Hardy dual-purpose cross ideas

[AltonaAcres]

What about Beilefelder x Swedish flower? I want cold hardy, good layers, great foragers, colorful, larger bodied birds.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Having both.. keep the Bielefelder pure and SKIP the SFH.. land race is an over rated term IMO and experience.

Crossing them would do a disservice in the terms of dual purpose and the Bielefelder are a superior breed in BOTH aspects.. in addition to being auto sexing.. I mean, can you really beat that?

Also.. there's only so many colors in the SFH before they basically all look fairly standard. I do like straight combs, the cresting on some SFH is a minus to ME.

Wyandotte.. would be an excellent choice for fast growing table bird, cold hardy, hardy in general.

The best thing about crosses is the ease of breeding and lack of NEEDING to select against things like shank color or pattern flaws basically.. and of course the POSSIBLE (not guaranteed or even probable) increase in hybrid vigor.

If I was gonna cross anything to a Biel.. maybe a RIR or a Rock.. ooh maybe a Dorking.. Noting I prefer 4 toes, and clean legs.. And while rose and pea comb are considered most cold hardy.. if a straight comb does lose it's tips to frost bite, it tends to be hardy after that. Marans were also quite good birds.

The description in the closest thing I could find to a standard of perfection for Bielefelder..
Bielefelder Kennhuhn Breed Standard

calls them..
"Fast growing, weather-proof, auto-sexing chicken with remarkable performance laying large brown eggs."

I'm sure you've seen them already.. but I'm gonna include some breed comparison charts for your review.. see what kind of wonderful cross you come up with!

http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/chooks/chooks.html

pickachicken

Breeds of Chickens

And since you mention colorful the basic calculator that doesn't account for leakage etc, but can at least give some good ideas about what you could get..
color calculator

Happy adventures!

 

[AltonaAcres]

Thank you. What about to some Orpington crosses and purebreds?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Thank you. What about to some Orpington crosses and purebreds?

Orpington grew WAY to slow for me (they were my very first choice).. some are genetically prone to fatty liver hemorrhagic syndrome.. beautiful birds but not an improvement over Bielefelder in my experience.

This is just my opinion though.. and I had tons of fun going through the experiences.. so follow your heart!

 

[AltonaAcres]

Mine are growing fast. If I just throw in a Beilefelder roo i am sure to get some cool crosses. Maybe I'll get some B hens too though

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

What about Beilefelder x Swedish flower? I want cold hardy, good layers, great foragers, colorful, larger bodied birds.

Keep in mind that if you do that cross you won’t get the mottling (white spots) of the Swedish flower in the first generation. You’ll either have to breed the offspring back to the Swedish flower or to each other to get more mottled chicks.

 

[OmnipotentOrpington]

I just saw this. My brother suggested, (just for the name,) Ameribrahma. Don't ask me how that would improve ANYTHING.