Not sure if this is the right place to post this but has anyone ever crossed a barred rock and a Leghorn. If so were they good layers. Also will cross breeding hurt good laying breeds.
A Barred Rock X White Leghorn will produce good laying offspring. Not as high production as a straight Leghorn but most likely better than a plain Rock. Eggs will be brown. The offspring's plumage will be white, potentially with very faint barring, since Dom. White can be leaky. Cross breeding between two egg production breeds will result in offspring of similar and sometimes improved egg production (see the intentional use of hybridization of breeds in Sex Links and hybridization of strains in Production Reds). However, cross breeding of a production and non-production/meat breed will result in offspring of lowered production than the production-oriented parent. So for example, your given cross of a Plymouth Rock and a Leghorn should result in offspring with a good rate of production. However, crossing between, say, a Leghorn and a Gamefowl, would result in offspring with significantly lower egg production than that of the Leghorn parent's, although still better than most Gamefowl.
