Can I breed brother and sister?

mikenandrea

Songster
10 Years
Jun 1, 2009
237
0
109
Douglas, GA
I am scratching my head with all this line breeding and inbreeding information. I am just not sure if I am suppose to ditch the brothers and get roo's from someone that I can breed my girls to. Can someone please enlighten me here? I want the purest flock possible...
 
Yes, you can breed brother & sister. Some folks go many generations with no defects, but 4-6 is doable at least. When you start to see defects, add some strange blood and start again with healthy birds. Of course, if you can find someone with good stock, you might be able to trade roos from time to time. PM me with any more questions you may have.......Pop
 
If you want to select for particular traits and improve on your flock, then you are best off using somewhat related birds -- it is ok to start with brother/sister if that's what you have available, but you will have to see how it goes. You may have smooth sailing for a good while, or you may run into problems (with fertility/hatchability as much as anything) in a generation or two, depending on the particular stock you're starting with.

However if you are not really trying to "do" anything in particular with your flock, just sort of propagate it so you always have purty chickens in the yard, it is probably easier to start with fairly-well unrelated stock, like bring in an outside rooster. And possibly repeat the injection of an unrelated rooster every few generations. This will make it hard to select for desirable traits BUT will also make it much less likely that UNdesirable traits (deformities, severe lack of type, poor fertility/hatchability) will rear their ugly heads either.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat
 
What if its same dad but different mom so they would be half brother or sister breeding togther
 
What a great question. I am do relieved to read that some of the things that worry me the most about my flock are not as bad as I thought
 

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