is it okay for two related chickens to mate? What is an ideal nesting box?

-- Stephen D. Hill (ukph@edsamail.com.ph), April 13, 2001

Answers

Steven, many years ago, I raised fighting cocks. The people who really got into it would often have a superior bird or birds. They would want to raise other birds like this one from the parents of the superior bird. They had something they called "line" breeding or something like that. If you know someone who raises fighting roosters, they could tell you about it. It's a way to keep the line without too much inbreeding. Other than that, I don't think it is a good idea to mate related birds. I believe a good nest is a deep nest that allows the hens to get back in a dark spot. The trouble with most nests is that you can have 50 hens and 50 nests and they will all lay their eggs int he same nest. I have 30 metal nests and about 30 hens and they all stand line to use one nest. Maybe all hens don't do that but mine do. Hope this helps some. Eagle unless.

-- eagle (eagle@alpha1.net), April 18, 2001.

The world wont end if siblings mate. If you allow the poulet to set and raise chicks may be some problem though not often. My dad has cute flock of banties that started with 2 chicks he hatched from a hen of my brothers. Eggs all taste ok. But Line breeding is done to improve the quality of your stock. Starting with an unrelated breeding pair. Daughters are then bred back to fathers , sons to mothers, aunts to nephews, neices to uncles excetra. Hope this answers your questions Cathy

-- Cathy Armstrong (pwlops2000@yahoo.com), April 19, 2001.

someone ask about brother and sister but what about father and dauther would they be abull to hatch eggs.

Lisa

-- Lisa Miller (ljmill35@aol.com), May 23, 2001.

i have leghorns and they wouldn't mate even though they were about two years old could this be because of a bad rooster or inbreeding

-- drew (ata1hunt@aol.com), August 20, 2001.