Breeding Hybrids

[jnntefend]

I know that, just like gardening, hybrid chickens don't breed true to type, but... what happens if hybrids do breed? Does it come out like one of the other breeds? Is it a frankenmonster? Something in between?

 

[Ridgerunner]

That is an interesting question, but no, monsters are not created. What you get are chickens with traits from both parents.

If you cross two purebred chickens, you can pretty well determine what the color and pattern of that offspring will be. You know if you cross a red rooster with a black hen, the first generation offspring will pretty much be black. You will probably get a few red feathers on the male offspring, but the basic color for both male and female offspring will be black.

But if you then cross the mixed offspring from the red rooster and black hen, you can possibly get black, many different shades of red from light red to dark red, possibly even white. Some of them might be a solid color but many could have various patterns. It depends on what genes were in the original chickens and how they go together in the second generation. It is almost positive that they will not look like any certain breed.

As for the other traits, egg laying frequency, egg size, egg shell color, size and shape of the chicken, even behavioral traits, they will probably be somewhere in between the original parents, though exactly where you can’t be sure. And you can influence that by selecting which offspring you breed.

 

[jnntefend]

Wow. Tons of awesome info, Thank you.