Cross Breeding

[CloneFly]

Hello All! I currently have 3 roosters and 22 hens and due to some recent events, my family has begun seriously considering raising some backyard "mutts". I'm very new to the world of chicken breeding and would like to hear from the experts which would be the best breeds to, well, breed!

Objectives:
- Healthy hens.
- Decently reliable layers.
- Friendly personalities.
- Colorful eggs a bonus!
- Would appreciate any possible sexlinked crossbreeds as we will ship the young roos off to a friend's farm to be raised as meat birds. (we're allergic to meat)
Available Roosters:
- Lavender-splash Amererucana (x1)
- Cuckoo Maran (x2)

Hens Available to Breed:
- Barred Rock (x1)
- RIR (x2)
- Black Sexlink (x3)
- White Leghorn (x1)
- Silver Leghorn (x2)
- Cream Legbar (x2)
- EEs (x3)
- Silkies (x2)
- Amererucana (x2)
- Jersey Giant (x2)
- Dark Brahma (x1)
- Delaware (x1

Any advice and/or tips are welcome and appreciated. I would truly just like to hear what you all think. We plan to start breeding around January. We've been blessed with very sweet (if loud) roosters and all my hens are quite loving and affectionate- though some more than others. (My leghorns can be skittish- as is expected.) Again, my main objectives would be healthy hens that are good layers- I've lost a few pure-breeds this year due to genetic related issues. I'm looking forward to hearing what y'all think!

 

[Debbie292d]

I know you're more looking at cross-breeding ideas, but honestly, I would take the best rooster and match them up with 5 or 6 of your favorite hens which should pass on great genes for the chicks.

If color were any consideration, here's a link I use for creating what colored silkies I want. That might help in your decisions perhaps. Color genetics.

 

[Aneury Sanchez]

The only sex-link crosses would come from your Ameraucana rooster over your barred rock and cream legbar hens .

 

[CloneFly]

The only sex-link crosses would come from your Ameraucana rooster over your barred rock and cream legbar hens .

Oh wow, I didn't realize that. I thought the marans with one of my barred hen would produce a sex link- shows what I know lol. Thank you!

 

[CloneFly]

I know you're more looking at cross-breeding ideas, but honestly, I would take the best rooster and match them up with 5 or 6 of your favorite hens which should pass on great genes for the chicks.

If color were any consideration, here's a link I use for creating what colored silkies I want. That might help in your decisions perhaps. Color genetics.

That's the main plan, but I wanted to see if anyone else had any luck with particular crossbreeds and which worked out best for them

 

[NatJ]

Objectives:
- Healthy hens.
- Decently reliable layers.
- Friendly personalities.

For healthy hens, any combination of your hens and roosters has about an equal chance.

For reliable layers, skip the Silkies, but all the rest will probably be fine.

For the best chance of friendly personalities, hatch eggs from your friendliest birds. If all of your birds are relatively friendly, then just hatch from any of them and you should be fine.

- Colorful eggs a bonus!

For daughters that lay blue or green eggs, use the Ameraucana rooster with any hens.
Or hatch eggs that are blue or green, fertilized by any of the roosters.

For dark brown eggs, use the Marans rooster with whichever of your hens lay the darkest brown eggs.

- Would appreciate any possible sexlinked crossbreeds as we will ship the young roos off to a friend's farm to be raised as meat birds. (we're allergic to meat)

The Lavender Ameraucana rooster should produce sexlinked chicks with any hen who has white barring (Barred Rock, Cream Legbar, Delaware.) All of those should produce chicks that hatch out black with light bellies. Males will have a light dot on top of their heads, females will not have the dot on their heads. As they grow, males will have white barring in their feathers and females will not have white barring. Apart from the barring, the feather color of both males and females will be mostly black, but may show some leakage of other colors as they grow.

The Cuckoo Marans roosters cannot produce sexlinked chicks with any of your hens, but you should get autosexing chicks if you use them with barred hens (Barred Rock, Cream Legbar, Delaware) From those crosses, daughters will have one barring gene (dot on the head, white barring on feathers) and sons will have two barring genes (bigger dot on the head, often lighter-colored legs, more white in the barring on their feathers as they grow.)

Sexlinks are a one-time cross, while autosexing are ones that can breed true for that trait in one generation after another. The genetics work a little differently for the two cases. (Male sexlinks have one copy of the barring gene just like autosexing females do, so having them in the same hatch group means you can't tell which are which. Autosexing males can be spotted as having more white because they have two barring genes, and sexlink females are the only ones to have no any white barring at all even though they had a barred parent.)

Available Roosters:
- Lavender-splash Amererucana (x1)
- Cuckoo Maran (x2)

Hens Available to Breed:
- Barred Rock (x1)
- RIR (x2)
- Black Sexlink (x3)
- White Leghorn (x1)
- Silver Leghorn (x2)
- Cream Legbar (x2)
- EEs (x3)
- Silkies (x2)
- Amererucana (x2)
- Jersey Giant (x2)
- Dark Brahma (x1)
- Delaware (x1

Other traits you may see in chicks:
--Brahma mother should produce chicks with pea combs and feathered feet.

--Silkies will usually produce chicks with normal feathering, crest on the head, odd-looking comb, extra toe on each foot, and possibly muff/beard on the face (if the Silkie parent had muff/beard.)

--Ameraucanas should produce chicks with muff/beard on the face and a pea comb. This happens when the mother or the father is an Ameraucana, as well as when both parent are. Easter Eggers may also produce chicks with muff/beard and a pea comb, if the Easter Eggers themselves have those traits.