Do Chickens Know Not to Inbreed?

[Featherybird]

I read that incest is okay for chicken breeding, but inbreeding is different as a brother and sister thing. Would a hen let her brother breed with her or not? Just wondering.

 

[sourland]

Chickens are not bound by the moral guidelines that we are. I have seen roosters try to breed an old boot. They will readily mate with their mothers, sisters, and even their brothers if desperate.

 

[donrae]

While I've not witnessed the old boot scenario

it wouldn't surprise me.

A rooster will happily breed any hen. And a hen will submit to any rooster.

It's not really incest in animals. It's line breeding, or inbreeding, depending on your management and results. I've bred father to daughter with no issues, and half siblings to each other for a generation. I've never hatched three eyed, two headed, four winged chicks

. for one generation, or maybe two, it's not been an issue as far as my birds have been concerned.

Of course, mating it totally different than hatching. Chickens are much easier to control their reproduction than mammals. Mammals mate once and you've got babies on the way. Chickens can mate all they want, and as long as you pull the eggs, it's no babies for them!