Silver Penciled Rocks,

[Hackle]

Think I will take your advice and perhaps keep three roosters and grow them out. I thank you for the information about coloring and such. The only other question I have is, due to getting these chickens at the same time isn't it likely that if I breed one of the roosters to the hens this will be a Brother/ Sister mating?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

It's likely they have same father, odds of same mother are low. Line breeding and inbreeding are not quite the same thing though it's common to line breed K's back to mothers or aunts and pullets to sires. Full brothers and sisters are not mated. Tagging birds and keeping a notebook aids in knowing where the breeders came from (lineage) and in that way guide you to where the offspring should be mated to maintain genetic diversity. The chart above is not at the end it's merely the beginning, group 10 could mate to 13, 9 with 11 or 15, 12 with 15 or 16 and so on. The combinations start becoming endless if you've a large enough operations to hold that many birds. Housing breeders alone you'll start to have many birds with diverse genetics. These charts assume a pairing from two unrelated birds but you get the idea. Maintain diversity through tracking lineage via tagging birds and keeping a notebook or database. Without a tracking system you can end up on only one side of the chart and be breeding very closely related birds, essentially breeding birds of nearly exacting genetics (inbreeding).

Inbreeding specifically does two things. Genetic pairings making for defects are more common the closer related the birds are, many generations of too close mating can turn a flock in bad direction needing a bird(s) from another source brought in to break up those undesired genetic pairings. The other problem over decades of too close mating is fertility, hatchability and overall vigor of flock will decline. Again, infusion of a bird or two from another flock will bring the flocks vigor right back. Line breeding can be maintained indefinitely with a large enough operation and multiple coops. For one coop line breeding can only be maintained for a decade or so without the need for an infusion of genetics.