Mixed Breeds vs Pure Breeds

[Chickncrzylady]

I have had chickens over 40 years. I have purchased both breeder show bird stock and hatchery stock over the years.
The breeder birds were gorgeous but often not as good layers and we did end up bringing some diseases in with a couple of purchases. After that I bought hatchery birds and never had health issues with them. I ended up mixing my many different breeds together. I have to say over the years I got some really beautiful mixes and so many different colors and patterns. They were my favorites. They were strong and healthy. They layed lots of large eggs in so many different shades of blue, green , brown, pinkish, an apricot kind of color and even a few with a slight plum cast. The chicks were like surprises because I never knew what they would grow up to look like. I'm a big fan of mixes. I think I prefer them but I love all kinds of chickens purebred and mixed. I'm hoping to hatch some interesting mixes this year.

 

[Jeffeff95]

I have had chickens over 40 years. I have purchased both breeder show bird stock and hatchery stock over the years.
The breeder birds were gorgeous but often not as good layers and we did end up bringing some diseases in with a couple of purchases. After that I bought hatchery birds and never had health issues with them. I ended up mixing my many different breeds together. I have to say over the years I got some really beautiful mixes and so many different colors and patterns. They were my favorites. They were strong and healthy. They layed lots of large eggs in so many different shades of blue, green , brown, pinkish, an apricot kind of color and even a few with a slight plum cast. The chicks were like surprises because I never knew what they would grow up to look like. I'm a big fan of mixes. I think I prefer them but I love all kinds of chickens purebred and mixed. I'm hoping to hatch some interesting mixes this year.

Thats awesome to hear! that is exactly what I am wanting to do, we have a small flock now but would like to continue hatching to see what beautiful birds we can get. Appreciate the post!

 

[Fishkeeper]

Ah my apologies on the mixup!

Did you mean hatchery stock? Hatchery stock birds are generally purebred or close to it, but aren't good-quality because they haven't been culled properly. For example- people breeding Ayam Cemanis are supposed to select only the darkest birds from each generation to breed, with no white on them anywhere. The big hatcheries, though, don't do that. It's a wider gene pool, so in some ways the chickens can be healthier, but they get further away from the breed standard.

 

[ChickenFox]

It all comes down to the individual chicken in my experience. You can have pure breds that make the best layers or mothers but then you can also have ones that aren't particularly good at either. Same with mixes.

Pure breeds offer the advantage of being more expensive (if you plan to sell any) and you know what they'll look like and even what their eggs will look like. Mutts are a lottery and a lottery I personally love to play. Lol

When I get space to get my big girl flock started again I plan on getting purebreds but for the purpose of creating Easter Eggers and Olive Eggers of different crossings along with some dark brown layers.

Whichever route you take I'm sure you'll love them. Every chicken has a unique personality and they can be such entertaining critters.

 

[LearninMyFlock]

Hey everyone!

Me and my girlfriend recently hatched our first chick which is a Brahma Easter hen mix.
I was curious as to people's opinions on breeding pure bread chicken vs mixed breeds. If there is any pro's or con's for either.

Thanks Everybody!

We like mixed. We like variety and mixed will give you that. Although we do have some purebred in hopes of selling some. But for general purpose of meat and eggs we have a varied mixed flock. So it really depends what you are looking for. I'm looking for pets, eggs and meat and the mixed for that just fine for us.

 

[Fishkeeper]

One benefit of purebreds is that they're more predictable. It's not guaranteed that every bird of X breed will have the same personality, of course. But silkies tend to be very broody and somewhat nervous with other birds, game breeds more aggressive than others, brahmas more calm. Like how if you have a Siamese cat, you can be fairly sure it's going to be a talkative one, but you'll have no idea what a mixed cat will turn out to be.

 

[chickendreams24]

Personally we keep both and we love both.

Most of our birds are pure and we keep a variety of breeds that we can separate for pure breeding which makes us much more money for chicks and hatching eggs than mixed breeds ever do.

That said we also usually do one mixed hatch every year as well.

All of our cockerals that aren't kept for breeding are processed for meat.

It's true some pure breed lines can have health and vitality problems some don't. Some mixed breeds can too but usually they have fewer problems in that area.

We have had some amazing mixed breed layers and some amazing pure breed layers. We have also had some awful layers from both(these of course don't get bred). We have also had some of both pure and mixed that were great meat birds. Again we've also had some of both that were poor meat birds.

 

[chickendreams24]

Mixed breeds can have some amazing colors and looks to them as can pure birds if you keep a diverse flock.

 

[Jeffeff95]

Did you mean hatchery stock? Hatchery stock birds are generally purebred or close to it, but aren't good-quality because they haven't been culled properly. For example- people breeding Ayam Cemanis are supposed to select only the darkest birds from each generation to breed, with no white on them anywhere. The big hatcheries, though, don't do that. It's a wider gene pool, so in some ways the chickens can be healthier, but they get further away from the breed standard.

That’s interesting I had no idea! What I meant was mixing different breeds for example our Easter hens and our Brahma rooster and for pure breed I meant for example a Brahma rooster and Brahma hen.

 

[Jeffeff95]

Here’s our chick if anyone was interested!