Mixing breeds of Americana and Welsummer Roos with Barred Rock hens

[Aprildeesunshin]

Ok, I am green here and unseasoned. We hatched out our first egg yesterday and I feel like a nervous new mother with many questions...well, not THAT nervous but very curious. The situation is, I have searched online for weeks now and have found no solid evidence on this cross... Just a lot of this's and that's. We have a crop of barred rock hens from Murray McMurray. I got a BR roo from the same stock that died. I picked up 2 americana chicks from a local lady that hatched out from ebay. They turned out to be a boy and a girl. Girl was all gray (or do they call it blue?)? She had beautiful lacy gray feathers. The rooster turned out to be Black. He is an handsome gentleman. Nature took my female. I also wanted the "all American" Welsummer breed in my bunch. However I was unable to get my hands on a girl. I love my male. He is so Handsome. I wanted to keep my lines pure. However this did not work out. I am now hatching out for friend, family, and possibly myself. I have an americana / barred rock baby chick with many more on the way along with welsummer/ barred rock eggs getting ready to hatch. I can find threads on welsummer/ barred rock/ but americana/ barred rock...not much. I also have a black chicken that lays chocolate eggs. I don't know which of my males is the father....waiting for the egg to hatch.


Please help! Are they sexed linked? Do I want to keep with these or just stay pure? I don't want just barnyard blend, but I do want good layers and hearty birds.

 

[rainbowrooster]

Please help! Are they sexed linked? Do I want to keep with these or just stay pure? I don't want just barnyard blend, but I do want good layers and hearty birds.

The chicks from the Barred Rock Females will be sex linked. Its too late to keep them pure since you already crossed them. If you don't want a barnyard blend then you have already answered your own question about keeping them. Their breed purity is not an factor that will make them good layers or hearty.

 

[Aprildeesunshin]

Thank you Rainbowrooster for giving me an answer. With the barnyard blend, are you referring to the chicks or are you referring to my BR hens? Would I be able to breed a BR rooster with them to get Pure BR or are they ruined?

 

[englishcockers]

If you wait 3 or 4 weeks after replacing your other rooster with a barred rock you will get barred rock chicks.
be sure the replacement is really a barred rock and not a male sexlink.

 

[rainbowrooster]

Thank you Rainbowrooster for giving me an answer. With the barnyard blend, are you referring to the chicks or are you referring to my BR hens? Would I be able to breed a BR rooster with them to get Pure BR or are they ruined?

I was referring to the mixed chicks as the barnyard mix. Breeding the mixed chicks back to a BR rooster wont make a pure BR. Those chicks will be 75% Rock and will have barred feathers but there are other genes at work so there will other visual differences. The Welsummer/Rock cross bred back to a BR rooster will give you chicks much closer to BRs than the other mix. "Pure" is a relative term. Who knows how pure your BR are to begin with. There may have been another all black bird thrown into the mix several generations ago. Hatchery stock BR are more about production than breed type and purity.

 

[donrae]

Your chicks are going to be sex links, white spot on the head is male, solid dark head is female.
As the chicks age you'll be able to tell who has which father. The Welsummer's chicks will have yellow legs and straight combs, and will probably get reddish leakage as they age. The Pullets will lay brown eggs, possibly a darker brown.
The Ameraucana's chicks will mostly have dark legs, and they'll have pea or modified pea combs. Since he's black, the offspring will be black with no red leakage. Pullets should lay some shade of green eggs.

If you want to breed barred Rocks, once you find a male pull your other roosters off the hens for 2-3 weeks before you set eggs. Your chicks should be pure bred at that point. Your hatchery hens are pure bred and will make pure bred chicks when crossed to a pure bred male. They're simply hatchery quality, not show quality. Not a biggie for most of us backyards.