Is it "OK" to keep a Rooster from a straight run and allow breeding?

[Blackburn]

I recently started keeping chickens and have dumb question. Is it alright to keep a rooster from a batch of straight run chicks and allow him to breed? Or should I get another rooster from a different source to prevent the chance of inbreeding? Like I said I'm new this and I'd like to get some(or all) fertile eggs and I don't want to get off on the wrong foot. I did look around a good bit and couldn't find any info on this subject. Maybe it's no problem at all but I just had to know.

Thanks in advance,
Dave

 

[gryeyes]

It is certainly fine to keep a "straight run" rooster in the same flock.

Another BYC member posted, once: "When you think of the hundreds of thousands of chicks that hatcheries produce, the chances of any 4 chicks being related is absolutely minimal. Even if they happened to be related, inbreeding in poultry is not a problem."

Another wrote, "Inbreeding is greatly misunderstood. Inbreeding does not automatically cause inferior traits to show up."

And yet a third wrote, "Inbreeding is not at all unusual in chickens. It is how the champion birds at the shows are developed."

I hope this puts your mind at rest. ;-)

 

[patandchickens]

Yup, no problem. Use the "search" utility for past threads on inbreeding if you want more on the subject, but as gryeyes says, your birds are probably not *that* closely related to begin with and inbreeding is unlikely to be a problem in poultry for at least a couple generations (even in worst case scenario).

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Blackburn]

Thanks for the answers, I figured there really wasn't that great a chance the birds are closely related but I just couldn't help wondering.