Large fowl bantam cross

[Kbantams]

I have a large fowl olive egger that has been mating my silkies and bantam easter eggers. He’s never hurt them and they seem okay with it, so I’ve kept him around. The rooster is not massive, he’s ameraucana/maran crossed to Silverudd, pretty slim and maybe double the size of my bantam EEs. I’m wanting to hatch some eggs from this cross but was curious if this is even possible before I get my hopes up. Then hens are all bantams so the eggs are small, would the genetics from the rooster make the chicks bigger than the egg can hold or would they be bantam sized bc they are in a bantam egg?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have a large fowl olive egger that has been mating my silkies and bantam easter eggers. He’s never hurt them and they seem okay with it, so I’ve kept him around. The rooster is not massive, he’s ameraucana/maran crossed to Silverudd, pretty slim and maybe double the size of my bantam EEs.

When they mate the hen squats. This gets her body on the ground so the rooster's weight goes through her entire body, not just her legs. The more difference in weight there is the higher the risk but it is usually not as high as many people believe.

I’m wanting to hatch some eggs from this cross but was curious if this is even possible before I get my hopes up. Then hens are all bantams so the eggs are small, would the genetics from the rooster make the chicks bigger than the egg can hold or would they be bantam sized bc they are in a bantam egg?

The rooster has no effect on what size egg that bantam lays. He will have an effect on what size egg his daughters lay.

An egg only holds a certain amount of nutrients so it controls the size of the chick that hatches from that egg. I would not worry about the chick growing too big to hatch. After it hatches it will probably grow to a size in between its genetic parents.

 

[Kbug125]

I have a large fowl olive egger that has been mating my silkies and bantam easter eggers. He’s never hurt them and they seem okay with it, so I’ve kept him around. The rooster is not massive, he’s ameraucana/maran crossed to Silverudd, pretty slim and maybe double the size of my bantam EEs. I’m wanting to hatch some eggs from this cross but was curious if this is even possible before I get my hopes up. Then hens are all bantams so the eggs are small, would the genetics from the rooster make the chicks bigger than the egg can hold or would they be bantam sized bc they are in a bantam egg?

It’s possible to hatch eggs from the cross between your large fowl rooster and bantam hens. While the rooster's genetics might produce larger chicks, the egg size will limit how big the chicks can be. The bantam eggs will still accommodate the development of slightly larger chicks without causing problems. The chicks will likely be a bit larger than typical bantam chicks but should remain within bantam size. Expect some variation in chick size based on genetics, but they’ll generally be within the range of bantam-sized birds.

 

[Kbantams]

It’s possible to hatch eggs from the cross between your large fowl rooster and bantam hens. While the rooster's genetics might produce larger chicks, the egg size will limit how big the chicks can be. The bantam eggs will still accommodate the development of slightly larger chicks without causing problems. The chicks will likely be a bit larger than typical bantam chicks but should remain within bantam size. Expect some variation in chick size based on genetics, but they’ll generally be within the range of bantam-sized birds.

Thank you for the reply! I did end up hatching a few. Can’t wait to see them grow.

 

[Kbug125]

Thank you for the reply! I did end up hatching a few. Can’t wait to see them grow.

Awww their so cute

 

[RememberTheWay]

Thank you for the reply! I did end up hatching a few. Can’t wait to see them grow.

Any updates?

 

[Kbantams]

Any updates?

I ended up keeping 2 handsome little Roos and 3 silkie x large fowl olive egger hens. They are looking a bit bigger than bantams but not as big as my olive eggers were at this age. Hopefully they stay small enough to keep with my bantam hens because I did rehome my big olive eggers rooster

 

[RememberTheWay]

I ended up keeping 2 handsome little Roos and 3 silkie x large fowl olive egger hens. They are looking a bit bigger than bantams but not as big as my olive eggers were at this age. Hopefully they stay small enough to keep with my bantam hens because I did rehome my big olive eggers rooster

Awww!!!! How adorable!

I was hoping for an update because I'm considering starting a crested lavender Easter egger project with my bantam Ameraucana (standard bred not EE) and possibly my silkies. I have D'uccles too though and a serama. I would definitely get blue eggs genes passed to everyone from my bantam Ameraucana roo but wasn't sure on overall size with this cross and what they might look like at maturity. I want whatever I do to eventually breed true but haven't quite decided on all the traits I want to nail down. I know crest is a must and muffs and beard but feathered legs may very well go lol. In that case I would mak upe sure to use breeds with no or lightly feathered legs and select towards clean legs. I have lavender silver Bantam Ameraucana that I think I may use for the project. The chicks are all still to young to sex though so I don't know how many of each sex I have to work with just yet? How exciting!

 

[Kbantams]

Awww!!!! How adorable!

I was hoping for an update because I'm considering starting a crested lavender Easter egger project with my bantam Ameraucana (standard bred not EE) and possibly my silkies. I have D'uccles too though and a serama. I would definitely get blue eggs genes passed to everyone from my bantam Ameraucana roo but wasn't sure on overall size with this cross and what they might look like at maturity. I want whatever I do to eventually breed true but haven't quite decided on all the traits I want to nail down. I know crest is a must and muffs and beard but feathered legs may very well go lol. In that case I would mak upe sure to use breeds with no or lightly feathered legs and select towards clean legs. I have lavender silver Bantam Ameraucana that I think I may use for the project. The chicks are all still to young to sex though so I don't know how many of each sex I have to work with just yet? How exciting!

Very cool! I’m just trying for cool egg color with my mutts. I will say I crossed bantam EE to D’uccles and got all feathered leg offspring and then crossed those back to clean legged bantam EE and I’m still seeing feathered legs in those chicks, so it seems very dominant in my experience

 

[RememberTheWay]

Very cool! I’m just trying for cool egg color with my mutts. I will say I crossed bantam EE to D’uccles and got all feathered leg offspring and then crossed those back to clean legged bantam EE and I’m still seeing feathered legs in those chicks, so it seems very dominant in my experience

Dominant genes are easier to breed out then recessives. But with feathered legs because it is incomplete dominant even if a bird only has one copy of the gene the legs will be feathered. Birds with one copy instead of two (one from each parent) will usually have lighter more sparse feathering instead of heavily feathered. It has a dosing effect similar to muffs and beards. So with your birds in Particular your D'uccle should have two copies of leg feathering gene which means no matter what they are going to pass one copy to all offspring but bc the other parent had clean legs they all also received one copy of clean leg genes (don't remember the proper terms so I'm using laymen's terms lol)

That means that all offspring will show leg feathering but are actually heterozygous for it (1 copy) when those offspring are bred back to a non feather legged bird the percentage of offspring that will have feathered legs will decrease but it won't go away completely in that generation bc you will still have single copy birds. At that point though if you only select clean legged birds to move forward with and breed back to the clean legged parent or only breed together clean legged offspring you should be in the clear. Only thing I would advise is the offspring you choose as clean legged to inspect their legs and feet very closely bc sometimes they can barely express feathering at all but still have the single gene. It might only be one small feather up close to where they should be feathered that's there or one feathers on a toe, etc. This factor is why it gets hard to breed it out, for some. They don't inspect the legs well enough and at brief glance the chick appears clean legged but it's actually not.