Genetics Question

[BarefootinTN]

This question may sound odd but I’m wondering if I have hens of one breed (ie barred rock - lays large brown eggs) and get a rooster of another breed (such as welsummers bantam - small speckled eggs), would the eggs be large or small, brown or speckled, and what would the offspring look like?

 

[mcdze]

no idea and not sure of larger hens accepting a bantam, no experience there .. but you'd probably get a mix from my experience raising other things .. then from there in progressive generations you would pick and breed birds with traits your trying to promote ...

 

[Willow2253]

You’ll likely get chickens that are smaller than the large fowl parent and larger than the bantam parent. They’ll lay eggs proportional to their bodies. I had a hen that was from a large fowl hen and a bantam rooster, she was barely bigger than the rooster and laid small eggs. I’m not sure about the speckles, but I imagine you’d get various shades of brown.

 

[BarefootinTN]

no idea and not sure of larger hens accepting a bantam, no experience there .. but you'd probably get a mix from my experience raising other things .. then from there in progressive generations you would pick and breed birds with traits your trying to promote ...

no idea and not sure of larger hens accepting a bantam, no experience there .. but you'd probably get a mix from my experience raising other things .. then from there in progressive generations you would pick and breed birds with traits your trying to promote ...

Thanks. That’s what a friend told me but I wasn’t sure.

 

[BarefootinTN]

You’ll likely get chickens that are smaller than the large fowl parent and larger than the bantam parent. They’ll lay eggs proportional to their bodies. I had a hen that was from a large fowl hen and a bantam rooster, she was barely bigger than the rooster and laid small eggs. I’m not sure about the speckles, but I imagine you’d get various shades of brown.

Interesting. Thanks.