Chicken breeders or Folks in South Africa?

[hedz82]

Hi there and welcome, they must be real pretty, will you post some pics?

 

[hedz82]

Hey AndyCap, you seem really knowledgeable on the breeding and colors thing as well so I have a question. The bantam orp breeder where I want to get a new baby said he has blacks and blues. now is either of this colour less likely to be inbred? because i read sometimes you have to cross things back to the same colour and I am sure some people inbreed their chooks quite badly. or is the blue maybe less inbred because you are mixing two colours? so the chooks are more healthy? weird question I know but maybe you have some advice. Remember my poor splash baby died from crop impaction and I can't go through this again. Oh, gwen and my roo just came inside because its pouring outside and gwen dropped a lovely big soft green stinky one ONTO my laptop bag. awesome.

 

[BearClaw13]

Hi there and welcome, they must be real pretty, will you post some pics?

Of course ^.^ But I will only be able to post pictures this weekend as I am at boarding school during the week.

 

[blom545]

Of course ^.^ But I will only be able to post pictures this weekend as I am at boarding school during the week.

Hi I am also in school stil I'm writing matric exams at the moment

 

[BearClaw13]

Hi I am also in school stil I'm writing matric exams at the moment

Oh cool! I am only grade 10 so not quite there yet, but I have quite a few matric friends and they are stressing to no end about their exams at the moment. I start exams in just over a week.

 

[AndyCap]

Hey AndyCap, you seem really knowledgeable on the breeding and colors thing as well so I have a question. The bantam orp breeder where I want to get a new baby said he has blacks and blues. now is either of this colour less likely to be inbred? because i read sometimes you have to cross things back to the same colour and I am sure some people inbreed their chooks quite badly. or is the blue maybe less inbred because you are mixing two colours? so the chooks are more healthy? weird question I know but maybe you have some advice. Remember my poor splash baby died from crop impaction and I can't go through this again. Oh, gwen and my roo just came inside because its pouring outside and gwen dropped a lovely big soft green stinky one ONTO my laptop bag. awesome.

Hey Hedz, i am also pretty new to all of this(chickens), but not to genetics, it is something i have a big interest in, and poultry genetics is actually quite simple when you have a background to it.

As to the questions about in breeding it is hard to say. I joined Show Poultry sa to try and figure out how all the breeders here keep their lines going. There are some good examples and some very bad ones from what i have seen so far.

Blues are probably less inbred then other colours i would imagine, because to breed blue you actually are playing with 3 separate colours(blue,black and splash).

Inbreeding isnt too evil in chickens though, as long as it isnt over done, you can probably go a few generations before seeing a loss of fertility and production, and even longer before you see a health drop off.

It is more about the breeder, if he/she is reputable then you should be fine

Sorry about your loss, it is always hard to lose a bird.

 

[hedz82]

thanks a lot andycap, I am a molecular biologist (studied zoology and microbiology for my undergrads) so I know genetics well, but I 'd love to find out more about chicken breeding specifically. any good books you can recommend?

 

[hedz82]

good luck to you guys for your exams!! nothing helps like a good education to be able to pursue your dreams later in life. trust me!

 

[AndyCap]

thanks a lot andycap, I am a molecular biologist (studied zoology and microbiology for my undergrads) so I know genetics well, but I 'd love to find out more about chicken breeding specifically. any good books you can recommend?

There are two must have books in my opinion if you are interest in the more scientific approach.

That would be Grant Breretons "21st Century Poultry Breeding"
And Clive Carefoots "Creative Poultry Breeding"

Those two have the basic genetics of colour, Carefoots book also has genetics of beaks, shanks, feathers and a lot more, as well as sound poultry breeding and raising advice.

Chicken genetics is pretty simple, there are mainly gene pairs for colours, with one or two exceptions, But knowing the genes and effects of mixing and matching them is not as complex as feline genetics for example.

I am a programmer, but studied a tonne of genetics while trying to write genetic algorithms to make programs more efficient.

As said above. Good luck to all writing tests/exams!

 

[hedz82]

wow thats interesting, thanks!