Conversation: Hybrid Chickens

[Self sufficient chickens]

This thread is for posting pictures of and discussing the pros and cons of hybrid layers and/ or meat chickens.



Here are my 9 black star hens:

I don't have any pictures of them as adults, but they are all 1 and 1/2 years old and laying well. They are mostly all very friendly, one went broody and hatched a chick a few months ago.


I have had a great experience with these hybrids but will probably not raise them again because they will not breed true and will slow down laying at 2 years.

 

[aart]

Guess it would depend on ones goals and management program.

Only ever had one hybrid layer, cross of EE x Amberlink.
Laid copious olive green eggs, but died at about 3 years.

Meat bird discussion better off in the meat bird forum,
where there are already many discussions of such.

 

[mandelyn]

I've been making hybrids for a couple of years now, there's some points to ponder with them.

- Hybrid vigor is a thing, the first generation may be bigger, more vibrant and more productive. It goes away after the 2nd generation, with further breeding of hybrid to hybrid you'll need to be extra picky on who to use for breeding, as you'll be up against the undesirable recessive traits that may have been present in either parent breed. This is why some hybrid offspring look really neat or some barnyard mixes look really wonky. That 3rd generation gets interesting, all kinds of hidden traits start coming out.

- F1 Hybrids are predictable. A Marans bred to a Legbar WILL make an Olive Egger. A red rooster over barred hens WILL make a sexlink. A purebred to a purebred will make a pretty consistent cross that first generation. Think of "Doodle" dogs though, using good stock for the cross will have a better result than using poor quality animals to make something "neat". That next generation, unless you strategically breed back to one parent or the other, the expressed traits are no longer consistent.

Either a hybrid is a single cross for a specific purpose... "Single use" such as a Cornish Cross meat bird or sexlinked layer... or it's the beginning phase for creating a new variety through strategic breeding or just goofing off with the genetics.

It takes at least 5 generations to get somewhere predictable with carefully selected hybrids, in terms of getting consistent looks/features that will "breed true".