Inbreeding issues

[Johnchickens2]

Hi

I started my flock with 3 bantams - 1 male and 2 females. One of the females went broody last spring and hatched 3 lovely chicks - again, 2 females and one male. Now there is a problem - I do want more chicks next spring but I might have inbreeding issues! Adding more males isnt an option - too much noise at night. I don't want to 'replace' the father either - he is my favorite. What can be done??

 

[NatJ]

I started my flock with 3 bantams - 1 male and 2 females. One of the females went broody last spring and hatched 3 lovely chicks - again, 2 females and one male. Now there is a problem - I do want more chicks next spring but I might have inbreeding issues!

You could hatch eggs from just the original females, not from their daughters. There would be no inbreeding that way.

Or you could hatch eggs from all the females, and watch to see if any problems happen. Inbreeding in chickens does not usually cause big problems. The most common issue is eggs that don't hatch, but that typically takes more generations of inbreeding than you are currently expecting.

Breeding daughters back to their father is fairly common, and usually not a problem.

Adding more males isnt an option - too much noise at night. I don't want to 'replace' the father either - he is my favorite. What can be done??

Do you still have the male you hatched this year? Replacing him with a new rooster might be an option.

Since you are not willing to have more males, if you plan to hatch eggs this year, do you have a plan for any males that hatch from the eggs?

 

[Johnchickens2]

You could hatch eggs from just the original females, not from their daughters. There would be no inbreeding that way.

Or you could hatch eggs from all the females, and watch to see if any problems happen. Inbreeding in chickens does not usually cause big problems. The most common issue is eggs that don't hatch, but that typically takes more generations of inbreeding than you are currently expecting.

Breeding daughters back to their father is fairly common, and usually not a problem.


Do you still have the male you hatched this year? Replacing him with a new rooster might be an option.

Since you are not willing to have more males, if you plan to hatch eggs this year, do you have a plan for any males that hatch from the eggs?

Thank you for your answer!

So, you're saying I can actually leave them like that and let them breed?
I'm not sure I will be able to tell the eggs every female lays unless I mark them when they lay. Or I can try to make sure each one has her own nesting place in the yard (the yard is safe from dangers) and that way each hen will mind her own nest, without laying in others??

If more males hatch, I will have to give them to my friend. They have a farm and always welcome new chickens/roosters.

 

[Egg Snatcher]

Hi

I started my flock with 3 bantams - 1 male and 2 females. One of the females went broody last spring and hatched 3 lovely chicks - again, 2 females and one male. Now there is a problem - I do want more chicks next spring but I might have inbreeding issues! Adding more males isnt an option - too much noise at night. I don't want to 'replace' the father either - he is my favorite. What can be done??

You can definitely inbreed chickens. I have never had issues with inbreeding. Inbreeding in birds doesn’t affect them like in mammals (which still doesn’t usually end in deformities). It’s a natural thing that would happen in the wild. Some breeders have found that you can inbreed up to 20 generations then you may have problems with fertility.

If your willing you could give away or sell the brother roosters and just keep you daddy roosters. Then you’ll just be breeding father to Daughter. Which is what we seldom do when breeding our goats.
Or get rid of your brother roosters and get a new on.

 

[NatJ]

Thank you for your answer!

So, you're saying I can actually leave them like that and let them breed?

Yes, you can do that, and it will probably be fine.

I'm not sure I will be able to tell the eggs every female lays unless I mark them when they lay. Or I can try to make sure each one has her own nesting place in the yard (the yard is safe from dangers) and that way each hen will mind her own nest, without laying in others??

Giving them separate nests will not work, because hens like to lay in the same nests as each other.

If you want to know which eggs are from which hens, one option is to separate them for a few days (maybe something like putting the daughters in a big dog kennel and leaving the mothers loose.) During the time they are separated, you know which eggs come from which pen, and you use the correct ones for hatching. The rest of the time, when you are not collecting eggs for hatching, they can all live together and it doesn't matter whether you can tell the eggs apart or not.

A hen who goes broody will quit laying eggs. So if you have a time when one or two hens are broody, you will know any new eggs come from the other hens.

If more males hatch, I will have to give them to my friend. They have a farm and always welcome new chickens/roosters.

That sounds like a good plan

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Inbreeding doesnt cause any issues for 5+ generations at least ill let you know come spring because my line is 5x and never had any issues so you should be good to go.

 

[LaFleche]

If your initial three birds are from the same breeder and of same age, there is already a high chance of them being siblings and you don't know how genetically close the parent birds were.

You could broaden your genetic pool significantly by purchasing hatching eggs from different breeder(s)/source(s) and mark the offspring with different coloured leg bands.

Thus you will be able to only select and pair birds from different blood lines for your future breeding program. Which will generally increase health and overall robustness including egg count provided you only breed healthy birds.

 

[K0k0shka]

I've always wondered, if supposedly in-breeding isn't such a big deal in chickens, then why do purebred chickens (especially the ones coming from small hobby breeders) have so many issues. I have all but given up on my favorite breed and color variety, because they've had SO many health problems - from poor hatch rates, to early deaths, heart problems, physical deformities, etc.... and they all came from a small hobby breeder with small gene pools.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I've always wondered, if supposedly in-breeding isn't such a big deal in chickens, then why do purebred chickens (especially the ones coming from small hobby breeders) have so many issues. I have all but given up on my favorite breed and color variety, because they've had SO many health problems - from poor hatch rates, to early deaths, heart problems, physical deformities, etc.... and they all came from a small hobby breeder with small gene pools.

In breeding for a few generations doesnt have the same effect as continuously inbreeding over and over for several generations. Same with rabbits. You can get away with son/mother and father/daughter. Full siblings are where most issues tend to flare up the fastest because they're much, much closer genetics wise than a parent to offspring


My flocks have lots of related and lots of absolutely non related birds. The ones with most issues generally have non related parents, where the main issue I've started getting from related parents (after years of using the same male for each new generation of females) is smaller and less hardy birds, yet these birds still have outlived many from completely unrelated parents

 

[Auntiejessi3]

I've always wondered, if supposedly in-breeding isn't such a big deal in chickens, then why do purebred chickens (especially the ones coming from small hobby breeders) have so many issues. I have all but given up on my favorite breed and color variety, because they've had SO many health problems - from poor hatch rates, to early deaths, heart problems, physical deformities, etc.... and they all came from a small hobby breeder with small gene pools.

I sent you a message with a pic of my newest lady, Felicity, I hatched, it may give you a new avenue and new hope!