Dazzler

Well done to all the contributors. I would like to say that the closest mating is not brother and sister but Mother and Son, Father and Daughter. These two pairings considerabley reduce the gene pool where as the brother sister mating produces chicks with a broader genetic makeup. A parent to child mating will produce offspring in which 50% of the offspring will inherit 50% of the parent/granparent, but sibling matings will produce 25% grandparent A and 25 % grandparent B. I would also agree with Daz, that in the wild and in most backyarders aviaries, inbreeding occurs. A backyarder for instance who introduces a certain color and then culls(sells) birds not that color in following years is selectivily line/inbreeding, probably with out realising it. Line breeding/inbreeding is a tool everyone can utilise for different reasons. All new mutations are line bred to maintain the new variety. If you are looking for size in you backyard aviary you will select the biggest to leave in the cage to breed with. If you are after a color as mentioned earlier, you will select this color in the youg to go on with. You don't need to know the backgound of the birds to line breed, it will occur naturally anyway if you breed numbers and they are the type of birds you like. The alternative is out crossing. Now there is another topic altogether. Many, many many new bad traits can be introduced which can have more of a devestating effect on your birds because they are hidden in the background of your new purchase. 'Closed Aviaries' are where breeders are extremely reluctant to introduce new birds for fear of the unknown being introduced. In general breeders know what they have and what will be breed although surprises do occur. Good luck with your "line".