How much do you worry about inbreeding?

[BrianV]

Hi all,

In my current flock, I have 1 rooster and 6 hens, 4 of which came from the same hatch as the rooster. If one of my hens goes broody, I want to stick eggs underneath.

Given that the rooster is a sibling of four of the hens, I'm assuming I shouldn't put their eggs under the rooster, right? Is inbreeding a huge issue in flocks? I would assume it's pretty common in the wild.

 

[MickWithChicks]

Inbreeding isn't an issue with chickens. In fact, that's how people get perfect their traits: through line breeding and not introducing new blood to their flocks. Unless you're following many generations of small flocks that are purely inbred, there's no issue.

As for your question, what do you mean by you shouldn't put their eggs under the rooster? The rooster isn't going to sit on an egg to fertilise it? Fertility needs to happen while the egg is still forming in the oviduct. This happens when sperm meets ova.

 

[BrianV]

As for your question, what do you mean by you shouldn't put their eggs under the rooster?

I totally meant broody hen - oops!

 

[Amer]

Inbreeding isn't an issue with chickens. In fact, that's how people get perfect their traits: through line breeding and not introducing new blood to their flocks. Unless you're following many generations of small flocks that are purely inbred, there's no issue.

As for your question, what do you mean by you shouldn't put their eggs under the rooster? The rooster isn't going to sit on an egg to fertilise it? Fertility needs to happen while the egg is still forming in the oviduct. This happens when sperm meets ova.

X2

 

[MickWithChicks]

I totally meant broody hen - oops!

haha. Nice slip up. Glad you understand how that part works

As for the inbreeding, it's all good with chickens. Heaps of further reading available when searching here for inbreeding or line breeding. Unless you're personally uncomfortable with it there's nothing to worry about

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum. That's a good question, a lot of people wonder about that.

While inbreeding is fairly common in he wild it's maybe not as common as you might think. In the wild a rooster runs the cockerels out of his flock at a certain age. They have to go out on their own. When they mature a cockerel may set up his own territory and try to attract hens and pullets from his own flock or other flocks or may battle a rooster (his father or another rooster) to take over the flock. Quite often the pullets he attracts are his sisters or half-sisters. So yes there is some inbreeding but it's not always to close relatives.

A common way to keep chickens for thousands of years on small farms is to keep new chickens in the flock, pullets to replace spent hens a well as an occasional cockerel to replace the head rooster. They do this for maybe 4 or 5 generations, then bring in a rooster from another flock to introduce genetic diversity.

If you start to see some defects when you try this you may need to get rid of your stock and start over, but usually you can go several generations before you have problems. Kind of play it buy ear and see what you are getting in the chicks, but you should be OK for several generations.

Good luck!

 

[Mrs. K]

No worries, more than likely while your birds might be hatch mates, they are not apt to be true sisters or true brothers, as in all the eggs came from a single hen and specific rooster. Certainly not if they came from a hatchery. So you could do this several times without issue.

With breeding, the bad characteristics also multiply, in a couple of years, add a new rooster... but I would be very surprised if you got birth defects do to imbreeding in the next 5-6 years.

 

[Amer]

No worries, more than likely while your birds might be hatch mates, they are not apt to be true sisters or true brothers, as in all the eggs came from a single hen and specific rooster. Certainly not if they came from a hatchery. So you could do this several times without issue.

With breeding, the bad characteristics also multiply, in a couple of years, add a new rooster... but I would be very surprised if you got birth defects do to imbreeding in the next 5-6 years.

Yup. Whilst there are some problems with inbreeding, birth defects is not one of them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yup. Whilst there are some problems with inbreeding, birth defects is not one of them.

It depends on the genetic make-up of the parents. If one parent has a recessive gene that can cause birth defects it can come out when breeding the offspring. That might be a good reason to get new stock.

Breeders will sometimes use inbreeding to find out about recessive genes they are trying to eliminate. If they cross the offspring of a particular bird or breed that bird to his/her offspring and recessive traits show up, then they know the bird has that gene and maybe they want to eliminate it from their breeding program. While some might not consider the wrong eye color to be a birth defect, if you are trying to breed championship birds it is, as an example.

 

[Amer]

It depends on the genetic make-up of the parents. If one parent has a recessive gene that can cause birth defects it can come out when breeding the offspring. That might be a good reason to get new stock.

Breeders will sometimes use inbreeding to find out about recessive genes they are trying to eliminate. If they cross the offspring of a particular bird or breed that bird to his/her offspring and recessive traits show up, then they know the bird has that gene and maybe they want to eliminate it from their breeding program. While some might not consider the wrong eye color to be a birth defect, if you are trying to breed championship birds it is, as an example.