Inbreeding?

[NYREDS]

About 25 years ago I talked an old boy into letting me have some Rhode Island Red Bantam eggs from a well known old strain that everyone thought was gone. He sent me 3 dozen eggs. They hatched very well-33 of 36 hatched. 29 cockerels & 4 pullets. I culled down to 2 pair & have line bred from them ever since. I have only shown once this year. I took 2 Reds-a cock & a hen. They were entered in a class of 38 Reds. The cock was Best of Breed & went on to be Reserve Single Comb Clean Leg, the hen was Reserve of Breed. My birds often win & are always competitive, even at the national level.
So, how soon will all these line breeding problems begin to show up?

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Quote:
How is your fertility now? You had to have been keeping very careful records for the last 25 years, care to share them and the lineage tree?

Steve in NC

 

[kswaterfowl]

Linebreeding and Inbreeding is not a bad thing in poultry as everyone often thinks when they first hear it. I know that there are some Dutch bantam breeders that have never crossed any other breeds into their birds, but through a rigid breeding program of staying close to their bloodlines and with little outcrossing they have developed many of the European colors without having to add OEGB blood, or any other breed into their Dutch pens to thin the blood.
Our Snowy Mallard flock is a combination of four original birds that were from the same hatch. The original cross was dark snowy drake and a grey hen. We've tried in the past to add "outside" blood to our flock, even purchased some really nice typed "Wild Plum" Snowy Mallards and tried crossing them in, but after one season and a lot of questioning what color the birds were we culled the WP birds due to their color, and have been breeding the progeny of the original two pairs we purchased several years ago. I recently purchased two hens from and outside bloodline to try to cross in once more. Our birds are VERY VERY related, but I have not hatched one duckling, as of yet, with three legs, two bills, two heads or anything strange yet. We did have some pure whites hatch out of our pure snowy pens and had some pied snowys a couple years ago, but other than that nothing weird. It actually benefits you to use closer related birds because you limit the "unknown" factors you get in breeding particular bloodlines.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Thanks so much for the more detailed explanation.

I'm not wanting to breed to sell eggs or anything, just to keep my own flock going if need be. (self sufficient kinda thing)

 

[JanieMarie]

Quote:
How is your fertility now? You had to have been keeping very careful records for the last 25 years, care to share them and the lineage tree?

Steve in NC

I'd be interested in this too!

kswaterfowl - how many years have you been breeding with the original 4 birds?

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

A common misconception is the 3 legs - 2 heads bit. The first sign of breeding to close is drop in fertility and vitality. More birds will "fail to thrive" thru close inbreeding.

One thing to remember is when you get what you are after, say a show line. you don't have to breed them every year or every other year. So you can have a line for 25 years and if you breed them every other year you are on the 12th generation, if you breed them every 3rd your 6th.

Breeding from an original pair you take the offspring and seperate them into seperate pens and breed them - that is a common practice among show breeders. over time you can cross those pens back into each other and still not have problems. it's not rocket science but requires very good record keeping.

It would be great if somebody with 25 years of doing it would be more helpfull and share experience rather than just say "i've been doing it for 25 years when will the problems show up" Just my humble opinion.

Steve in NC

 

[Garden Gal]

Great post! this had been on my mind lately and I learned a lot!

 

[NYREDS]

Quote:
How is your fertility now? You had to have been keeping very careful records for the last 25 years, care to share them and the lineage tree?

Steve in NC

My fertility is 95%+ & hatchability is better than 90%. I'm a 3 finger typist so I'm not going to copy my breeding records over here. I have no idea what you mean by "lineage tree".

 

[elijahboy]

so if i start out with a rooster and a 3 hens and then they have chicks i dont need to switch out the rooster i can just keep him and let him fertilize his grandkids also????????????

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Quote:
Yes