Signs of "Line Breeding"?

[drom]

You know, what I have been reading on the forums is that a lot of Marans breeders line breed because it is understood that crossing unrelated lines can dilute or lighten egg color. And of course it's more difficult for breeders to control the genetics of their birds when they cross lines. But, on one of the forums Beverly Davis said that is not always the case that crossing lines will change egg color; particularly if the two lines crossed both have dark egg color.
My BCs are F1 crosses from two BC lines and they really do show a lot of size, health and vigor. I was fully expecting to get lighter egg color because of it and I was OK with that. I was very surprised to get my first pullet egg over this weekend. The color was good. And the second egg this pullet laid today was larger and a whole shade darker.
So, for me now, I wouldn't be afraid to cross lines, but I would stick to the same Marans Variety.

Oh, also, the BCs can carry Wheaten recessives-it's not unusual.

Sorry about your chicks. Hope you have some good keepers in there.

 

[allen wranch]

Another thing to look for with line breeding and inbreeding is spurs on the hens.

 

[L&Schickens]

^^Alright I will keep an eye out for that too. If Marans get accepted into the APA standard, breeders need to start paying better attention to how much inbreeding they do. A fesed toed, spured hen will not do well at a show.

 

[sandypaws]

"line breeding" is justa fancy way of saying IN-breeding...
they do it to dogs and horses too.. usually ending up with horrific disorders.. so sad...

 

[halo]

Actually, line breeding is done in dogs and horses with spectacular results. Many of your top show lines in dogs and horses are very line bred. Its done to set type, and generally produces a dog (or horse) that breeds very true to type. Where you have problems is when people do this without researching the lines well enough to know what problems can crop up.

 

[wclawrence]

Linebreeding is not the cause of genetic problems.
Neither is Inbreeding.
The cause of those genetic problems is caused by one of two things
A) The breeders do not know how to recognize individuals with problems (inexperienced)
or
B) The breeders do not care because they are too worried about profit.

Saying Inbreeding causes problems is like saying guns cause murder.
Inbreeding may be a tool that allows inexperienced individuals to ruin good birds, much like access to a perfectly clean, new, accurate gun may help someone bent on murder; But inbreeding is not the cause of genetic problems.

PS
There are no "signs" that you can look for in individual birds that point to line breeding.

Edited to fix a stupid grammar problem.

 

[drom]

Quote:
Agreed. I used to breed Bengal cats and breeders would line breed to lock in the type and traits with really stunning results. And any breeding animals from their lines would breed very true to type. However; if any genetic problems come up that are hard to breed out, such as heart murmurs that show up later in life and can't be diagnosed early, it can be devastating to a breeding program.

 

[CountryMom]

I have had better results with line breeding in our guinea pigs than outcross breeding - or bringing in new bloodlines. In fact, at one time I brought in a very well known and sought after line only to practically ruin our line. I had to cull heavily and sell off that particular bloodline and start over. I spent months line breeding again before I brought in a new bloodline to outcross.

If you have a good bloodline to begin with, you will concentrate good genes. If you have a fault in your line then you tend to concentrate that fault. If you introduce a bloodline with a bad fault it never fails to show it's ugly head.

 

[L&Schickens]

This will be my first real breeding project with chickens so line breeding or not, I will not breed a crooked footed or webbed toed or spured hen. I want good egg color and a quality bird also. I want to show them too, so I will cull heavily.
I will not kill off the lesser quality hens if they lay a good egg, but will not have them in the breeding program. Crooked feet will not bother the taste of a good egg.

Cockerels will not be so lucky if they are not quality.

 

[Wynette]

As far as getting wheatens from copper black breedings...that's a known recessive gene in Wade Jeane's line. I've got a few, they're actually quite pretty, but off to the layer pen they'll go when they're old enough!