BREEDING SYSTEMS

LINEBREEDING Line-breeding - this is the breeding of animals that share common ancestors but are not closely related. For example the birds may share a common great-grandparent. Line-breeding is another way to help "set" or "fix" desirable traits. With line-breeding you breed animals that are related, but you are also routinely introducing genes from other lines into the genetic mix. It takes longer to fix the desirable traits this way, but doing so lowers the risk of those problems associated with repeated in-breeding. With a tight line-breeding you might find the same 3, 4 or more males/females showing up numerous times in a 5 generation pedigree. Loose line-breeding over successive generations will result in more variations of physical appearance than would in-breeding or tight line-breeding, but will keep the physical look and structure within the same general size and shape, it also carries fewer long term risks. According to geneticists. Line-breeding can be carried on for many many generations without deleterious effects on the line or breed as long as the individuals involved have few hidden genetic disorders. INBREEDING In-breeding - This is the breeding of closely related animals. Brother-Sister, Parent-Offspring, brother - Sister. In-breeding is more likely to help "set" or "fix" a particular trait within a breed or a line by narrowing the gene pool to favor those traits. So if a breeder is looking to set a particular desirable feature of their line then in-breeding and choosing the offspring most strongly possessing that trait can be beneficial. In-breeding can also help identify those bad genes that exist within a line. Birds possessing the bad genes can be eliminated from a breeding program and carriers also identified. Intermittent in-breeding within a line or breed is not damaging to the long term health of the animals. However, in-breeding over successive generations can lead to reduced fitness and fertility problems among the offspring, resulting in a phenomena known as In-breeding Depression. It can take many generations to show up depending on the traits involved. To use this method responsibly a breeder would not want to in-breed on animals with known genetic disorders, temperaments not in keeping with it's given breed, or known serious structural faults, or to in-breed frequently even on healthysuperior specimens. OUTCROSSING Out-crossing in terms of pure-bred birds is the breeding of unrelated birds. This type of breeding has both advantages and disadvantages. Which as it turns out are flip sides of the same argument. With out-crossing you are maintaining the greatest genetic diversity, but this also leads to the least consistency in terms of physical appearance and other traits. Outcrossing does not guarantee that the animals won't develop genetic disorders, but it does tend to reduce the numbers of affected offspring. Your best chance of getting an animal that is less prone to developing a genetic disorder comes more from finding a conscientious breeder that screens their animals for hereditary disorders and breeds for the betterment of the breed.

Example: when male (1) is bred with female (2) then the baby chickens out of this combination is (3). These are half-bloods. If you bred back the best female out of this group to her father (1) you get a new generation (4). The same when the best male out of this group is bred back to his mother (2). By repeating this system you can build up a male and a female bloodline. So generation (4) back to (1) gives generation (6) or generation (5) to (2) gives generation (7). You always breed back to original cock and hen. If one of these is death you take the best male or female from the next generation. For example (3) again.