How to protect what you have ?

[TOF]

(26 June 2012, 14:23)bigpaul Wrote:

(26 June 2012, 14:17)TOF Wrote: The one biggest factor that could affect your flock/herd is genetics. You need to keep more than you actually need to have a healthy gene pool with which to breed from.

i understand that but dosent that depend on where you get them from? if i buy some old battery chickens they are not going to be as healthy as some i might get from ,say, point of lay, or from a rare breed supplier.

I was thinking long term. It doesn't really matter if you have mutts from down the road or top flight purebreeds, it's the number of individuals that contribute to the gene pool that counts to prevent inbreeding.