Theoretical, Science Fiction Question

[3KillerBs]

Quote:
Stories for the National Novel Writing Month www.nanowrimo.org are supposed to be completed from start to finish during the month of November. I've made several tries at it and I think that this year I'll be in the best position I've ever been in to complete it on schedule.

I've recruited several family members to participate -- a good support system.

Being a shameless enabler of anyone with any desire to write, ...

Anyone on this board interested in trying speed-noveling?

 

[wegotchickens]

My family would kill me if I 'disappeared' for a month to write a novel. Cool idea, though....

 

[chookster77]

3KBs,

According to R. D. Crawford, poultry scientist at the University of Saskatchewan, the ideal number to minimize genetic losses and thereby indefinitely sustain a flock is 25 hens (to 50) and 20 (or more) cocks. He proposes that all the hens be kept in a single flock. The cocks are to be kept in groups of 4 or 5. Each cock group is sequentially rotated through the hen flock, and eggs collected for incubation over a period of 2-4 weeks. Chicks are banded and select males are kept to represent each parent male group for the next generation. Select females are also identified so they can be equally represented in the aggregate hen flock of the next generation. Excess chicks of good quality can be used to create more conservation flocks. The parent generation is retired from reproduction. Repeat.

This scheme facilitates genetic diversity with the goal to conserve as opposed to line breeding which tends to condense (read: bottle neck) the genes. However, progeny which are weak, deformed, or too far deviated from breed type/production character should still be culled.

This protocol can be found in "Raising Rare Breeds, Livestock and Poultry Conservation: A Producer's Guide" by J. Chiperzak. My source is the ALBC's "A Conservation Breeding Handbook" by D. P. Sponenberg and C. J. Christman.

Not sure how large your "Noah's Ark" spacecraft will be or how long it takes to reach the stellar destination, but sans high tech reproductive techniques the ship needs to land with at least 45 live, healthy, and naturally reproductive chickens.

Please let us know how you resolve this dilemma in your novel. I especially enjoy science fiction that utilizes as much actual current science and technology as possible. Makes the fanciful story easier to "digest" and allows one to become really immersed in the story line.

Good luck with your writing!

Cheers,
TC

 

[patandchickens]

My impression is that poultry sperm stores very poorly? Although possibly by the time humans have managed interstellar travel they'll have also gotten better at that too

I dunno how much depth of information is really necessary for peripheral use in a SF story, but for those further interested in the topic (which is an interesting one, and of real relevance to livestock breeders, even those of us *not* on a spaceship) the two crucial concepts are a) minimum pop. size to prevent excessive problems through founder effects and drift and inbreeding and so forth, and b) determining what your *effective* population size is, which is not just a nose-count but is the number you need to be worrying about in (a) above.

Effective population size is described pretty well in this link (just what google happened to turn up, there are doubtless better explanations out there if you google more): http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/T0559E/T0559E03.htm and scroll down to look specifically at sections 3.3.2, 3.3.3, and 3.3.4

Most treatments of the subject find that between 30-300 animals *per generation* are necessary to be fairly well guaranteed of avoiding undue problems. You can start with fewer *if* they are pretty unrelated, but if they are mostly sibs and half-sibs and parents-of-each-other and so forth that decreases your effective population size and you would have to start with more animals.

Pat

 

[3KillerBs]

Quote:
Thank you very much.

This is excellent news. I was thinking I'd be able to take anywhere from 100 to 1000 of a given breed (depending on how useful that breed is expected to be). Sounds like that should create a thriving, viable population.

I should ask the meat bird producers how many will fit in a 14-16cuft freezer since I'm figuring that's about the size I think a cold-sleep module should be.

 

[patandchickens]

Your colonists probably would want to be taking something that can grow/survive well on whatever food is available under whatever conditions are available, rather than "hothouse flowers" like CornishX meat chickens that only do well with coddling and a particular diet. Also such a dual-purpose breed would be far more useful as layers and far easier to keep breeding stock alive.

You should be able to fit two pullets or cockerels of a dual-purpose breed per cubic foot of freezer space, imagining that there is a minimal amount of wires and tubing and other machinery involved.

(e.t.a. - but what would be much more efficient would be for your future space travellers to have devised a way of putting developing EGGS in suspended animation and then thawing them to finish growing/hatching. If packed egg-carton style, I would think you could get probably a hundred or more *eggs* per cubic foot)

Have fun

,

Pat

 

[3KillerBs]

Quote:
Storing sperm effectively will probably be an offshoot of cold-sleep technology.

I'll check out that link. Thanks.

 

[3KillerBs]

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I'm figuring that they'll want to take as much variety as possible but to take more individuals of the breeds that are expected to be most useful and best adapted to the expected conditions. The fewest numbers will probably be the ornamental breeds. Its vaguely possible that, in a real-life colony situation, the silkie or frizzle mutation could be key to survival (sickle-cell anemia does, after all, make a person resistant to malaria when heterozygous). But those "hothouse flower" super-production crosses and ornamental breeds won't deserve the resources given to proven tough and adaptable breeds.

Naturally, I'll want to write about the kinds I like most so that's what my characters will have -- other people, whom I'm not writing about, can keep the breeds I find less appealing.

Author's privilege.

ROFLOL

 

[3KillerBs]

Quote:
PS, I'm warring with myself over the advisability of taking mainly eggs or not based on the possibility of one of the crises being the earlier than expected loss of electrical power.

Of course they could PLAN on taking lots of eggs and end up having to survive on only their backup -- the adult birds.

Or, maybe, they get to hatch one batch -- just enough.

.... Hmmm.

 

[wegotchickens]

Quote:
PS, I'm warring with myself over the advisability of taking mainly eggs or not based on the possibility of one of the crises being the earlier than expected loss of electrical power.

Of course they could PLAN on taking lots of eggs and end up having to survive on only their backup -- the adult birds.

Or, maybe, they get to hatch one batch -- just enough.

.... Hmmm.

Or they have to mega improvise, and wear little plastic boxes on their bellies as they incubate the eggs themselves