Can someone please explain this to me (breeding)?

[silkhope]

I know I've seen a post about it before but I can't find it. Long story short
3 Mothers
1 Father

They hatched out 8 babies in August.

The August roosters are coming of age, trying to mate with the mothers. Is this acceptable? What about the Father mating with the hens hatched in August?

I just don't get it. What's proper? (None of it seems proper, but I remember reading somewhere that some type of "family" could mate without incident)

THANKS! (rereading before I hit submit and it still sounds funny)

 

[Frozen Feathers]

Well chickens don't have morals...yes they will mate and reproduce with whomever. Line breeding, it's okay to breed father to daughter, mother to son, but stay away from breeding brother to sister.

 

[silkhope]

Ok, thanks Angie. I knew it was something that shouldn't mate together. Just wasn't sure who/if I should separate. Not that I plan on hatching any more of their eggs for myself, but just in case.

Thanks.

 

[silkiechicken]

Yeah, they will breed whoever... and go ahead and let them breed however they want. But, don't hatch any eggs from brother and sister as this can lead to problems down the road. Luckily unlike with mammals, the result of breeding is just eggs you can choose to hatch or not.

 

[speckledhen]

Actually, there was a huge discussion on another board about mating brother to sister. It was pages long. The jist of it was that it would concentrate the good and the bad traits, but was not as terrible as you might think. You just dont want to do it generation after generation without bringing in new blood.

 

[Queen of the Lilliputians]

Speckeled, I think I read the same discussion you mentioned.. a lot of people were of the opinion that it was a VERY Fast way to get what you were breeding for, and to cull out those individuals who had gotten the bad genetics. The discussion went way over my head when they started talking about percentages of chickens with fatal genes/mutations and how that affected the offspring.. LOL! I'm confused just thinking about it!

Also, over time (from what I read... not personal experience) the fertility may go down, and you would NEED to bring in an outside chicken to bring it back up

but the jury was still out on that.

Not sure any of this matters though if it's just for your backyard flock, and not related to an actual breeding program.

Meghan

 

[silkhope]

That would be over my head too, but it's interesting all the same. I would like to sell their hatching eggs come spring, so it's good to know. Anyone need some buff silkie roos???