Pearl White Leghorns

[silkie1472]

I recently purchased some Pearl white Leghorns from Murray McMurray Hatchery. I planned on breeding them this upcoming spring, but the hatchery suggested not to as they are a hybrid breed, saying that they might not retain the same excellent egg laying ability.

With that said, has anybody bred this strain of leghorn from McMurray before? What were the results?

 

[R2elk]

I recently purchased some Pearl white Leghorns from Murray McMurray Hatchery. I planned on breeding them this upcoming spring, but the hatchery suggested not to as they are a hybrid breed, saying that they might not retain the same excellent egg laying ability.

With that said, has anybody bred this strain of leghorn from McMurray before? What were the results?

All of the major hatcheries are claiming their leghorns are hybrids. While they actually are not hybrids, they are selectively bred by crossing (usually) 4 separate different lines of white leghorns. Since all four lines are White Leghorns, they are not hybrids.

The hatcheries use the term hybrid to make people think they will not breed true and to try to discourage people from breeding their own so they can keep all their prospective customers.

If you don't practice selective breeding it is very likely that the offspring may lose some of their vigor and desirable traits. If you also got unlucky in your original purchase and ended up with all siblings, that could also adversely affect the quality of their offspring.

 

[silkie1472]

That’s what had me confused. I know that they are a cross between several strains of white leghorns...but they are still white leghorns.

As for chickens that are “related”, I had no idea that it would affect the offspring. I guess I’ve had incest flocks most of my life lol.

 

[R2elk]

That’s what had me confused. I know that they are a cross between several strains of white leghorns...but they are still white leghorns.

As for chickens that are “related”, I had no idea that it would affect the offspring. I guess I’ve had incest flocks most of my life lol.

Inbreeding and Linebreeding

 

[blklangshandude]

That’s what had me confused. I know that they are a cross between several strains of white leghorns...but they are still white leghorns.

As for chickens that are “related”, I had no idea that it would affect the offspring. I guess I’ve had incest flocks most of my life lol.

All of the major hatcheries are claiming their leghorns are hybrids. While they actually are not hybrids, they are selectively bred by crossing (usually) 4 separate different lines of white leghorns. Since all four lines are White Leghorns, they are not hybrids.

The hatcheries use the term hybrid to make people think they will not breed true and to try to discourage people from breeding their own so they can keep all their prospective customers.

If you don't practice selective breeding it is very likely that the offspring may lose some of their vigor and desirable traits. If you also got unlucky in your original purchase and ended up with all siblings, that could also adversely affect the quality of their offspring.

I had a less sinister theory of why they call them hybrids. I thought it was because they were bred strictly for production rather than bred to the standard so they wouldn’t fare well as show birds. I have been confused a long time myself because other purebred White Leghorns don’t boast of such egg laying numbers. I have owned White Leghorns from Mcmurray. They live up to the high production stats listed by Mcmurray Hatchery. I own two of their roosters now because I want to breed them to lower egg producing breeds of chicken. I have heard first generation crosses of leghorns are all white or mostly all white so I figure it would take at least two generations to have high production hens that aren’t the boring white chickens. I’m a year or two away but yeah. I think breeding Pearl White Leghorns from Mcmurray Hatchery is a good idea. Maybe I’ll find out differently when I get done.

 

[R2elk]

I had a less sinister theory of why they call them hybrids. I thought it was because they were bred strictly for production rather than bred to the standard so they wouldn’t fare well as show birds. I have been confused a long time myself because other purebred White Leghorns don’t boast of such egg laying numbers. I have owned White Leghorns from Mcmurray. They live up to the high production stats listed by Mcmurray Hatchery. I own two of their roosters now because I want to breed them to lower egg producing breeds of chicken. I have heard first generation crosses of leghorns are all white or mostly all white so I figure it would take at least two generations to have high production hens that aren’t the boring white chickens. I’m a year or two away but yeah. I think breeding Pearl White Leghorns from Mcmurray Hatchery is a good idea. Maybe I’ll find out differently when I get done.

I use the hens to create Sapphires by breeding to a Cream Legbar rooster. They lay large, light blue eggs at a rate slightly less frequently than the leghorns that were used to produce them.

 

[blklangshandude]

That’s what had me confused. I know that they are a cross between several strains of white leghorns...but they are still white leghorns.

As for chickens that are “related”, I had no idea that it would affect the offspring. I guess I’ve had incest flocks most of my life lol.

From what I read incest chickens are ok as long as it is not brother to sister or it isn’t done over several generations. (I think 4 generations max is what I read.) I think son to mother, daughter to father, grandson to grandmother, granddaughter to grandfather is actually a good idea in some cases. You can theoretically clone a top notch bird if you keep breeding it back to it’s offspring. Humans don’t inbreed anymore due to Judeo Christian cultural influence but humans did do that for similar reasons that we inbreed chickens. It was more common in royalty and upper class families. They thought they were superior stock and want to preserve their superior genetics.

The modern man views inbreeding as icky. Sometimes that mindset spills over into the world of livestock and dog breeding. The likelihood of your chickens being half siblings is somewhat likely but it is unlikely that you have two full blown siblings. I’d say risk it for a couple of generations until you can buy from a new strain.

 

[blklangshandude]

I use the hens to create Sapphires by breeding to a Cream Legbar rooster. They lay large, light blue eggs at a rate slightly less frequently than the leghorns that were used to produce them.

I have read that egg color is a trait that is codominant. That means both genetics are expressed so it ends up creating a mixed color of eggs. We’re all the first generation crosses solid white? I am looking up sapphire chickens right now.

 

[R2elk]

I have read that egg color is a trait that is codominant. That means both genetics are expressed so it ends up creating a mixed color of eggs. We’re all the first generation crosses solid white? I am looking up sapphire chickens right now.

The first and only generation is white with various random black dots. All the eggs are blue since each hen has one blue egg gene and one white egg gene.

The Sapphires produced this way are an F1 hybrid.

 

[blklangshandude]

The first and only generation is white with various random black dots. All the eggs are blue since each hen has one blue egg gene and one white egg gene.

The Sapphires produced this way are an F1 hybrid.

I didn’t mean the hens lay multiple colors. I just meant that the tint of the egg is a mix between the color of the paternal grandmother’s egg (the one the father hatched from) and the mother’s egg. In theory I guess the eggs of the sapphires are a lighter shade of blue than what Cream Legbars usually lay. If that theory is accurate.