[colliewobbles]

Hi all - have been to a livestock auction today and something occurred to me about the unhatched eggs for sale.

If I bought some eggs which gave me a trio of any type could I use these/sell these as a breeding trio or does the potential for them being siblings rule this out?  Or does this not apply to birds in the same way it does to mammals?

Ta - Donna

[doganjo]

I think to sell a breeding trio you have to be reasonably sure the cockerel is at least some way unrelated to the hens.  Why not buy two batches at different sales?

[colliewobbles]

I think to sell a breeding trio you have to be reasonably sure the cockerel is at least some way unrelated to the hens.  Why not buy two batches at different sales?

Thanks, that's what I suspected.  If and when we do decide to do this that's what we will do.  I just wondered if the 'rules' were different for birds or not.      

[chrismahon]

I think it is very rare for breeding trios to be completely unrelated in an auction, no matter what is claimed. Chickens can go 10 generations of interbreeding before serious defects arise. Think about line breeding. The cockerel and hens produce chicks. Of those chicks the best pullets and one cockerel are kept. The father of the pullets is then bred with the pullets. The original hens are then bred with the young cockerel. The resulting are then crossed and re-crossed to get the desired traits. The cockerel in a breeding trio from the same hatch may not be the brother of any of the pullets/hens anyway.


But best be safe and get them as unrelated as possible. All same breeds are somewhat interbred to get the breed established in the first place.

[HesterF]

Or just be honest when selling them - for example you can sell them as a trio without mentioning whether they're related or not. Then if somebody asks, you can tell them however much you know. I've got six Cayuga ducklings from hatching eggs and I know they came from a pen with two drakes and nine ducks. My six have turned out nicely to be (I think) two drakes and four ducks so I'm going to pick the best drake and two ducks as a breeding trio for next year and sell the 'second best'. I think the odds of them being full siblings are low so I'm happy to live with those odds for myself and I imagine/hope a buyer of my second trio will be equally happy.

H

[Steph Hen]

If someone is selling a pair or trio I would like to assume they are not directly related - parent: offspring, or siblings or half siblings. But I would always ask for as much as the seller knows.

When I have sold hens in the past (and once I get my new stock started) none were/will be directly related, nor would they be, aunts, grand-grand related, etc. - Although as has been said, I perhaps wouldn't know if they were second cousins or something in the first place.

The plan I've been working is that when I go to visit friends and family for weddings or something, I'll look up a breeder online, then buy some hatching eggs from them, and bring them back in my hand luggage. This way I can collect strains from all over the country, without paying expensive postage fees, and its nice to see the set up and parent stock. Long jorneys and plane cabin pressure seem to reduce hatching rates a bit - I've been experiencing around 60% hatch rates, compared to 90% for home bred.