Question about breeding

[Mother Therese]

Hi, I have 3 Australorp chicks, 2 share a mother, all three share the father. When they turn into hens and roosters, can i let them hatch out a few eggs in the spring, or are they too closely related?? What are the rules??

 

[Ridgerunner]

You might want to read through this thread. It’s probably information overload but may answer your question.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/885415/wheaten-and-splash-marans

The rules depend on your goals. What do you want the chicks to be; show birds, egg layers, for meat, to catch bugs, to maintain the breed, or something else.

Every chicken breed and practically every grand champion at a chicken show were developed by inbreeding. This was done by experts that know how to prevent or eliminate some problems with inbreeding. They have different techniques to accomplish different things, depending on their goals.

You can certainly hatch chicks from those birds. You will probably see nothing wrong with the chicks, but if you carry on with that flock, you need to carefully select which birds you allow to breed. If you see a chick that has a flaw, don’t allow it to breed.

If even 25% of the chicks you hatch have the same flaw, there is a bad recessive trait in those birds and you probably need to get new chickens and start over. But if you get mostly good chicks, you can usually go five generations or so before you need to introduce new genetics by carefully selecting which chickens you keep as breeders.