Are there any issues I need to be aware of in regards to keeping a "brother" cockerel with it's "sister" or "dad" with his "daughters"? I'm concerned that if we try to breed more chicks, we could end up with genetic problems if we breed them incorrectly.
Dads to daughters and mothers to sons is the preferred method of husbandry and is called line breeding; it's a way to ensure that you keep the traits you want in the line. Of course, this implies that you'll be removing chickens that have traits you don't want to pass on from your breeding stock. It's generally not a good idea to breed brothers to sisters due to the possibility of genetic deformities and such that can arise after several generations of doing this.
