Cross Breeding?

[guesswhosechickens]

Can you cross breed polish crested and silkies and other bantams?

 

[marymac]

Yep, you sure can.

 

[HHandbasket]

You can cross breed pretty much anything chicken. I have thus far hatched out 6 "cobrights" from my friend's flock. They are half bantam birchen cochin & half sebright. They're funny looking but *very* sweet birds and with really strong/tough constitutions. We hatched out the first 2 five weeks ago & hatched out 4 more just yesterday.

Sometimes it's kinda cool if you have a mixed flock or know someone with a mixed flock, and you get all kinds of nifty mixed breed chickens that are really sweet and have good hybrid vigor and lay all kinds of nifty-colored eggs. I'm always hatching out "mystery chicks" ... or as I tell people when I sell them, "Designer" mixed breed chicks. LOL.

 

[lvchicken]

Cross-breeding is much better than inbreeding. That way you don't have any deformed chicks!

 

[lvchicken]

Quote:

 

[soap&eggs]

anything you breed with a polish more then likely will get a funky looking tophat..not as full as reg. polish. i have alot of cross breds - mutts. some are just beautiful in colors or markings..others look just like a parent. i had bearded polish, now cross bred with cochins & ??? have bearded cochins,3 generations . neat looking. as for eggs..most crossbred lay regular,maybe a medium size egg..but polish are not famous for everyday laying, so you might end up with fewer eggs ??

 

[phasianidae]

Quote:
What do you mean by "better" ? If everyone only did crossbreeding then there wouldnt be any breeds to cross. Inbreeding does not mean deformed chicks, inbreeding can fix good traits into a line as well as fixing undesirable traits. The key is selection.

 

[Mahonri]

But of course there are the Icelandics...

This one has no Polish blood at all.. His name is Vindur ("wind" in Icelandic)

He is going to be top dog roo in my Icelandic flock.

BTW...I've got a few Polish X Ameraucana crosses that lay nice blue eggs.... and have crests of one type or another.

 

[Cattitude]

I have some lovely Silkie-X-Ameraucana; all the hens lay blue or mint green eggs:

 

[RareBreedFancier]

What a cute little fellow he is Mahonri.

All my older chickens are pure breeds but the 16 barnyard mixes I hatched recently are giving me much joy. They are to much fun trying to work out just what they will look like when grown. I even have one or two starting to grow crests. I can't wait to see what they end up looking like.