Help PLEASE!!!

[goatman303]

OK, so I am going to breed my own hens next year but I want to breed crossbreds, simply for fun and egg laying. Although I'm struggling to chose what breeds to cross!

This is what I'm aiming for in my crossbreds...

Lots of eggs.
Pretty.
Big eggs.
Hardy.
Friendly.

If anyone knows of any crosses that do the things above PLEASE tell me about them.

Thanks Ian.

P.Sics would be great

 

[donrae]

My favorite crosses were brown Leghorn crossed with Easter eggers. I got lots of big pale blue eggs. Hens were basically colored like the brown Leghorn, but so were my EE stock. If you used different color EE, you'd get different colored offspring. At 4 years old my ladies were still laying 4 or 5 eggs a week when I sold them. I also hatched lots of chicks off them. The only thing I can't really speak to is friendliness as I don't look for that in my birds. They didn't act any different than the dual purpose birds in my flock--not as flighty as the Leghorn parent stock. As to hardiness, I just seem to have hardy birds. Never have illness, parasites, etc.

They all look pretty much the same, like I said if you have different colored EE stock you'll get more variety....

 

[goatman303]

Are they sex linked they're very pretty

 

[donrae]

No sex linkage.

 

[Michael OShay]

I personally like the standard Black Sex Link (Rhode Island Red rooster X Barred Rock hen) the best. I've raised them for years and they meet all of your criteria. I know it's not a very imaginative cross, but there are many reasons (your criteria for example) why that particular cross has been so successful, why many laying houses use them for producing brown eggs, and why so many hatcheries offer them. Whatever crosses you decide to breed, good luck. )