Is it o.k. for them to breed??

[catdaddyfro]

Yeah the gene pool is not very close to begin with so there's enough diversity in there you can breed those chickens numerous generations with out having any bad effects as long as you keep in check and don't breed in something undesirable.

Jeff

 

[hecatesmoon]

Basically, I started out with my chickens just having the goal of getting some eggs and meat so I bought some random chickens-- white rocks, black sex link, and rhode island red.
Then the goal quickly evolved into having a self sustaining flock so I bought cochin bantams and buff orpingtons with the hopes of getting broodies and breeding it into any offspring from my original six laying bunch. I was going to allow my flock to become all out mutts for the sake of genetic diversity and hardiness.
Aaaand it evolved yet again!! I decided I would like to change the color of the eggs too so that all of my future mutts would be easter eggers! Then I fell in love with easter eggers for the surprises in how they feathered-- the colors and patterns.
Which has NOW evolved into a particular love of blue and lavender.
I also now keep, in a separate coop, silkies for their broody habits and because they are visually appealing.
But! I still DO want to hang on to following a plan of having a flock that is self sustaining, even with the lavenders. One that has enough genetic diversity so that it is hardier and that will go broody fairly regularly.
So NOW I am thinking of keeping my easter eggers, cochins, and original egg layers in one flock allowing them to mix and mingle and breed for my mutt stock of easter eggers. I may occasionally take one of those hens and put it in with the silkies to breed and then remove it to breed with normal feathered birds again by placing it back with my mutt flock.
Then keeping yet another flock-- the lovely lavender orpington chicks I am getting. I don't want to show them, but I do want their offspring to keep that color. I just want to keep, maintain, or increase broodiness in them and as with my mutt flock, to make sure there is enough genetic diversity to keep them hardy or increase hardiness.

 

[NYREDS]

If your flock is good enough, you will never need to introduce new blood. I know many old time show breeders that started with a trio and haven't introduced any new blood in 50 years. Their flocks get so uniform and predictable that when you bring in new blood, you mess everything up and it can sometimes take years to get it back to where it was.

Absolutely true. The Dominiques I bred for a few years came from what had been a closed flock for 50+ years. I bred a strain of SC Rhode Island Red Bantams for 25 years w/o adding new blood. The "new blood" notion has resulted in ruining many a good line of poultry.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

In my wyandotte bantams from Rev. Paul Ashbrook, I had his line for years and my main rooster went sterile so I got a rooster from a show breeder down south. Just crossing him in threw all sorts of stuff, I got a barred bird, a few blacks, and some other off colors. I was never able to get them back to what they were. Not saying anything bad about anyones birds but it just goes to show that by breeding 2 lines together can be surprising.

 

[hecatesmoon]

Wow...how do you do that?? How do you keep a closed flock for so long?? Do you separate the flock to two separate roosters to get a replacement rooster for when a one does go sterile? Or how do you mate them to deal with that inevitability?

 

[Fred's Hens]

If you google, there is hours and hours of reading on various breeding systems. I've tried to absorb as much of it as I can.

To help with just one aspect of your question, many GREAT lines, lines that have 30 years of notoriety and championships earned and 50 years of closed breeding, began with a simple trio, one cock bird and two hens. In the hands of an intelligent and experienced breeder, that may be all it takes, if those three birds are exemplary. Chicken genetics are not really like mammalian genetics. They are much more complex, it seems to me.

Further, good breeder keep a reserve rooster in his line handy. One never knows. Also, good breeders keep track of who else has their line, to whom have they may given them to breed. This provides a backup reserve, of the same line, kept safely elsewhere. Hope that helps. "Fresh blood" normally means getting a bird or two from someone else's breeding flock, but birds that are also of the very same line. "Fresh blood" doesn't mean getting a bird from outside of the line. Hope that helps.

 

[hecatesmoon]

Ahhh I see! Yes, that does help!