mating ratio

[kuntrygirl]

What are the "no no's" when breeding turkeys? Is it a no no for a father to breed his daugther? Is it a no no for a brother to breed his sister? What are the rules for breeding?

 

[MovieFanz]

Quote:
I don't breed father to daughter or bother and sister because my goal is the improve my flock. I might breed a more distant relative if I am trying to fix in a trait. Any time you inbred close relatives you can bring out a lot of faults. It will show where your problems are. In turkeys it effect size, vigor and hatchability.

 

[MovieFanz]

On the inbreeding issue i'm curious as to how you do it? if you only have 1 tom to 15 - 20 hens then you must have quite a few turkeys to keep genetic diversity. What are your methods?

I noticed you did not answer my question, but I will answer yours. I said many times that I alternate toms into my breeding pens with a waiting period between alternating Toms, so I am sure of the parents. They all have a pedigree that I keep records of so I am sure not to inbreed. If I need to cull a hens offspring do to livablity of the hens line or other problems, I can do it. I have several male and female lines that are unrelated. I can breed only superior toms. I cull pretty hard to only breed the best. My goals are different than yours. I am not just trying to produce eggs for e-bay. I am sure you have seen many methods on how to set up breeding pens, haven't you?????

For others that have not, there is some info on pedigree breeding here. http://chla.library.cornell.edu/cgi...=frameset;view=image;seq=121;page=root;size=s​

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
I don't breed father to daughter or bother and sister because my goal is the improve my flock. I might breed a more distant relative if I am trying to fix in a trait. Any time you inbred close relatives you can bring out a lot of faults. It will show where your problems are. In turkeys it effect size, vigor and hatchability.

WOW! Then that will be difficult for me to do being as though I don't ever get rid of my tom.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

I am sure you have seen many methods on how to set up breeding pens, haven't you?????

Do you have any pictures of your breeding pens and your set up? I would really like to see "how it's done"

Steve​

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
Do you have any pictures of your breeding pens and your set up? I would really like to see "how it's done"

Steve

me too Steve

and by the way, I know it was a mistype, I'm sure he keeps 1 tom per 5 hens, not 5 toms per 1 hen

Most all private breeders run along that line that I have seen. I do too, 2 toms per breeding pen with 10-12 hens, toms are rotated out from pen to pen several times a year and poults marked accordingly

kuntrygirl

you can acceptably line breed any poultry, that's parent back to offspring. best not to if you can help it, but lets be honest, most folks dont have 100 turkeys and 50 pens to do it any other way. By line breeding, the resulting offspring only share 50% of the DNA from each parent.
No back crossing, brother to sister is usually not good, they will share 100% of each others DNA , that's when you start having trouble with legs and such.

But yes, when possible, it is always best to use unrelated stock, do some trading or line swaps of some form. But worst case, you can breed parent to offspring ONCE , more than once, and too much DNA is being shared for strong poults.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

We need to start a thread about breeding to clear up some methods and help people get a handle on it.

Steve

 

[MovieFanz]

I never set up my breeding pens this early in the year.

 

[MovieFanz]

Quote:
I am still waiting for you to answer about your breeding method?

I think most of the term of breeding are fully covered in the links I posted on breeding.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Quote:
You set them up and then take them down each year? Now i'm really amazed, do you have any pictures from last year?

Steve