Breeding hybrids

[rebrascora]

I am interested in getting some attractive grey and white speckled or red and white speckled hens, that still lay reasonably. Would this be a good combination?

I may be mistaken but I think your ISA cockerels over your barred rock hens will produce black sex linked chickens because the barring gene is sex linked and will pass from the mothers to their male offspring only. As a result, you will get male chicks which have a head spot (which signifies the barring gene) and female chicks without. I do not believe you will get any speckled or barred hens from this cross.
Be sure to give plenty of consideration to what you will do with the cockerels that result from any hatching that you do. It sounds like you may already have 1 too many cockerels and that can cause stress within a flock, especially when they are young and hormones are rampant.

 

[Broodygranny]

I may be mistaken but I think your ISA cockerels over your barred rock hens will produce black sex linked chickens because the barring gene is sex linked and will pass from the mothers to their male offspring only. As a result, you will get male chicks which have a head spot (which signifies the barring gene) and female chicks without. I do not believe you will get any speckled or barred hens from this cross.
Be sure to give plenty of consideration to what you will do with the cockerels that result from any hatching that you do. It sounds like you may already have 1 too many cockerels and that can cause stress within a flock, especially when they are young and hormones are rampant.

i agree! I did forget to mention you have to have a plan for extra roosters.

 

[bigz1983]

I may be mistaken but I think your ISA cockerels over your barred rock hens will produce black sex linked chickens because the barring gene is sex linked and will pass from the mothers to their male offspring only. As a result, you will get male chicks which have a head spot (which signifies the barring gene) and female chicks without. I do not believe you will get any speckled or barred hens from this cross.
Be sure to give plenty of consideration to what you will do with the cockerels that result from any hatching that you do. It sounds like you may already have 1 too many cockerels and that can cause stress within a flock, especially when they are young and hormones are rampant.

Yes they could possibly be a black sex link.
But the rooster has to be non dominant white plus not be barred.
If the ISA brown cockerals are dominant white it wont be a sex link because the white will cover the barring also known as " ghost barring "

 

[Kris5902]

Yes, oh the cockerels... one week they are all behaving and then over the course of just one or two days, most of mine have turned into little monsters!

I agree, if you’re not going for a specific pure breed, there’s nothing wrong with mixing different breeds, and even the hybrids. Just remember that any hybrid crosses will be far less stable and uniform, and you will have to cull heavily to maintain desired traits in any future offspring! Think of it like crossing 3 or 4 different breeds with each mating, you might be pleasantly surprised, or maybe most of the hens will take after their poor laying genetics great granddaddy instead of their vigorous good producing mama.

Considering that you’re going to get at least 50% cockerels, the larger breeds might be better, as I’m about to cull a bunch of little layer guys that might make two meals out of all of them put together! Lured in by the thought of pretty blue eggs, I got “great layers of blue egg hybrids” unfortunately, most are just very skinny little boys!

Best of luck in your breeding, and I’d love to hear updates on how it goes!

 

[CannedMonster]

If you don’t particularly care about what the birds look like and just want to produce good laying stock then breed good layers to roosters who came from good layers and keep track of how the offspring do.
Then make adjustments as needed.
I wouldn’t worry about health problems as long as your breeding stock are healthy.
One thing I have learned is to wait to incubate eggs until the hens are st least a year old.
Incubating pullet eggs is a crap shoot.
And you’re more likely to have development problems with the eggs or chicks.

 

[Kris5902]

One thing I have learned is to wait to incubate eggs until the hens are st least a year old.
Incubating pullet eggs is a crap shoot.
And you’re more likely to have development problems with the eggs or chicks.

Awww, really? But I’m so excited to finally get eggs. I know I can’t incubate these first few at 40g, 37g... but I was hoping to finally get started on my breeding program soon too! This chicken breeding business is just not for impatient souls like me I guess! Sigh...

But I do trust your advice... I’m sure it’s very sound. I will be patient (my new mantra, let’s see how long I can stick to it!)

Which also brings up another good point, you have to raise the chicks up to point of lay with no gaurentees on productivity, then carefully observe them to breed the best to the best, and if you want to continue improving the stock you will need to keep some of those cockerels from the markedly good layers, long enough to know if they’re just being teenage jerks, or human attacking little monsters. And, as there’s no way to track a guys laying abilities, you have to rely on his mamas track record, and when you get into that with the hybrids it gets a bit blurry.

So we are looking at years of selective breeding. Not to discourage you, mind... I am personally very excited by the prospect of selecting and raising my own lines, pure breeds and hybrids alike!

 

[Madame_Mermicorn]

QUOTE- "Be sure to give plenty of consideration to what you will do with the cockerels that result from any hatching that you do. It sounds like you may already have 1 too many cockerels and that can cause stress within a flock, especially when they are young and hormones are rampant."

My 2 boys are separate from the girls and get on well together, I assume because they are brothers so have always been together. So far no issues between the 2 of them. Just some annoying crowing for me at 6am.

I was planning on keeping a couple of female hens and giving away free roosters when selling POL hens.

However, I had only just found out it is literally 50/50 ratio when hatching. My school hatched 10 eggs (which is how I ended up with ISA browns in my flock) 3 were boys and 7 were girls. The class teacher took 1 roo and 2 hens, and I took 2 roo's and 3 hens and added these to my flock of 5 girls, then separated boys just before they hit puberty. I had heard that generally you get less male chicks to females, which seems to be turning out to be a myth. Based on the school incubation project I had believed the less boys ratio myth. Now repeatedly reading that it is 50/50 I am starting to change me mind.

What do people do with their roosters? I will not be wanting to kill and eat them.

 

[CannedMonster]

Good luck trying to give them away.
Not everyone can have a rooster or wants one.
Especially if it’s aggressive.
I would take roosters but I already have two.
The second one was supposed to be a sexed pullet but he’s so unaggressive and has a great crow I decided to keep him.
My property isn’t big enough to sustain a batchelor/stag flock otherwise I would.
I think roosters are great.
I plan on eating excess cockerels if I can’t find anyone that wants them but if I wasn’t willing to eat them I wouldn’t hatch out fertilized eggs because I know I’d get them.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Most people I know eat chicken, except for the few vegetarians.
Extra cockerels taste just like chicken.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Awww, really? But
... And, as there’s no way to track a guys laying abilities, you have to rely on his mamas track record, and when you get into that with the hybrids it gets a bit blurry.

So we are looking at years of selective breeding. Not to discourage you, mind...

There is one way to assess a cockerel's propensity to pass on to his daughters good egg laying ability.
As they approach maturity, compare all the cockerels of the same breed and exact same age by comparing the space between the keel bone and the pelvic bones. The ones with a larger gap will pass on good abdominal capacity.