Different take on Hybrid mixing

[Grenadianexpat]

I was just skimming the recently previous thread on Hybrid mixing, but didn't want to Hijack it.

I have inherited the chickens that are available to me on this little Island. They are Commercially sourced "Layers" which come in from Barbados. Then I have a range of what are simply known as Yardfowl, which can be from White through to Black with Check and sundry colours in between.

As all the layers come as girly chicks one is dependent on an unpredictable supply, which can mean none at all unless you are commercial and want 1-5 hundred. All I ever really want is about a dozen.

I decided to cross a Yardfowl Cock with the layers... As they are basically free range they do their own thing, and I hold back some of the Layer eggs from sale. Previously I sold all the layer eggs, and consumed the yard fowls.

The idea being to create a 50/50 which could then be matched against a 100% Layer to make a 75/25, and so on until I will have a pretty solid line of Layer type cocks.

My first 50/50 Cockerel surprised me today when I captured it to replace the marker band on its leg which was getting to be tight. At about 8 months old it was very solid and heavy. It's stance has always been more shoulders down than the regular Cockerels, which tend to be more stretched looking.

He really is a handsome chap, and should others blend the same way, it will make an interesting eating variation from the regular Cocks who have to get some real age before they have enough body to make them worth cooking. By which time they are so tough after browning in burnt sugar they head for the pressure cooker, and they are still chewy after that.

From that preceding thread I gather I can expect sundry variations due to the parentage of the Commercial Hybrid, not to mention the bag of all sorts that is the make up of the yard fowl.

I imagine I am far from the first to do something like this, has anyone found it worth the trouble?

Or am I in a league of my own simply because folks on the mainland can more easily get the breeds they want.

 

[aliciaplus3]

I am still a novice but my basic understanding would be to keep the best hen and roo that conform to where you want to go.
I understand your yard bird is an unknown mix? So he has potential to throw many different things, select the ones closest to what you want and breed from those.
That being said I have observed that my best layers don't have much meat and my biggest birds don't lay as many eggs. In my case I am more interested in having 2 lines, one that lays lots of eggs and one that is a better meat bird. Now because I am hatching eggs I end up with about half roos so I get to eat lots of chicken. When I am hatching for my egg line I get to eat plenty of small roosters, but I get new layers! I am still working t word's a better meat bird but have a likely candidate with one of my roos that hatched in august he is growing bigger than anything else I had and he is a mix I am not real sure who his parents are to be honest

he is already bigger at 4ish months than my cuckoo marans rooster is at 18 months. And I love his personality he is so far very docile.
I guess what I am trying to say is don't give up. If you enjoy your birds and don't mind eating the exteras go for it!

 

[aart]

I was just skimming the recently previous thread on Hybrid mixing, but didn't want to Hijack it.

Kudos!

I imagine I am far from the first to do something like this, has anyone found it worth the trouble?

I haven't crossed commercial hybrid layers much, just one hen and I still have her daughter. Tho I have crossed hatchery Easter Eggers mixes for Olive Eggers, and definitely get a mix in body type and plumage in offspring....but as long as you get the eggs and meat you need, I'd say it's definitely worth it.

By which time they are so tough after browning in burnt sugar they head for the pressure cooker, and they are still chewy after that.

Key to more tender meat is letting the cleaned carcass rest for 48-72 hours in the fridge so rigor mortise can pass before cooking or freezing. I cook all layer breeds in pressure cooker, except the cockerels which I slaughter before 16 weeks old and grill. Yeah, not much meat, but oh the crispy skin, then use the bones for stock.

 

[lazy gardener]

Kudos to you GE for starting your own thread. It should generate some interest from others who are in similar position: having feral flocks, and wanting to mix them with what ever commercial birds are available to them.

Advantages: The birds you produce should be well adapted to your climate, environment, pathogens. You may have a ready supply of replacement birds, at least from the Yardfowl supply. You will not be dependent on an undependable supply of hatchery chicks. Your birds will most likely make good broodies. Replacement birds will be free to you.

Disadvantages: Your birds may not be as meaty, or lay as many eggs as hatchery stock.

Moving forward: Hatch your best eggs from your best layers. Keep only your best roo, perhaps with a second in place just in case your primary roo gets eaten. For every 10 - 20 chicks you hatch, you should only keep the best 2 - 3 as breeders for the next generation. If a good hatchery roo becomes available, consider adding him to your breeder stock.

Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition: Your climate is VERY different than mine. So, I assume your birds can free range year round. When you anticipate your breeding season, or when you intend to be hatching eggs, try to get extra protein and vitamins into your bird's diet.

 

[Folly's place]

Love these projects!!! You can keep tight records and confine breeding groups, or keep your best birds (whatever means 'best' to you) and let them do their thing, but either way, it will be a worthwhile project. This is what I find interesting in my flock too. Hope for future reports with pictures! Mary

 

[Grenadianexpat]

Thanks all for your inputs.

I can't be as surgical with the program as I would like as Beloved was the one who started the whole chicken process... With my usual male lack of understanding I ran about creating a coup etc when all she wanted was a couple of chickens clucking in the yard.

So I have to hope the generation that are sitting in their shells in a cardboard box with 2 x 15 watt bulbs and a microwave tray with water in it under a metal mesh (yes it works) are going to be varied in plumage, as Yardfowl with check coats can't disappear until crosses have replaced them, same with the Rhode Island red colourings etc.

I know who is boss. I do as I am told.

 

[Grenadianexpat]

Kudos to you GE for starting your own thread. It should generate some interest from others who are in similar position: having feral flocks, and wanting to mix them with what ever commercial birds are available to them.

Advantages: The birds you produce should be well adapted to your climate, environment, pathogens. You may have a ready supply of replacement birds, at least from the Yardfowl supply. You will not be dependent on an undependable supply of hatchery chicks. Your birds will most likely make good broodies. Replacement birds will be free to you.

Disadvantages: Your birds may not be as meaty, or lay as many eggs as hatchery stock.

Moving forward: Hatch your best eggs from your best layers. Keep only your best roo, perhaps with a second in place just in case your primary roo gets eaten. For every 10 - 20 chicks you hatch, you should only keep the best 2 - 3 as breeders for the next generation. If a good hatchery roo becomes available, consider adding him to your breeder stock.

Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition: Your climate is VERY different than mine. So, I assume your birds can free range year round. When you anticipate your breeding season, or when you intend to be hatching eggs, try to get extra protein and vitamins into your bird's diet.

Climate wise it is either wettish, ok its saturated... or dryish, yeah well the soil gets big cracks in it, and everything goes brown.... but it's always hot.

So yes they do forage all year around, although the Layers tend to mostly take the feed as the kind people at the hatchery tip the beaks making scratch feeding more difficult.

They do not seem to have a season to lay, although some have just gone into molt in the past few weeks.

You can't be sure when they have calmed down with laying as after giving up on getting a decent supply of eggs when I go around cutting the grass, thinning out Banana plants etc hidden in a Banana stool, or under some scrap galvanize there will be found 20 eggs. I literally found 3 hens that had gone missing with about 40 eggs between them dotted around the land yesterday.

All of a sudden a Black hen with a dozen chicks almost the colour of the rainbow wil saunter across the grass.

 

[Grenadianexpat]

Kudos!


I haven't crossed commercial hybrid layers much, just one hen and I still have her daughter. Tho I have crossed hatchery Easter Eggers mixes for Olive Eggers, and definitely get a mix in body type and plumage in offspring....but as long as you get the eggs and meat you need, I'd say it's definitely worth it.

Key to more tender meat is letting the cleaned carcass rest for 48-72 hours in the fridge so rigor mortise can pass before cooking or freezing. I cook all layer breeds in pressure cooker, except the cockerels which I slaughter before 16 weeks old and grill. Yeah, not much meat, but oh the crispy skin, then use the bones for stock.

I think I am going to give the extended fridge time a try. I did give it a whirl a few years ago, but I was pressured to try cooking it after 24 hours, and I think inedible is the only word for it.

I certainly can't keep meat outside the fridge as it will spoil in no time flat.

 

[aart]

I certainly can't keep meat outside the fridge as it will spoil in no time flat.

Well, no.

Sounds like you have a real crap shoot of a situation in hatching replacement layers what with free ranging.
Any chance you can build a run to keep some confined?
How big is your coop and how many birds do you have?
What kind of predators do you have there?

At least the ones that hatch will have full beaks. Good luck with your DIY incubator.

Looking back on your older posts, you've been at this a long time.

 

[Grenadianexpat]

Up until now it has just been a two tier arrangement with Layers that laid in fairly regular locations, and usually I was lucky enough to find them, clean them, check them, fridge and sell them. Just a pretty small supply more or less meets demand. But it was frustrated by aging birds with difficulties in getting new chicks. Then the other tier was regular chickens keeping the wife happy.

The layers, and I am pretty sure I already have some naturally created 50/50 hens in the mix already tend to be good girls and go in at night, while the Yardies roost on the roof of the coop, an adjacent tree and a couple of other trees further down the land.... I hear the more distant crowing and dawn chorus in the distance.

As you say it is very hit or miss at the moment, but I hope to eradicate the full yardie cockerels as their replacements come along. As I did say I can't be as surgical as I would like due to SWMBO's input. I am taking a few liberties at the moment as she is off Island getting a knee done, so what the eye doesn't....

So what ever happens Layer lineage will permeate the flock over time. It will just be more haphazard and longer in achieving.

The cardboard box does work reasonably well, given that a bulb doesn't blow, or I have a senior moment and leave the flaps open because I have been distracted. Obviously a proper incubator would be much better, but given difficult access to off island commodities import duties etc, and the low volume I really need, it is just a low tech way of doing what the chickens seem so bad at.

The land is a 3 way split.Breadfruit, Sapodilla, Citrus trees, Avocados, and banana/plantain plants, and Coconut trees of which I sell the plants. The house spot, and a bit of grass.

Ah ha put a run tractor on the grass... Nope, SWMBO isn't going to like that idea, the grass is already under attack from the yardies. The tree area is not really suitable, although it is true that the origins of the species is forests in India. Plus the land undulates making it hard to create a seal at the bottom.

Around 80-100 birds of all shapes and sizes. At last cull around 7 of which are mature cocks.

One 10x8 coop with a lower level 10x6 extension which can be isolated by a drop gate. When they go in at night the perches are fairly full, and a 2nd converted double pig pen which is a nesting location, and where I have an off the ground chick enclosure. Apart for the first few days, the chicks tough it out in the enclosure. Night temps drop about 10 degrees sometimes, but they huddle and seem unphased.

Indeed I have been at it for a while, but it just evolved, there was no real plan to it. Just trying to match the "have you got eggs" question.

Predators are neighbours dogs and cats if a hole in the fencing develops or mine if they are stupid enough to get near her, possum, mongoose, chicken hawk, rats.