Inbreeding - Thoughts and Opinions.

[LavyOrps]

I have some of the cutest little Easter Eggers. Their mother is an Easter Egger, and father is a Tolbunt Polish.

I have been thinking of trying to breed the cute babies to have more and more of this specific coloration. I have read some things that discourage invreeding and some that say there really isn’t an issue when inbreeding chickens.

The grey baby I would like to continue getting.

Father

Mother

 

[HeatherKellyB]

*I* don't know of any problems with inbreeding chickens. With waterfowl (ducks specifically), breeding sibling to sibling (hatchmate/clutch mates) has caused ~some~ problems with hatch rates and mortality but not anything like humans/dogs/etc. I'll tag some more knowledgeable folks because I am only speaking of my friends experiences.
@RoostersAreAwesome
@NatJ
@Amer

Edited to comment on your beautiful birds. How old are the chicks now? I'd love to see how they feather in. They're adorable

 

[MysteryChicken]

It's not that much of an issue really.

Breeding full siblings can cause problems to arise if bred too far, I'd say no more then 2-3 generations of full sibling breedings.

Breeding back to the parents is better, & you can continue longer, even breeding back to grandparents will be perfectly fine.

 

[Ascholten]

I can't wait to see how they end up looking once all the feathers poof out!
Pretty little birds, thank you for those pics!

Aaron

 

[The Moonshiner]

The problem is gonna be that your chicks are a mix of patterns. Since they don't have homozygous genes they won't breed true for their pattern.

 

[sdm111]

Inbreeding in fine line breeding is better since it seems you have the parents. It would also be better for going for a specific coloration

 

[Ascholten]

See what they turn out to be first.
Babies always are cute.... then they grow up and look like McJagger

Aaron

 

[HeatherKellyB]

See what they turn out to be first.
Babies always are cute.... then they grow up and look like McJagger

Aaron

My thoughts exactly, well mostly

 

[LavyOrps]

See what they turn out to be first.
Babies always are cute.... then they grow up and look like McJagger

Aaron

I have one that is…. A teenager? She is very cute still! I will post pictures of her tomorrow.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I have some of the cutest little Easter Eggers. Their mother is an Easter Egger, and father is a Tolbunt Polish.

I have been thinking of trying to breed the cute babies to have more and more of this specific coloration. I have read some things that discourage invreeding and some that say there really isn’t an issue when inbreeding chickens.

The grey baby I would like to continue getting.

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Father
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Mother
View attachment 2963954

If you want more of that specific coloration, you could keep breeding the parents together. But I agree, sibling matings in the short term aren’t detrimental, and you can carry out parent x sibling matings for even longer.