Is incest normal for chickens?

[FrostyWind]

For years now, I've witnessed lots of incest going on my flocks.
Uncle chasing niece and mating, Dad mating with his Mother, Father mating with his Granddaughter, Son mating with his sister and mother Etc? And from that they made baby chicks that are Definitely incest children.
I want to know if its normal and okay for chickens to do this? I mean I'm weirded out by that. Lol and anytime i see that i'm like "Incest!!! Look Son is mating with his mother!" Lol.
I'm pretty sure incest has been going on in my flock for generations now. Majority of my chickens are blood related. The only chickens that aren't blood are the ones that just came from our neighbors yard and they decided to stay. Which is like only 5 foreigners.
From this, does this cause birth defects for the babies? I mean i haven't noticed anything deformed in any of the chicks. Well i think i have, cause last month, 2 baby chickens came out with 2 swollen eyes, so they could only see on 1 side.
And then there's baby chicks disappearing without a trace like the mothers would alert if a cat or hawk is attacking them or rats or snakes. I mean mothers could defend their chicks from rats and snakes cause occasionally you'd see chickens trying to eat 1 snake or a rat.
Anyways, should I just let my free range flock just be and continue with whatever, whoever they want to mate with or do something?
Thank you

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hi there.

I am sure you are the not the first person to confuse incest with inbreeding... it isn't the same thing and animals don't operate with the same set of moral values as humans do.

For them it's simply a matter of choosing the best mate to spread their seed... survival of the fittest.

In addition to that.. many of us do inbreed, line breed, or spiral breed to set features we want in our animals. In poultry, inbreeding isn't as rapid an issue as it would be in humans... meaning it takes more generations before you start to see deformities or other things like reduced fertility or hatch-ability. Your swollen eye babies could have been that or maybe just a hatch anomaly from conditions or vitamin type deficit (just an example, not an actual diagnosis).

Mothers DO loose their chicks and sometimes themselves to predators including snakes, rats, hawks... and the like. The predators often just wait for a straggler. If you can afford the losses... let them stay.. I trap rats and collect feed EVERY night... chickens DON'T feed in the dark. Not all mothers are created equally either... some are better at protecting against danger than others...

If you are okay with your flock and not worried about decreased hatchability or longevity of your generations to come type thing, let it be.

If YOU want something different from your flock... like eggs laying ability, meatier birds, pure breeds, less broody's, a certain father pattern gracing your yard... then switch it up.

To me.. if you're gonna allow hatching ya gotta have plan for all the extra boys... or before long the hens will likely be bald from over mating with equal numbers.

Morally... your birds are fine.

One final quick note... son to mother or father to daughter is the best way for reduced issues... direct brother to sister is less preferred. There is more detailed information available about this.

Good luck, whatever you choose!

 

[azygous]

First of all, incest is a human construct. Chickens aren't governed by religious doctrine.

It's entirely normal for roosters to mate with all the females in the flock regardless of bloodlines.

Flock management for optimal breeding is the only consideration of control of breeding between chickens. For example, if you have a mean tempered rooster, you might wish to segregate him from the hens to prevent him fertilizing any hens which could result in chicks hatching that have his mean temper.

Other than breeding considerations, incest isn't an abnormal thing in chicken world. They would be very surprised, I'm sure, if they knew humans got so concerned about it.

 

[Amatsuhono]

Pretty much all animals in a small isolated population will practice inbreeding. We as humans know the genetic consequences (yet it does still happen in humans, knowingly and unknowingly), but animals have no such knowledge. Humans have also added a moral stigma on it to discourage it, while morals don't mean much to a chicken.

Controlled line breeding is used in animal breeding to isolate desirable traits and eradicate detrimental ones.

But left unchecked it can have catastrophic effects. I'll be honest, if I were you, I'd cull (rehome or freeze camp) all but the best birds and bring in some new blood, as well as practicing some chicken birth control (don't keep cockerells, don't let broody hens hatch eggs unless you need new birds, and even then consider purchasing eggs for her to hatch or buying day old chicks). You may never have a problem, but you can also end up with some horrible and bizarre effects.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Chickens don’t care about their relatedness to other birds. Any sort of show line of bird has a good deal of inbreeding done. Chickens are more tolerant of inbreeding than more complex animals. Inbreeding can reinforce genetic problems, but they can also bring out good traits in a line. Talk to any breeder, and they do a LOT of inbreeding.

 

[FrostyWind]

All the information here you guys provided definitely helped me, cause it always had me worried, but now i know what to do now,
Thank You

 

[007Sean]

Chickens don’t care about their relatedness to other birds. Any sort of show line of bird has a good deal of inbreeding done. Chickens are more tolerant of inbreeding than more complex animals. Inbreeding can reinforce genetic problems, but they can also bring out good traits in a line. Talk to any breeder, and they do a LOT of inbreeding.

Breeders prefer to call it linebreeding instead of inbreeding. Linebreeding means it worked, Inbreeding means it didn't!

 

[Redhead Rae]

Breeders prefer to call it linebreeding instead of inbreeding. Linebreeding means it worked, Inbreeding means it didn't!

Too true, but I used inbreeding in this case to make a point to the OP. Most people don’t understand the line breeding is one type of inbreeding.

 

[007Sean]

Too true, but I used inbreeding in this case to make a point to the OP. Most people don’t understand the line breeding is one type of inbreeding.

No offense, wasn't correcting or anything, it's just the way most breeders look at the two different side of the coin.

 

[centrarchid]

Normally, which is not normal for most poultry keepers, has where the young birds can disperse from natal groups. If they can become part of mating groups outside the natal groups, that decreases the odds of having to mate with close kin. Most chickens do not have that option, even in a free-range setting. Too artificial and been that way so long we do not know it.