How important is genetic diversity?

[chicken farm]

I plan on buying 24 fertilised RIR eggs and putting them in the incubator, I want to keep my RIR’s pure but I‘m worried about genetic diversity when I breed them.

Will genetic diversity be ok or will I need to buy more from another source.

 

[americaunus]

What do you mean pure? If you get 24 RIR, are you planning on breeding? Then get a RIR rooster. Inbreeding, as far as I understand, isn't usually a problem with chickens. Are the 24 coming from the exact same rooster and hen? According to my chicken book, may cause infertility way down the road.

 

[theoldchick]

Never hurts to buy a quality rooster from unrelated stock of the same breed. For example, if you purchased chicks from a breeder I would not buy a breeding rooster from the same breeder-unless they have unrelated stock. Also, I would not breed a rooster which came with flock of chicks purchased from a hatchery. Chances are these chicks are very closely related.

To answer your question, yes, genetic diversity is important to maintain a healthy flock. Repeated inbreeding brings out unwanted mutations and lack of vigor.

 

[daneblackburn]

In the dairy industry inbreeding is called line breeding if it works. If not it is inbreeding lol.

 

[chicken farm]

I will buy my rooster(s) from a different source.
I don’t want to breed RIR to sell but I want to have the option of selling.

I want to breed my own chickens for the next 25+ years, so I’m not just talking about breeding 1-2 generations of RIR.
I want to know how many roosters with different genetics I will need to get to stop inbreeding over such a long period?

I plan on getting all chickens from the same source so the roosters will need to be the ones to provide the genetic diversity.

I think 4 roosters should do it but I’m only guessing.