Cross Bred Chickens-What Do I Have?

[czoellner]

OK, not sure how to start this out right but....

We have 13 Black Sex-link hens, 2 Barred Rock hens, 2 Dominique hens, 1 Black Cochin (?) hen and 1 Barred Rock Rooster. All 13 months old. My sons Kindergarten class hatched out eggs for class and we were the lucky ones to bring them home. Teacher said they were "pan-fry" so would grow quickly.

I have 2 questions.

1. Any special requirements for feeding other than the normal chick starter/grower the other chicks ate.
2. If I kept 1 of the pan-fry hens and later crossed with the Barred Rock Rooster we have, how horrible would the egg production go down?

We already hatched out 2 sets of eggs from our 13 month old family and they are all doing great! (although all my chickens are black or black/white barred) and I have 4 yellow chicks from that last hatch. Curious as to what they will be like? hmmmmm

Am I right in thinking that to get a barred rock you have a black roo and a white hen cross to get that? Or something along those lines? So, I'm guessing that to get the yellow chicks, they must be the babies of the barred rock hens then? (because the white is recessive???)

Pretty new to this, only been raising chickens as "hand me downs" until last year when we decided to raise chicks and that's when we got our 19 black sex linked hens stated above.... (yes, do the math, somewhere 1 hen morphed into a roo, 2 morphed into Dominique's, 2 into Barred Rocks and 1 into a Cochin) So, not sure what my babies are going to be?

Any clue? Anyone?

 

[5 Acre Rooster]

As to the yellow chicks there must be someone in your group that's X breed. Or the white gene was not diluted far enough when someone introduced a different breed into a flock for improvement. In many areas of poultry a bird that is 7/8ths pure is considered pure. The barring is not from white x black or opposite. Its its own gene. A black roo over a white hen generally makes a yellow chick that's white adult that will have some black specks in their feathering. I have a Australorp x Leghorn from this type of mating. As a pan-fry they would likely, to my idea anyway be what I refer to as BYM-barn yard mix. Depending on the laying inheritance from the other parent stock it could be quite variable. Up down or stay the same. To insure better chance of higher egg production try to track your pullets and see who lays 1st and most often. That would be the bird to breed back if you wanted to improve or at least keep production up next generation.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

The color of offspring depends on whether the white hen is dominant or recessive. Black over dominant is white with white splotches and black over recessive is black with white leakage.

All I think of when hearing pan fry birds is a hatchery "pan fry special" which are light laying breeds like a leghorn. The culled males if taken before or at 12 weeks of age would be good pan fried birds but even if left to grow would not make for very good roasters as they are a smaller bird but soups or dumplings or gumbo would be good. The hatched chicks could be a barn yard mix of heavy and light fowl or all light or heavy it's anybodies guess except to the person who supplied the eggs.

 

[czoellner]

Thanks to you both for sharing! The yellow "pan-frys" are growing quickly it seems... Some larger than others already! I have a group of 3 week olds that are still larger but I think the pan frys may pass them up in the end.

We do of course want to keep up the egg production, so I wouldn't keep any Roos from the pan fry collection. Maybe 1-2 hens IF they lay nicely and don't get too big to live. I've heard of some breeds, (Cornish X) that get so big that they can have heart attacks or their legs can't even support them anymore! Sure don't want any of that! But, if I could keep a good laying hen that would in turn produce good egg layers as well as a larger sized bird for meat that would be ideal...

I'm not worried about the colors, I sure love all my birds.... just really curious as to who/what/where/how/why?

The 4 yellow ones that are about 3 weeks old now are starting to fill out and get more "color" in their feathers. Some black speckling underneath that looks pretty cool. One of them has really stumping wings! The length of the other 3 birds wings are normal when they flap them around, but this one sure has shortened ones. Don't guess she'll ever fly the coop!

Thanks again for anyone with info and help. Just love finding out how all this stuff really works!