breeding

[jones-e]

would it be wrong to breed two different proven egg producers.like plymoth barred rock and a shaver red sex link. if so what are the pros and cons

 

[faykokoWV]

I guess that would depend on what your goal is. Are you breeding to develop new stock to sell? Are you breeding just so you have a different chicken for yourself?

Are you wanting to know what the genetic traits of each are that would carry over to the offspring?

 

[jones-e]

i was kinda of wandering because i have 20 shaver reds hens and a guy had a plymouth barred rock roo for sale and since they are both good dual purpose birds i thought it would be alright and i would have a like a better dual purpose bird.

 

[cybercat]

Since shavers are a high bred it is kind of hard to predict what would happen. Too many ways for it to go. You could have some nice chicken but do not know how body type would be for duel. They would lay good and I can see at least 3 possible color patterens. But you will have to bred them to see what they grow into.

 

[patandchickens]

Chances are high that the offspring will be good layers. Body type will probably be intermediate between the two, and if you'd be happy with that, then there ya go.

HOWEVER THIS IS ONLY TRUE for the F1 generation, i.e. the first generation, the ones with one pure Shaver Red parent and one pure BR parent.

If you then breed those mixed-breed chicks to each other, you will almost certainly get a wild mix of whatevers, especially in terms of laying ability. And so on for future generations. Because you'll have thrown together two very different gene pools and no longer have the neatly balanced heterozygosity you had in the first generation, trying to breed those crossbreds onward will be very unpredictable and variable and not necessarily worth your time if you want Results. EVENTUALLY, given many many generations and a large breeding program (multiple pens of a number of chickens) and raising up and heavily culling a large number of chicks, you could re-stabilize them into a new "breed" if you want to call it that, but that would be far in the future. And I'd question what the point would be.

So, it depends what your point is. If you just want decently-performing offspring from the breeding stock that you happen to have available, it'd probably work fine. If you want to undertake a breeding program in the long term, though, it's probably not a real wise use of time or chicken-space IMO.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[jones-e]

thanks for the very good lnfo. i think i will just get a shaver red roo and save some time and keep it simple for my shaver hens and get a shaver red roo.thanks again!