The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: r+lchick on September 24, 2009, 04:04:49 pm
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I have a clutch of chickens (6 in total). It has turned out that there are 3 are girls and 3 are boys. Two boys are for the pot (Ron and Reggie Cray). We both have a soft spot for Blackie, the other boy. He is very intelligent and is cute. Is there a problem if he breeds with the girls from the same clutch. We are hoping to get some more girls in (another 3). Obviously no problems with them, but would we have to segregate them and keep two sets going? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Ros :cat: :chook:
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I have 5 cockerels among my free range flock. And to be honest, they seem to have sorted themselves out, and have "their" hens. The older bantam cockerel is in charge of the top half of the field, although the other hens go up there, he will not allow the other cockerels. Never fights them, just chases them back into their bit of field. I have only ever seen him tread the 5 banties he is housed with.
The main flock, including the ex batts, are looked after by Les and Mike, the two Pekin boys - bottom half of the field though. The silkie cockerel, has his silkie hens, and is chased by Les and Mike, and the bantam cockerel, so knows his place. One of this years clutch is a cockerel, and he has not got his own ladies as yet, just drifts around
Thats just my set up, and as far as I can see, as yet, no one is interbreeding, although this years bantam pullets could be a problem in that respect.
The only way round it is to pen up the ones you wish to breed from, so they do not mingle with their relations.
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At the moment the boys have nothing to choose from, hence why Ron and Reggie are for the pot. The three girls are not getting any rest from them. I'll have to see when I introduce some more girls into the mix.
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If you know which of your hens is laying which eggs then there is no problem - just don't hatch out the ones that are related to the cockerel. No need to keep them separate. So when choosing your next three hens choose a breed that lays different coloured eggs to the ones you have now. My Light Sussex eggs are almost white, the ex batts are either golden or quite brown, so I would know which to hatch (Not the LS as my cockerel is her brother!)
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there are no problems with interbreeding as you might do now, but the problems occour a few hatches down the line ie if the cockeral breeds with the hens now its ok but if you hatch the eggs and he breeds with them then you hatch those eggs and he breeds with those thats when you might get a few problems
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I worked for an old lady for a few years, some time ago, and she had about forty 'scartin' banties which lived on the yard and roosted in the outbuildings.
They had all come from one original trio of bantams which she'd been given about twenty years before I saw them there. She kept their numbers down by shooting any she didn't want with a .22 rifle, never letting their number go above forty or so. She ate those she culled.
The cocks were silver hackled with a black body; the hens were black, some had silver hackles and some had goldie red.
Nothing else had ever entered the breeding pool, so all the birds were related to each other and closely bred. I never saw any obvious defects, nor did the lady know of any.
Line breeding is very good policy when trying to fix desirable traits in a strain of poultry........most good stockmen practice very close breeding. Some poultry breeders keep two seperate pens of closely related fowl and outcross from one pen to the other when required.
Problems may arise when the breeding stock carry undesirable , perhaps unknown, traits which will be carried on into the resultant generations just as will those good points being sought.
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Nothing else had ever entered the breeding pool, so all the birds were related to each other and closely bred. I never saw any obvious defects, nor did the lady know of any.
Line breeding is very good policy when trying to fix desirable traits in a strain of poultry........most good stockmen practice very close breeding. Some poultry breeders keep two seperate pens of closely related fowl and outcross from one pen to the other when required.
Problems may arise when the breeding stock carry undesirable , perhaps unknown, traits which will be carried on into the resultant generations just as will those good points being sought.
Perfect description of line breeding, Aengus - works for dogs too. I've just been having an animated discussion with a friend on this very subject. She insists that by bringing in stock from France (home country of our breed, and she is French herself) she is bettering her breeding liens. I keep telling her that she is outcrossing in every generation and will not be able to set type nor find out if there are any inherent defects.
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We try and keep a unrelated cockeral for the breeding hens, and the same with ducks, but to quote my mother- "they don't know which one is their brother in the wild!" So therefore why should we worry too much about it if they don't?
Beth
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I agree with your Mum, Beth, for hens and ducks unless you are breeding for show or selling pure breds. You'd have to be careful for them. Do hens and ducks have written pedigrees? In fact do any other animals other than dogs and cats?
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:)yes other animals do have pedigrees goats & pigs etc :pig: :goat:
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My horse has a written pedigree :horse: . 8) I used to show him in Registered Paint shows. :hshoe: (http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff30/CranberriesMom/Promise.jpg)
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I've never heard of a hen or duck with a written pedigree- to hard to keep a track of. But yes goats definitely do. In fact, you can actually get pedigree mongrel goats ;) For example, say one of your Brittany's got caught by a Labrador, in the goat world that animal could still be registered and would be pedigreed.
Beth
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I've never heard of a hen or duck with a written pedigree- to hard to keep a track of. But yes goats definitely do. In fact, you can actually get pedigree mongrel goats ;) For example, say one of your Brittany's got caught by a Labrador, in the goat world that animal could still be registered and would be pedigreed.
Beth
He he that would be a Labrabrit, or a Britador - non-registrable being a crossbreed
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:)yes you can get a crossbreed goats registered but they never become a pedigree goat they will always be shown as an aov (any other variety).
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They are pedigree, they wouldn't be registerable if they weren't. And you can breed them back into an actual breed which you can't do with dogs.
Beth