Accidental Crossbreeding and Hybrids

[Athena2344]

Most people have issues with hybrids for some reason, but what happens when you have a flock of dual purpose birds with a couple of pet family hens and your dual rooster breeds with those hens... Should I let nature take its course, or eat the eggs when first laid, im not saying it's already happened but I'm trying to plan ahead...any input?

 

[Ravynscroft]

They're your flock so you can do whatever you want with them... if you want them to have mixed chicks, let them... if you don't, then eat the eggs... nothing wrong with hybrids or mixed mutts at all... it's personal choice and nobody can tell you what is right or wrong with what you choose to do...

 

[Athena2344]

I only ask because i am planning on doing a flock of BO, and I was planning on getting a SLW for my mom's birthday, and my friend warned me of having the BO roo breed with the SLW hen....I was just curios on what people thought of it

 

[Ravynscroft]

If you're wanting to breed and keep the BO's pure just separate her out when you collect eggs for hatching... or just let them hatch what they will, the crosses should be obvious from the pures actually so you can remove them if you want...

Nothing wrong with breeding a pure flock and having some mixes too... if you're going to sell hatching eggs as pure BO's then I would definitely separate her out for that collection, but unless you deliberately sell mixed eggs or chicks as pure then there is no issue with any of what you want to do...

 

[MeepBeep]

Let them do their thing communally for most of the year, when you want them to breed and sit on eggs, isolate the roosters or hens for 30 days apart from each other then pair up those you want to breed and hatch those eggs...


I'm doing that right now, all my breeding stock was returned to the general population of the coop as all my eggs from now until about February are simply for eating not hatching... Come January I will collect the hens I want to breed and put them in isolation for 30 days then introduce them to their new boyfriends and start collecting eggs to hatch after their boyfriends are introduced...

Or if you don't mind barnyard mixes just keep them communal, many, many farms and others keep and love barnyard mixes...

 

[donrae]

The nice thing about chickens vs mammals is, breeding doesn't automatically equal babies

.

In mammals, if the female gets bred, you've got babies incoming. In birds, they can mate away and there aren't any babies until the hen sets on the eggs, or the human incubates them. So, bird reproduction is much easier to control.

Let your birds all run together. The rooster will mate each and every hen, happily. Honestly, you'll never be able to tell the difference in the eggs.

If/when you decide to hatch some chicks, you can then decide if you want to separate specific birds for breeding, or hatch mixed breed chicks. Not a thing wrong with mixes, unless you're trying to sell them. Some folks will buy mixes, some won't. But if they're just for your own flock, do what ever makes your skirt fly up

 

[ShrekDawg]

Agree with all the others but also curious what you mean by dual purpose versus family pet birds? Both BOs and SLWs are considered dual purpose breeds and are a similar size so do well together. And BOs are very friendly and can be "pets", mine are, but they're still dual purpose birds. Maybe she just means SLW are more ornamental color or whatever or that they will cross breed? Either way it shouldn't matter too much. If you want pure birds just separate them like others said. But they shouldn't have any problems being together. Although that said sometimes Wyandottes can be bossy but not usually in a mean way and so can any bird so just keep an eye on them.

Also, all that said, there can sometimes be problems with heavier dual purpose breeds and lighter/smaller breeds of birds. And I especially would never recommend mixing bantams (including silkies) with the heavier dual purpose breeds and they are smaller and gentler and can be picked on even by friendly breeds like BOs.

But yeah they should all be fine.

Right now I have 1 Barred Rock, 2 Black Australorps, 3 Buff Orpingtons, and 2 Easter Eggers and they all get along well. I'm adding 1 Golden Laced Wyandotte (GLW), 1 Silver Laced Wyandotte (SLW), 1 Speckled Sussex, 1 Partridge Rock, and 1 free chick, don't know what it's gonna be yet, in October and I think they'll all do fine.

Good luck!!!

 

[Athena2344]

Lol thanks

 

[Athena2344]

Thanks, I meant the BO are going to be strictly for eggs and meat, and the SLW, is going to be a present for my mom, I was thinking about the future, and what all might happen. I am going to place an order to receive 16 BO, 1 SLW and a mystery chick to get here on the fifth teeth, on my mom's birthday, to surprise her. I'm probably going to do a communal flock tho, and let the chicks hatch to see what they look like, they may just end up being for meat in a few months, who knows... Thanks for all the input though, it's really appreciated.

 

[junebuggena]

You do realize that Buff Orpingtons aren't really an great choice for meat right? They are slow growing, and those cockerels can eat a LOT of feed before they are big enough for a meal. And hatchery stock don't get nearly the size of birds that are bred to the standard. You'll get better meat birds from the crosses and better layers. Plus, with a Buff Orpington rooster and Silver Laced hens, you'll have red sexlinks. Easy and accurate sexing.