of 5 of each I will get a least a couple of ducks and at least one drake. My question is when receiving chicks from hatcheries is it safe to assume that they are not siblings? I don't want to breed brother and sister - may not hurt but just seems wrong.
Some might have the same father, but same mother would be less likely. Let us know how everything goes, I havent heard anything at how Randall Burkey is. They started selling chicks last year.
considering they hatch around 500 or more chicks/ducklings .. of the same breed at the same time its not very likely you get siblings. But for this exact reason i got three diferent colored females when i bought my muscovy ducks.
I think i heard some where that it wasn't actually harmful to breed related ducks until a few generations from now.
You will never know if they are related or not. The upside is that there are very few diseases in waterfowl and poultry caused by inbreeding. You have to TRY very hard and linebreed for many generations to ever see any ill-effects. And most likely, you never will. Issues with inbreeding really only effect the higher mammals. Humans, like them, are the exceptions to the rule. Most animal life on the planet can inbreed without issue.
