just a simple mix breed question

[speckledhen]

With a BR rooster, all the chicks will be barred in some way, just to help you with what will result. Yes, they will be pretty chicks!

 

[ginasmarans]

I think the trick to becoming a breed is that if you breed a male and female of that mixture,the offspring will always look like the parents. It usually takes several generations for this to occur and lots of hard work. You have to come up with the right combination. But mixed breed chickens are fun to hatch anyway. I have 18 little mixed breeds and they are so cute. I think I may have some sex-link pullets as a result of my marans hens and buff orp/rir roo. The chicks are solid black cuties. I only have 1 solid black hen.

 

[blueskylen]

thanks kevin,
I might keep my open for a barred rock roo, as I really like the looks of the pullet that I have.

a different line, but we are taking our 27 red broilers to grantsville on Friday for processing, if you come to pick up the ducks- you may want to take a look at them - at almost 10 weeks they are quite big and impressive, i think.

 

[fowlafoot]

All of our official breeds were someones backyard experiment at some point and became official later... I can't think of any reason not to keep trying to build new breeds with different desirable traits. We can't have tapped all the genetic potential already. It's a good idea to know about genetics first though, quite a few traits are linked and getting something you want looks wise might make for a poor layer or weak chicken. Just look at the Japanese Bantams, the price for the little legs is a lethal link gene. In backyard crosses though you usually get hybrid vigor and the crossed generation is a very good bird in terms of production. It's when you start inbreeding and linebreeding to make sure all the offsring look like mom and dad that the problems usually arise.