Breeding a banty pullet back to FS roo?

[Wynette]

I purchased a few silver Ameraucanas from a very reputable breeder recently. A friend picked them up for me (she got some for herself as well). She thought they looked small for what the breeder said their age was, but there were varying ages in the pen, so she thought maybe he was just a bit confused on which ones were what age.

The breeder indicated in passing that you could breed a silver ameraucana bantam pullet back to a standard sized roo and the offspring would be standard sized.

Is this true? I've been looking on the Web and cannot find info. on this. I'm wondering if that is what I've got here; a bantam/full sized cross, because they still seem awfully small for the ages they are supposed to be. Thanks for your feedback!

(edited because I found a typo!)

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Of the bantam x standards I have, they are both about half the size of a standard sized bird, but larger than the bantam sized. With mine, the sire was the bantam and the dame the standard.

 

[pips&peeps]

I don't think that is true. It takes several generations for the size to get back up.

I got my silvers from John Blehm and he told me they had bantam blood and are a little smaller than he would like, so it is something to work on. And, being that there are very few silver breeders it is hard to get bigger birds to do that with.

 

[flip9109]

if the roo is much bigger than the hen she can get egg bound due to the larger size egg he would induce.

 

[Wynette]

That's interesting, flip - and somewhat surprising to me. I know much more about horses, and there's an old wive's tale with horses that you should never breed a mare that's much smaller than the stallion, because the foal could be too big and get stuck in the birth canal; but it's a fallacy. Mare's will only have babies of the size their systems can accomodate. I would think chickens would be the same?

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Quote:
Sorry, but I disagree. I have bantam hens that are mated by both standard sized roos and bantam roos, their eggs remain consistantly the same size.

 

[flip9109]

really? i go the other way my only roo is a black tail and I can tell which girls he's been with because when their eggs are fertle they are tiny like serama size, when they arn't they are much larger.

 

[cajunlizz]

Quote:
I am SO confused NOW . I was told you can NOT breed bantams with regular size roosters because they would actually injure the smaller breed . SO , PLEASE tell me what gives with this ?

 

[Wynette]

Oh, goodness. I'm just not sure at all. What this breeder told my friend who picked up the pullets was that you could begin with a standard sized rooster, breed him to banty hens, THEN breed the resultant pullets BACK to the standard sized roo and you'd get standard sized chicks from that breeding. I'm not exactly sure how much larger and smaller they can be from one another to....er....physically be able to do that deed.

 

[pokey]

i would keep my bantam hens w a roo atleast close to their size. doesn't seem fair to put a standard size rooster with small hens. that would be like godzilla stepping on you! seems atleast it would be stressful to the hens to get flattened by the larger roo.