Keeping siblings

[ravencreek]

Ok I REALLY just started thinking about this.. When I purchase chicks from the same clutch and some are roos and others are pullets...Can they be kept together and even allowed to reproduce together?

 

[B. Saffles Farms]

Yes you can. You will get alot of different opinions on this. Im not saying my opinion is the one to go by. But speaking from expeirince, I have done it and have had no problems.

 

[ravencreek]

To me the idea is wrong on sooo many levels but then again I know that there are many species that the siblings can be bred together without the offspring having any problems. I am just comparing chickens to humans here. I know I wouldn't think it was ok for human siblings to reproduce. So thats why I was asking. To just make sure. I expect different opinions on this but I just wanted to know if anyone else done the same thing. I have a new quad and they are all from the same clutch.

 

[Picco]

Most pure bred poultry you get from hatcheries are imbred to some degree. Even if you order birds from another hatchery they are likely related. Unless some defect is apparent there really isn't too much risk.

 

[JennsPeeps]

It's quite common for chicken lines to be inbred fir long periods of time to isolate desired traits.

 

[Wynette]

If you search here on "line breeding" you'll find lots of threads!

 

[Lollipop]

Think of it this way Raven. Just because they were from the same farm and hatched at the same time, doesn`t mean they all had the same mom & pop. In a dozen chicks, there could be 12 different hens and 3-4 different roosters represented. Even if it was the same roo, the hens would be different and that means they are plenty far apart for good breeding. Don`t worry about it.

 

[ThePolishPrincess]

I also wanted to add that most hatchary stock have spurred hens, as mine do, and this is a result of inbreeding.

The spurs may also be a dominant characteristic because my hen with spurs and roo mated to produce a little pullet with spurs, and she is only a few months old.

 

[ravencreek]

Actually these are from a single hen and roo. They were caged together so the breeders knew who bred who. They keep all their breeds separate and only keep single pairs. The hens are the ones that hatch the eggs and the babies stay with the parents until they are sold. The parent birds also have never been on the ground and live in 3ft x 3ft cages. But thats another issue.

 

[patandchickens]

Whether you run into problems within several generations, or not, depends on the genetics of your particular chickens. If they carry deleterious recessives then inbreeding will bring them to the fore. Is that bad? Maybe, maybe not -- it does have the advantage that by SEEING which chickens carry the problem genes, you can remove them from your breeding program and ideally clean those traits out of the gene pool.

If there is not much in the way of hidden 'bad' recessive traits in your particular chickens' gene pool, then nothing particularly bad will come from inbreeding, other than an *eventual* decline in vigor and/or fertility. Emphasis on EVENTUAL. And if it starts occurring, it is easily fixed by bringing in a little outside blood e.g. a new roo.

People fuss too much about inbreeding, if you ask me. Most of the objections seem to have more to do with a human 'oooh, ick, incest!' reaction than actual practical problems. Inbreeding ad infinitum is not good, but used INTELLIGENTLY it can be beneficial (and is sometimes *necessary*) to your breeding goals; and used without any particular intelligent plan but for not too many generations at once, it doesn't generally get you into too much trouble and if trouble *does* show up it is quite easily fixed.

Pat