"line breeding"- how close is to close?

[Megs]

hello everyone, ill get right to my Q!

i bought a beautiful short legged trio of japanese last summer, i beleave they were likely somewhat related (the person had several pens of them, i would assume they were doing distant line breeding, i did not at the time really know enough to ask). I hatched out some chicks from the trio last year, all were healthy cute lil chicks (perfect), and have kept a nice "trio" out of them (so half/full siblings). I was really hoping to continue working with these birds but as i cant find another line of them anywhere to mix with mine, is it time to scrap them? keep looking? or is it OK to breed the dad back to his 2 daughters and then the 2 "moms" back with their son? im thinking this is toooo close for line breeding (even with chickens) but would love to hear other opinions.

the other possibility would be to mix a different color with them (they are grey) but i think this then brings up problems of strange color mixes etc, which is also not desirebale!! unless there was a "safe" color to mix to grey and NOT get weird mixes, ive really just started to look into color genetics, and it seems hard to find info in writing i can understand (not being genetics savvy).

my best option of course is a new line, anyone have nice grey japs they can ship eggs to canada!?!?

its sad these are not more popular! i just love them. I have not had problems sourcing birds from multiple breeders on my other breeds, but no one seems to have these

 

[SilkiesAndSuch]

I think sons to mothers and daughters to dads is ok. It definitely isn't as bad as brother to sister. As long as you're careful and watch the genetics, you should be ok. After you breed the mother to the sons and the daughters to the dad, breed the babies to their grandparents. Keep looking for new blood while you do this though, as a breeding from unrelated birds will help heal any inbreeding depression that may occur. Good luck!

 

[chicken master]

Most big time breeders dont bring new blood in and they breed daughter to father, mother to son, grand daughter to grandfather,grandson to grandma.nice to uncle, and nephew to aunt. Many breeders do this for years and years without new blood. I do it with my bantam and standards rir. It is completly fine. That is how you keep desirable traits in your strain.