Is it okay to keep a rooster's sisters in his flock for breeding?

[Cloverr39]

I recently hatched 10 silkie chicks from a breeder that I've I've been wanting eggs from for a while. They're going to be way better quality birds than any silkies I currently own. I mainly bought them in hopes of getting a good rooster for my hens. Obviously I'd also want to keep any really good quality pullets I get. Would it be unethical to keep both a rooster and hens togeather if they could all potentially be siblings? (With other, unrelated hens in the flock, but still.)
Right now many people in my local chicken groups are talking about inbreeding and sharing photos and videos or deformed chicks hatching due to inbreeding. I really don't want to produce unhealthy birds. What should I do? Is there a way I can keep them all and make sure their chicks hatch healty as well? Or do I have no choice but to only keep pullets or only keep a cockerel?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

It sounds fine. Chickens (I don’t know the full science) can kinda smell their relatives and normally don’t… y‘know. Do you know how many ladies would potentially be related to the rooster?

Chickens couldn't care less if the bird breeding them is a relative.

 

[aart]

Chickens (I don’t know the full science) can kinda smell their relatives and normally don’t… y‘know.

If you knew the science, you'd know that is not true.

 

[DotToDot]

It sounds fine. Chickens (I don’t know the full science) can kinda smell their relatives and normally don’t… y‘know. Do you know how many ladies would potentially be related to the rooster?

 

[sourland]

Unless the parent line is extensively inbred there should be no problem.

 

[Ridgerunner]

What should I do? Is there a way I can keep them all and make sure their chicks hatch healty as well? Or do I have no choice but to only keep pullets or only keep a cockerel?

Every grand champion show chicken has been developed by inbreeding. Every chicken breed has been developed by inbreeding. Every approved color/pattern of a breed was developed by inbreeding. If you inbreed too much you can lose productivity, fertility, healthy vigor, and possibly cause physical defects. You need a balance.

When breeders are developing their flock they often breed fathers to daughters or mothers to sons to enhance the superior genes they want. But once they get where they want, they switch to a maintenance method to minimize inbreeding. Spiral breeding is a common one but is probably too intense for you.

For thousands of years small farmers have kept flocks where they raise replacements. That means inbreeding. They may go several generations but at some point bring in new genetics to refresh genetic diversity. That could be as simple as bringing in a new rooster. How many generations you can go will depend on how big your flock is. More hens and more roosters means you can go longer because of the randomness of mating. This may be the model you want to go with but choose your breeding birds carefully. Don't keep defective birds.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I recently hatched 10 silkie chicks from a breeder that I've I've been wanting eggs from for a while. They're going to be way better quality birds than any silkies I currently own. I mainly bought them in hopes of getting a good rooster for my hens. Obviously I'd also want to keep any really good quality pullets I get. Would it be unethical to keep both a rooster and hens togeather if they could all potentially be siblings? (With other, unrelated hens in the flock, but still.)
Right now many people in my local chicken groups are talking about inbreeding and sharing photos and videos or deformed chicks hatching due to inbreeding. I really don't want to produce unhealthy birds. What should I do? Is there a way I can keep them all and make sure their chicks hatch healty as well? Or do I have no choice but to only keep pullets or only keep a cockerel?

I keep, a full sibling pair together, & have hatched a beautiful son from them before. Sadly he died the year 2021, I believe.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Ok, so as long as I only keep healthy chicks from them it should be fine? That's a relief cause I really need to improve the quality of my silkie flock.

Yes. But it's best to keep them with unrelated chickens too, so you aren't getting offspring from the sibling pair(s), all the time though.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Oh, I'm planning to do so. These new chicks that I bought from the breeder (that I'm hoping to get a rooster from) are all black. I'm planning on making a BBS + paint flock. I just need to wait until they grow up. By that point I will know if those 3 are pullets. It wouldn't hurt to know if she's a blue cuckoo though. Would adding a picture of her maybe help? At least in telling if she's definitely not a blue cuckoo or if she could be.

It may help, though the barring pattern lightens the black abit, so it maybe hard to tell, for certain.

 

[MrIgmo]

The chances that all of your eggs came from the same hen is kinda low, they might have the same father though. So they'd be half siblings. Two of my hens look like identical twins and the other from the same breed looks almost like a different breed altogether. Acts different too enough so that obviously both parents were different from the other two.