How can I identify Parent Stock Chickens?

[Mitsos Lamprogiorgos]

ANY of the chickens CAN be used to reproduce. Offspring WILL have laying abilities similar to their parents. That does NOT disappear just because the birds were crossed.

YES, you CAN breed and reproduce from sex-linked birds. The laying ability will continue, the sex-linked colouring will not, so you will end up with a flock who are a variety of colours, none of which are gender-specific at hatching.

The biggest issue you will have with more of the heavy laying breeds and crosses is that they will not go broody, so you will need to use an incubator to hatch chicks.

The laying ability will not continue, because the heterosis levels become much lower and some of the genes are lost.

 

[Mitsos Lamprogiorgos]

Hi, I've always been curious how to know if a certain breed of chicken is parent stock or normal. What are the differences between the parent stock and the babies of the parent stock? and how to know the parent stock for leghorns?

Parent stock has the parental qualities higher and more balanced. Children have the production qualities higher.
Parent stocks produce feather sexable chicks. The terminal crosses can't produce feather sexable chicks.