Jersey Giant crosses?

jasmer

Chirping
7 Years
Oct 15, 2012
156
4
81
Sorry for all the question spam today. :)

We have our short list of meat breeds down to dorkings, buckeyes, and jersey giants. Our only problem with the JGs is that they grow so slowly and apparently don't often go broody. We want broody meat birds to hatch our own chicks every year. :)

I'd thought about collecting the JG eggs and just putting them under one of our broody RIRs, which is probably what I'll do, but I started snooping around a bit and heard about people crossing their JGs with Leghorns or other breeds for a little better growth rate or broodiness. Has anybody here tried cross breeding their JGs? What about crossing them with Dorkings? It's something I might think of since we're probably going to order both of them and try them both. What do you think? Should we go do this with JG hens? Has anybody had success maintaining JG crosses for a sustainable meat flock?
 
I'm going to have some JG/BO crosses come spring but as of now, nobody but the ducks are going broody. My plan is to see if they grow a little faster. I don't mind a slower grower since I don't want to process a ton of birds and stick them all in the freezer. I'd rather do a few at a time and with the JG, I have time. I processed some extra roos at 18 weeks and they were decent size, 4-5 lbs dressed.

I have 2 WLH and I don't think the JG roos have ever been able to catch them. I check all the eggs when I use them to see if they are fertile and never have I seen a leghorn egg fertile.
 
Jersey Giants take a long time to mature..not only in size, but, in sexual maturity. They are a great bird and I see no reason why they would not go broody. JG and Dorking with make great meat birds.
 
We're definitely going to try some dorkings as well, and I might try crossing them with the dorkings. We have no worries about slow growth, we won't butcher until the free range pickings get slim anyway. But I'v heard so much about JGs rarely going broody. We'll have a separate flock of layers anyway, not like I can't just grab the first broody hens I find and put eggs under them, right?

The more I think about this the more convinced I am that I'm going to do this. :)
 
I crossed an reserve EO cock onto some hatchery Jersey Giant hens, and hatched the eggs just to see what would happen. The hens are not standard bred, really all I can say is that they are solid black birds with yellow feet and skin, that lay speckled eggs. The Basque rooster has white legs, and weighs about 8 lbs. The resulting pullets have been my best layers this winter, six birds laying 4 or 5 eggs every day, no supplemental lighting. The boys were tasty, with really dark leg and thigh meat. Pics of them here , post 45, then pics of them as chicks and juveniles a little deeper in (just the barred ones...).


edited to add - those hens did NOT go broody, while in the next pen over 6 of 11 Black Australorps did go broody, and hatched and raised successfully
 
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Yeah, I fear the JGs won't go broody, but mixing in some broody stock from another breed might help, or I can just put them under our broody layers, which is most likely what I'll try.
 
My hatchery JG's have no problem going broody. I had six broody hens last spring/summer at the same time. Maybe more. They seemed to take turns. I seemed to have at least one hen brooding until the fall of the year. Didn't matter if they had eggs under them or not. When my hens decided to brood they remained in that state for 3-4 weeks.

Selectively bred, top quality JGs may be too large to hatch eggs. These super large birds are known to crush eggs due to their weight. Many JG breeders take the eggs and allow them to hatch under another breed of hen or incubate them in an incubator. Also, birds who are bred to meet SOP might have had broodiness bred out of them.
 
Thanks. The more I think about it the less concerned I am about broody JGs. We're going to have separate layers and try some Dorkings as well, I can stick eggs under another broody hen to avoid getting them smashed. I'm toying with the idea of seeing what a JG Dorking cross might end up like, maybe a good compromise between size and broodiness is in my future. :)
 
We have several JG cross around ...some crossed with black copper marans and some with an ameraucana/welsummer cross roo...these JG were culls from our flock of JG we use to show etc but still very nice birds (much nicer than hatchery -- we cull pretty hard) They cross nicely...my JGs don't go broody very much if at all but cross tend to be seomwhat broody and lay a speckled egg. I will try and post pics later if anyone is interested. I like the size of the birds...it discourages some would be predators .
 
Thanks. The more I think about it the less concerned I am about broody JGs. We're going to have separate layers and try some Dorkings as well, I can stick eggs under another broody hen to avoid getting them smashed. I'm toying with the idea of seeing what a JG Dorking cross might end up like, maybe a good compromise between size and broodiness is in my future. :)

Dorkings are super broody. And will hatch out others for you. Do you have any hens?
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