Hybrid VS Pure

[AmazingRachel]

As sylviethecochin stated, very well, it depends.
Hybrids can sometimes be more robust than their parents. I don't have any chicken specific examples but in my AP Bio class last year, I learned about heterozygous advantage with the example used being Sickle Cell Anemia. Basically if you have both alleles being that of Sickle Cell, you will die young. But if you have just one allele and the other allele being normal (heterozygous), you will not suffer the complications and early death from Sickle Cell but you will have more resistance to malaria. Because the heterozygous individuals survive, the Sickle Cell allele lives on in the population.
In chickens, however, I've heard that sex-linked hybrids are less robust and hardy than their parents. Most hybrids are bred for being fast to develop and producing more (whether it be meat or eggs) or quickly. So they are not bred for longevity due to burning out quicker. The "pure" chickens, Barred Rocks, for example, will probably live longer due to not being bred as intensively.
However, I'm not sure about disease resistance of hybrids compared to their pure counterparts. One could assume that the hybrids would be more disease resistance due to industry demand but I'm not sure.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

Other crosses can result in back yard birds that live forever.

Reinforcing the genetic makeup by crossing bloodlines works well with our goats and pigs. We have noticed by continuously breeding Chicken full breeds with offspring from that particular breed, does not have as many positive results as far as size, growth rate.. as when we continually cross breed at the same time and witness birds that grow bigger and faster. And X's also seem to be more docile. Some of our crosses seem to never take a day off from egg production as well.
My opinion is based on what I have witnessed here with our program anyway.

 

[lazy gardener]

In chickens, however, I've heard that sex-linked hybrids are less robust and hardy than their parents. Most hybrids are bred for being fast to develop and producing more (whether it be meat or eggs) or quickly. So they are not bred for longevity due to burning out quicker. The "pure" chickens, Barred Rocks, for example, will probably live longer due to not being bred as intensively.

I believe this is true for the production hybrids sold by hatcheries. However, this does NOT HOLD TRUE for sex linked birds produced in the back yard flock. Sex linking is simply an inherited feather patterning where by the chick can be identified as male or female at hatched based on the feather coloring. There is a huge difference between the sex linked chick from a hatchery, in comparison to the sex linked chick from the back yard flock. My black sex link chicks have :walnut combs, lay green eggs, and are bred from EE x Dom. Not at all similar to the production black sex links found at a hatchery or feed store.

 

[Folly's place]

It's about breeding stock selection; picking healthy older birds who produce well, and then their offspring are likely to share those traits.
Mary

 

[Mitsos Lamprogiorgos]

Thank you all so mush for your answers.
They are so important for me.