Crossbreeding

[londonschickens]

I know in other hobbies cross breeding is looked at negatively. Some reasons are it could possibly be sold as a pure bred to an unknowing individual. Is crossbreeding looked at negatively in chickens as well?

 

[jenjscott]

Well, for showing, you sure don't want a cross breed. But some of the best layers and meat chickens out there are cross breeds.

 

[londonschickens]

Well we are just gettin ready to get started with chickens. We want Jersey Giants for the dual purpose ability. but they take so darn long to start producing eggs (according to my research upto 6 months). I was just thinking about crossing a giant with a faster maturing type of chicken to get faster egg production. Is this plausable or will I loose my Meat quality goin for a better layer?

Also what do you fellow chicken folks suggest for best egg production? I live in Northern IL so I need a fairly hardy breed.

 

[SilverPhoenix]

I think it depends what your purpose is for keeping chickens. For me, I just keep chickens as pets and for ornamental purposes, so I think crossbreeding is fun and interesting! It's so fun to see what the chicks turn out like, and some of the prettiest chickens I've seen and most interesting colorations have been mutts. The only breed I keep separate is my seramas, because for now I am working on breeding purebred seramas. Other than that, everyone cohabitates and I'll definitely be hatching some mutt chicks once my cockerel is old enough to breed!

So, if you're looking to show or sell purebreds, it's a no-no, but otherwise...go crazy!

 

[Pennyhen]

It really can be fun to see what hatches out of a diverse group of chickens.... Some of my favorites this last year (a group of 17 chickens can be very prolific in a year!) are 3 silkie-barred rock hens that just started laying recently. The personality cross is fun to see as they get older (they are 4 months old) they have the fearless in your face curisoty of the barred rocks and the "I dont care if it's raining, Im going outside" 'se la vie attitude of the silkies. I will try to post pics, but, they are very round compact medium sized black hens, no barring on their feathers, a little buff coloring around the neck of 2 of them. they all have feathering down their legs and a cute top knot, their feathers are regular barbed, not fluffy like a silkie. they lay medium/small light brown to pinkish eggs, so far anyway.
That said, animal husbandry has been a topic of interest to me for the last few years and I have been thinking about isolating a pair of birds or two to see what and how I can influence traits.

Have fun with it all, no matter how serious you get.

 

[rittert3]

You might look at Rock they mature fairly fast and are fairly good layer of brown eggs, a little bit smaller carcase that giants but less time until they are ready for processing.

 

[jenjscott]

The problem with Jersey Giants is that they take forever to fill in enough to process and it takes a lot of feed to get them there. 6 months is not really bad to start egg laying. My favorite dual purpose is buckeyes, nice eggs, good carcass, good personality, great foragers, and cold tolerant.

 

[speckledhen]

Most of my flock are purebreds, but I have a few crossbreeds who are a real delight to have around.

I agree with the Rocks. My favorites are Barred Rocks and I'm currently incubating some Blue/Black/Splash Rocks to add to them. They are rarely broody (though breeder quality ones will brood more often than hatchery stock), are curious, friendly, funny, intelligent and great layers of large to jumbo eggs. They don't take forever to mature, either.

 

[Ryu]

I've got a couple mentors who are very successful with their breeds who have kept their 'lines' going strong for decades. Yes, they do outcross. They've got certain indicators they look for in their flock, and when they see them start to pop up, they bring in some outside blood. These outcrossed birds get folded into the flock very carefully, but it still happens.

 

[londonschickens]

Quote:
Would you care to share what some of these "signs" are? I am new and can use all the help I can get right now.

thanks