cross breeding

[kbeerice]

I've read a lot of positive things about cross bred chickens vs. pure bred chickens. I have a flock consisting of 6 EE's 3 Buff Orpingtons and 9 Barred Rocks. I have 2 EE roos, 1 Buff roo, and at least 3 Bared Rock roos. My question is which rooster should I keep to cover all of these different breeds of hens??? I was thinking I wanted to keep one of the barred rock roos because they are so pretty but I need some advice or opinions on crossing with these varieties. Pictures of crosses, personal experience etc are appreciated!!

 

[RoostersCrow HensDeliver!]

If you keep the buff Orpington roo and cross him over your barred rock hens, the resulting chicks would be sex linked. The male chicks would receive the barring from their mother. They would technically be black sex links.

I'd keep the Orp, but I'm partial to the big fluffy friendly breed. Some like EEs for the mix of color, but you will loose the blue/green egg gene quickly if breeding with brown layers. Barred Rock Roos are very pretty but I've never had a nice one

 

[kbeerice]

thank you very much. I'm really not worried about the aggression issue with my rooster. I know how to saw off the spurs and the aggression might be a good thing for protecting the flock against predators right? I actually want a colorful flock but I don't necessarily want all of my chickens to be barred. I don't care about egg color, just production and a decent size.

 

[RoostersCrow HensDeliver!]

Aggression towards predators is fine, aggression towards me is not. Spurs or no spurs, they can still hurt you by running/flogging at full speed and they definitely don't need spurs to lay your face wide open. I almost had to go to the hospital after a young RIR rooster (no spurs only toe nails) decided he didn't want me looking in the nest box and went for my face. I'd rather not be watching my back every second I'm in the chicken pen.

If you want to keep the Barred Rock rooster though you will end up with a lot of barred chicks. Keep what you want, they are your chickens. I just prefer my Wyandottes, Australorps, and Orpingtons.

 

[donrae]

Temperament is my first criteria in keeping a rooster. If you're aggressive to me, you go!

Beyond that, there's no right answer, it's whatever you want. Rocks are good production birds. Orps seem to lay slightly less. My Ee hens have always been great layers, other folks not so much.

If you put a pure barred rooster over those birds, you're going to get all barred offspring, to some degree. Black trumps other colors a fair amount of the time, but you might get some pretty gold/black barred birds with the Orp hens. EE are a crapshoot as far as what their offspring will look like, being as they're kind of a genetic muddle.

If you put an EE rooster over those hens, your offspring have good chances of laying green eggs of some shade, including olive. Your barred hens will give sex link chicks from an EE roo. Your EE over your Orp hens, color-wise---who knows?

If you put a buff Orp rooster over those hens, you'll have larger offspring, maybe slower to mature. Your barred hens again will give you sex link chicks. Your EE hens--again, who knows?

Much of my flock is based on EE and barred Rocks. I have a few "foundation" hens that are brown leghorn/ee crosses that I put back under either a pure barred Rock rooster or a bsl rooster. I have some cool mixes, and since you asked for pics

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I also have some hens that at first glance look like Rocks, but they're pea or wonky combed, white lobed and lay green eggs