I'm not about to start breeding again any time soon... although I would like to in a few more years if we live somewhere with a bit more space.

 

But I have just been thinking hypothetically lately about how many birds I would need if I were to start breeding again.

 

If you only want a small flock, what is the minimum number that is okay to start off with? And what would you say, as a rough guideline, is the number of the babies you should keep to breed with? Like say I'm thinking of starting out with three pairs, and never want to have more than 20 adult birds at a time eventually. Would it be okay to just start out with the three unrelated pairs, and carefully breed the offspring so they're not breeding with relatives, or would it eventually get too inbred? Is it better to introduce new birds and get rid of most of your offspring?

 

Just wondering

if you started off with 3 pairs you should be able to do it fairly easily but eventually you'll have to bring in other birds so that they don't all end up with the same brothers and sisters. Keep the babies that you really like and then breed again :sad:

Got to agree. 3 Pairs can amount to many in a short time. It is also a good way to start Show Birds.

Where do most people draw the line at inbreeding? Cousins?

Edited December 26, 200816 yr by krosp

I agree with 3 pairs being a great start.

Edited December 26, 200816 yr by **Liv**

Where do most people draw the line at inbreeding? Cousins?

 

 

From what I'm told when it comes to line breeding you should NOT do it unless experienced. I would stay away from brother/sister, father/daughter, mother/son and maybe even grandparent/granchild.... I'd say cousins or even uncle/niece or aunt/nephew should be okay, but that's just me. Wait for someone more experienced to give there opinion. I'd be interested to hear what they think too.

unless line breeding for show or purpose, it's best to stick with distantly related birds

 

Get 6 birds from very different blood and go from there. I would not go closer than cousins.

The important thing is to keep good records... Its very hard to remember 2 years down the track which birds are related... Keep good records and you shouldn't have a problem... with 3 pais there won't be cuisins until the second year breeding unless you get all your birds from the same breeder, which I wouldn't recommend doing... If you keep clear records there wouldn't be a problem with cousins....but I agree with Liv I wouldn't go closer than cousins unless I'd studied line breeding for a while...

Edited December 26, 200816 yr by JimmyBanks

Yeah I'm just curious, because I worked out that theoretically, if you deliberately didn't let them breed to anyone related, by the fourth generation they would all be related (would all trace back to all three of the original pairs). It would definitely involve excellent record keeping and control!

I don't think there would be a health issue but even so thats saying you wouldn't buy any birds for at least another 4 years... if you introduced a couple of birds in that time it would help...

I'd have to give away so many birds if I wanted to keep my flock fairly small. No wonder so many people give to pet shops

yep... you being conservative your flock would start with 3 pairs... we'll say they have 4 chicks each... thats 12...

 

Next generation... if they are split 50% hens 50% cocks... 6 pairs x 4 ... thats 24... (12 pairs)

 

Next generation... 12 x 4 - thats 48... so at that stage you have 90 birds... and thats not including if you breed wih the birds from the previous year as well...

Yeah... I can't remember how we managed never to have too many when I was young, since we never gave any to pet shops. We did give some away to people we knew... we didn't have heaps of breeding pairs at once I guess, and some died. Probably it was mostly because we didn't constantly breed lots of them all the time, but maybe only had a few clutches a year for a couple of years in a row.

 

Not sure what I would do with all of them if I did start breeding properly. I think I'd be very reluctant to give to pet shops, not knowing where they'd go or how well they'd be looked after, but trying to give them away individually to people coming around advertising privately etc would be a huge amount of time and effort. What do you guys all do?