Hybrid Crosses that use a Welsummer Rooster?

[RememberTheWay]

I have a Welsummer Rooster that I plan to get welsummer hens for. In the meantime I would like to put some other hens in with him. I currently have cinnamon queens, Austrwhites, white leghorns, buff orphington, American game fowl, barred rock, Speckled Sussex, Easter eggers, Ameraucana.

Does anyone know of some common hybrids that use a welsummer rooster? What hens are usually used and what is the hybrid called?

 

[GirlsHuntToo]

The bellecross are like an Olive Egger... they are crossed with a Welsummer rooster and a Cream Legbar.
And with your welsummer roo you could also cross Silver Laced Wyandotte to get some Sex linked birds....

 

[NatJ]

Does anyone know of some common hybrids that use a welsummer rooster? What hens are usually used and what is the hybrid called?

The only common one I know of is Olive Eggers, from crossing a Welsummer with a blue-layer or green-layer.

The other crosses are not common enough to have special names of their own. Of course you can name them in the obvious fashion: Welsummer/Leghorn, Welsummer-Orpington Mix, etc.

I have a Welsummer Rooster that I plan to get welsummer hens for. In the meantime I would like to put some other hens in with him. I currently have cinnamon queens, Austrwhites, white leghorns, buff orphington, American game fowl, barred rock, Speckled Sussex, Easter eggers, Ameraucana.

Crossing to the Easter Eggers or the Ameraucana will give at least some Olive Eggers, but may also give some that lay brown eggs. It depends on how many copies of the blue egg gene the Easter Eggers and Ameraucanas have. For each hen that has two copies of the blue egg gene, all her chicks will inherit one, so all her daughters will lay olive eggs if they have a Welsummer father. For any hen that has only one copy of the blue egg gene, she gives the blue egg gene to half her chicks and the not-blue-egg gene to the other half of her chicks, so half her daughters will lay olive eggs and the other half will lay brown eggs. For any hen that lays brown or white eggs, she has no blue egg gene, so she cannot give it to any of her chicks.

Crossing a Welsummer rooster with Barred Rock hens will give color-sexable chicks: black chicks with a white or yellow dot on top of their head are males (white barring in the feathers as they grow), chicks without the dot on their head are females (no white barring in the feathers as they grow.) Males & females may show some red/gold leakage in their feathers as they grow up.
I think the Barred Rock hens are the only ones that will give color-sexable chicks. For any others that give varied colors, the color has nothing to do with whether the chick is male or female.

Crossing a Welsummer with an Austra White should give white chicks and black chicks, about equal numbers of each. The "white" ones may have some bits of black, and both colors may show some red/gold leakage in their feathers as they grow up.

Crossing a Welsummer with a Speckled Sussex will produce chicks that look similar to Welsummer chicks. They will not show the "speckles" of the Sussex (maybe a little when young, but not as they grow up.) The "speckles" are caused by the motting gene, which is recessive (so the chicks will carry that gene but not show the effects.)

Crossing a Welsummer with White Leghorns should give white chicks. They may have small amounts of black (like Austra Whites tend to have), and they may show some red/gold leakage as they grow up.

Crossing a Welsummer with a Buff Orpington will probably give gold or red chicks, that grow up to have less black than the Welsummer but more than the Buff parent; and the shade of buff/gold/red will probably be in between what the two parents have. There is chance of these chicks showing white instead of black in their feathers (depends on exactly which genes the Buff Orpington has, that aren't carried but not visible.)

Crossing a Welsummer with a Cinnamon Queen should give chicks that are colored similarly to their CInnamon Queen mothers. If the Cinnamon Queens have white in their tails, so will about half the chicks. The other half will have black in their trails. Or if the Cinnamon Queens have black in their tails, so will all the chicks.

I can't make color predictions for chicks from the Easter Eggers, the Ameraucanas, or the American Games because I don't know what color those ones are. But if the hen shows a lot of red/gold/buff in her coloring, the chicks probably will too. If the hen shows large amounts of any other color, her chicks have a good chance of doing it too (a Welsummer rooster has mostly recessive genes for coloring, so if the hen has any dominant genes, they will typically be the ones visible in the chicks.)

Comb types:
Since the Welsummer rooster has a single comb, any hen with a single comb will produce chicks with single combs. For any hen that has a pea comb (like Ameraucana and maybe Easter Egger) or a rose comb (maybe the Cinnamon Queens), there is some chance of the chick having that comb type too, although the chicks could also have single combs.

 

[RememberTheWay]

The only common one I know of is Olive Eggers, from crossing a Welsummer with a blue-layer or green-layer.

The other crosses are not common enough to have special names of their own. Of course you can name them in the obvious fashion: Welsummer/Leghorn, Welsummer-Orpington Mix, etc.


Crossing to the Easter Eggers or the Ameraucana will give at least some Olive Eggers, but may also give some that lay brown eggs. It depends on how many copies of the blue egg gene the Easter Eggers and Ameraucanas have. For each hen that has two copies of the blue egg gene, all her chicks will inherit one, so all her daughters will lay olive eggs if they have a Welsummer father. For any hen that has only one copy of the blue egg gene, she gives the blue egg gene to half her chicks and the not-blue-egg gene to the other half of her chicks, so half her daughters will lay olive eggs and the other half will lay brown eggs. For any hen that lays brown or white eggs, she has no blue egg gene, so she cannot give it to any of her chicks.

Crossing a Welsummer rooster with Barred Rock hens will give color-sexable chicks: black chicks with a white or yellow dot on top of their head are males (white barring in the feathers as they grow), chicks without the dot on their head are females (no white barring in the feathers as they grow.) Males & females may show some red/gold leakage in their feathers as they grow up.
I think the Barred Rock hens are the only ones that will give color-sexable chicks. For any others that give varied colors, the color has nothing to do with whether the chick is male or female.

Crossing a Welsummer with an Austra White should give white chicks and black chicks, about equal numbers of each. The "white" ones may have some bits of black, and both colors may show some red/gold leakage in their feathers as they grow up.

Crossing a Welsummer with a Speckled Sussex will produce chicks that look similar to Welsummer chicks. They will not show the "speckles" of the Sussex (maybe a little when young, but not as they grow up.) The "speckles" are caused by the motting gene, which is recessive (so the chicks will carry that gene but not show the effects.)

Crossing a Welsummer with White Leghorns should give white chicks. They may have small amounts of black (like Austra Whites tend to have), and they may show some red/gold leakage as they grow up.

Crossing a Welsummer with a Buff Orpington will probably give gold or red chicks, that grow up to have less black than the Welsummer but more than the Buff parent; and the shade of buff/gold/red will probably be in between what the two parents have. There is chance of these chicks showing white instead of black in their feathers (depends on exactly which genes the Buff Orpington has, that aren't carried but not visible.)

Crossing a Welsummer with a Cinnamon Queen should give chicks that are colored similarly to their CInnamon Queen mothers. If the Cinnamon Queens have white in their tails, so will about half the chicks. The other half will have black in their trails. Or if the Cinnamon Queens have black in their tails, so will all the chicks.

I can't make color predictions for chicks from the Easter Eggers, the Ameraucanas, or the American Games because I don't know what color those ones are. But if the hen shows a lot of red/gold/buff in her coloring, the chicks probably will too. If the hen shows large amounts of any other color, her chicks have a good chance of doing it too (a Welsummer rooster has mostly recessive genes for coloring, so if the hen has any dominant genes, they will typically be the ones visible in the chicks.)

Comb types:
Since the Welsummer rooster has a single comb, any hen with a single comb will produce chicks with single combs. For any hen that has a pea comb (like Ameraucana and maybe Easter Egger) or a rose comb (maybe the Cinnamon Queens), there is some chance of the chick having that comb type too, although the chicks could also have single combs.

Do you know how using a black Australorp hens with the welsummer rooster will work out? Is there somewhere that I can go to-lile a website- and put in what I am wanting to cross and it will tell me what the possibilities of that hatch will be regarding hybrid name, colors, combs, shanks, number of toes, special features,colors of comb/beak etc?

Thanks for your reply btw
Super helpful and I really appreciated the input!

 

[RememberTheWay]

The bellecross are like an Olive Egger... they are crossed with a Welsummer rooster and a Cream Legbar.
And with your welsummer roo you could also cross Silver Laced Wyandotte to get some Sex linked birds....

What do the chicks come out as?

 

[RememberTheWay]

What do the chicks come out as?

Do you know what my options are for other breeds to cross with a welsummer for sex link hatches?

 

[GirlsHuntToo]

What do the chicks come out as?

I think they can come out as really any color... I don't think there's a specific pattern.

 

[GirlsHuntToo]

Do you know what my options are for other breeds to cross with a welsummer for sex link hatches?

The Cream Legbar is the only one I know of. @pipdzipdnreadytogo might know more.

 

[NatJ]

Do you know how using a black Australorp hens with the welsummer rooster will work out?

Black chicks, chance of some red/gold leakage as they grow up, white soles on the feet, lay brown eggs (shade midway between the parent breeds.)

Is there somewhere that I can go to-lile a website- and put in what I am wanting to cross and it will tell me what the possibilities of that hatch will be regarding hybrid name, colors, combs, shanks, number of toes, special features,colors of comb/beak etc?

Kinda yes.
http://kippenjungle.nl/breeds/crossbreeds.html
You can select breeds from a dropdown list (but it does not have all colors of all breeds)
It usually shows little images of the chickens, but they don't seem to be showing right now.
There are a bunch of dropdown boxes that represent individual genes. You can change those if you want, when you know what genes your chickens have. If you don't already know a bit about chicken genetics, they are more confusing than helpful.

http://kippenjungle.nl/chickencalculator.html
This one doesn't have quite as many features, but it looks like the images are working right. Images make a big difference in how easy it is to use and learn from! (My favorite way to use it is to change the genes in the dropdown box and see the image change: I've learned a lot of genetics that way.)

http://www.sellers.kippenjungle.nl/page0.html
This page has links to several pages about chicken genetics. Page 1 talks about genetics in general, page 2 talks about some specific chicken genes, page 3 has a table of genes with their names, abbreviations, and brief comments.

Some people find the calculator and the information pages to be very helpful, and some other people find them hopelessly confusing, so I can't say whether they will work well for you or not. Broken images in the calculator are not helpful at all.

 

[NatJ]

Do you know what my options are for other breeds to cross with a welsummer for sex link hatches?

To get sexlinks from a Welsummer rooster:

--any black hen with white barring will give one kind of sexlinks. The sons will be black with white barring (light spot on top of the head at hatch), the daughters will be black with no white barring (no light spot on top of the head.) Possible hen breeds include Barred Rock, Dominique, Cuckoo Marans, California Gray.

--any hen with a black pattern on a white background will give another kind of sexlinks. Sons will show silver (white) in their coloring, daughters will show gold in their coloring. Silver Columbian colored hens work really well (that includes Columbian Rocks, Columbian Wyandottes, Light Brahmas, Light Sussex). Delawares are Barred Silver Columbian and work equally well. Silver Laced or Silver Spangled can also work, but the chicks sometims hatch with so much black that the silver/gold difference is hard to see.

For the gold/silver sexlinks, the males will probably grow up to have slightly yellowish tones in their "white" feathers, and they may have red patches as well. But as young chicks, their early feathers usually have a clear silver/gold distinction, and the chick down is often clearly distinct as well (as long as they don't have too much black in the down.)

--Using a hen with white barring on a non-black background will also produce sexlink chicks, with the males having white barring and the females having no barring. This would include hens like Cream Legbars or Bielefelders, or a Crele variety of any breed. But these ones are not as easy to distinguish as the ones on a black background, so if you want easy sexing you probably want to go with hens that have black background and white barring.