Now that I have 7 little one that just hatched, I just go to thinking about how I am going to pair them all up. This may be a strange quesiton, or not, BUT Do I need to worry about how closely related the birds are? Do I need to bring in a new rooster to go with the pullets?
http://poultryone.com/chickens_breeding.html http://www.wikihow.com/Breed-Chickens Just a quick search found many sites for chicken breeding. Hope you can find the answer to your question. I personally avoid breeding parent/offspring and brother/sister for fear of getting deformities. I guess I also fear the ickiness of thinking about it to long. haha However, purebreds (in reference to dogs, horses and cattle) are often inbred. Right?
It honestly doesn't start affecting your birds until the 3 or 4 generation of offspring......Bring in a new rooster every couple years...and by then you will have different pullets or hens....my thoughts....
Tuff is correct. It isn't like humans, LOL. You can breed closely related birds, but you do need to bring in new blood in a few years to avoid concentrating bad traits.
From what I understand it is ok to breed father to daughter, mother to son, but not siblings. And I do agree if you can find a better rooster than the one you have get a new one every so often. I did have some buff ameraucanas about three years ago that were so inbred that I could not for the life of me get a good hatch. Those that did hatch died within three days and that may have been 5-8 birds out of 100 eggs set. When I changed the rooster which was from a totally different line I was able to hatch some eggs and they lived! The hatch rate wasn't that good though because of the inbreeding problems that already existed. Jean
People who are responsible breeders of dogs tend to do what is called "linebreeding"which is to breed animals that have similar lineage, but not direct relatives. Perhaps that's possible with chickens, too.
Thanks for the info, I have too roosters now (but if the one doesn't mellows out a little he may end up in the freezer next to the fish sticks) So I do have some options. But I will make sure to avoid the sibling pairs, maybe I can trade some folks when the time comes, rooster for rooster. All 7 chick seem to be doing well (Pictures to come soon), and if I don't get any pips by tomorrow morning in the remaining 2 eggs that will conclude my first try at hatching. The family is finally coming around with being interested in my hobby.
My uncle raised chickens and he told me you can mate the siblings one time(generation),but then needed to mate them differetly the next. You can breed mother/son, father/daughter for several generations.