Coturnix breeding question...

[quiltnchik]

I'm full of what are most likely stupid newbie questions today (I'm doing ANYTHING to avoid packing at this point! lol), but I was curious about breeding Coturnix that you hatch yourself. I mean, I got all my eggs from one person (13 right now), so won't the birds be related, and thus in-bred if I breed them, or does that even matter in the bird world?

 

[purelypoultry]

Coturnix being inbred can be a problem but usually coturnix are bred in large colony breedings so there wouldn't be a small gene pool that your chicks would come from. How many breeders are in the flock that you got them from?

 

[rbar]

Everythng matters...
But, did your suppplier SAY they all came from the same breeders?
I mean, at worst they are probably half-siblings...if colony bred, maybe even far relations.
If you had eggs from a single pair, you could not accumulate more than 7 or so before having to set them anyway...let alone the time spent in shipment.
So, two or three dozen collected over a day or so would almost insure some diversity.
To maintain TRUE genetic diversity, however, you would need to keep 30 to 50 breeding males anyway. Almost nobody does that (maybe largely the reason behind the decline of the A&M White standard since texas A&M got out of the business)?
Still, buying eggs from various sources would give you the additional genetic pool if you are in it for the long term. (For immediate eggs or meat, does not really matter. Keep in mind they usually lay best in their first year.)
Bottom line, save the best ones if you are breeding, maybe get some eggs from a different source a little later to mix in.

RBar

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[Ironsun]

Hi,

I don't like breeding from birds to closly related, I keep all my birds in breeding group of many unrelated birds inside each and others.

On the other hand, I also inbreed / linebreed some of my lines if I have a need to, (create different colours etc).

It might be better for you to buy more eggs from a different source, if your that worried, but here in England no wild caught birds have been introduce here for many decades and most of our birds will be related somewhere along the line.

Ironsun

 

[quiltnchik]

Thanks everyone. As soon as we get moved and settled into the new house, I'm ordering 30+ eggs from Niki, so I guess I should be fine as far as breeding goes, from what y'all are saying

 

[monarc23]

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And for future reference since you are getting coturnix eggs from me

almost all of my birds aren't related. I got from so many different breeders to establish my flock that it's safe to say you'll have at the most ONLY half siblings at best per color pen but like in my golden pen, you could luck out getting SEVERAL unrelated chicks because at one point i had three roos in there, now two, and both roos are unrelated and many of the hens are unrelated.

In the other pens same deal except only one roo so the other colors there will be only a half sibling issue.

So you can mix and match any way you'd like.

Inbreeding isnt a huge deal, just dont do it too many times and expect okay results

 

[quiltnchik]

Thanks Niki! I can't WAIT to get moved and settled so that I can get those eggs from you! I have now officially become a "hatch-a-holic!"

 

[monarc23]

Quote:

i know it's a very hard illness to get rid of isnt it

but we dont WANT rid of it! LOL!