I thought I would share the results of my own breeding project to create an auto sexing bird for our farm. Tell me what you think about 'em!
My goal was to create a bird that would be a very good brown egg layer, that the cockerals would get large enough to be a reasonable meat bird (for a dual purpose type chicken), and that would be auto-sexing for ease of sorting and raising. Here's what I have so far, 4 generations into the project: (No purchased auto-sexing birds were used, although some certainly look like it
)
Male chick 1 day on left, Female on right, Silver strain
Young adults (~7 months), Silver strain.
Male chick ~1-2 days, Gold strain
Adult Gold Roo (~11 months), the lighter of the 2 kept

And a big range of basic hen coloration in the Gold line.
Representative eggs - they are laying now for me, usually a % will lay through the winter (the ones that were hatched the earliest in the year).
I am very happy with what I have so far. If I could change one thing, I would make the cockerals put on more weight faster.... I harvest at around 6 months now, to make it worth the while. If anybody has suggestions on a feed that may work better (just have them on non-med grower), then that would be welcome too.
All thoughts are welcome!
What's your story?

My goal was to create a bird that would be a very good brown egg layer, that the cockerals would get large enough to be a reasonable meat bird (for a dual purpose type chicken), and that would be auto-sexing for ease of sorting and raising. Here's what I have so far, 4 generations into the project: (No purchased auto-sexing birds were used, although some certainly look like it

I am very happy with what I have so far. If I could change one thing, I would make the cockerals put on more weight faster.... I harvest at around 6 months now, to make it worth the while. If anybody has suggestions on a feed that may work better (just have them on non-med grower), then that would be welcome too.
All thoughts are welcome!
What's your story?
