Pheasant Chicken Hybrids

[chickenguy222]

Are there any updates on the crosses? Did and ever lay eggs? Did the color change at all?

 

[Dubrovnik]

Just so Im clear about this cross-breeding thing, if I cross a pheasant (whether golden or ringneck) with say a leghorn all offspring will be infertile? If that is the case then I dont see any point in doing it really. I was hoping for something that tasted more like pheasant than chicken but didnt only lay 60 eggs a year.

Pheasants and chickens have the same number of chromosomes, so their offspring are not pathetic unviable creatures like chicken-turkey hybrids. The male first generation cheasants are usually fertile, the female F1 cheasants are sterile. The male F1 cheasants could be bred back to chickens to produce F2s which would be 1/4 pheasant and 3/4 chicken. The F2s could be crossed with one another to lock in desirable traits, and birds with undesirable traits could be culled.
If the crowing of the male cheasants is not very loud like rooster crowing, that might make them an attractive alternative to pure roosters. Many towns and cities have ordinances that forbid crowing birds.
Some pheasants, like the monal, whistle instead of crowing, and the whistle is not terribly loud.

It's funny how many people here who do not approve of hybrids will cheerfully give you misinformation to the effect that they are all sterile.

 

[Nickeyo]

I believe the reason the crosses are unfertile most of the time is for the same reason as mules, he parent species have different chromosome numbers so the offspring are in the middle so they have an odd number of chromosomes so they are unable to split to for gametes, so they can develop and grow but can't reproduce, having said that it has been known to breed a female mule to either a horse or donkey so I see no reason Why a few of the female crosses can't breed back to parent stock

 

[chickenguy222]

Have the silkie x goldens gained color at 2 years old like red goldens do?

 

[lydiagirl99]

Subscribing just in case an update comes about.

 

[goalaimethic]

Something not covered here, or at least I did not observe it is Haldane's Rule. Namely as it applies to the suggestion of 100% sterility in Chicken-Pheasant hybrids. It basically means that a males from such a hybrid would be nearly 100% sterile, but the females could be fertile or at least partially fertile. "HALDANE's rule" states that, if species hybrids of one sex only are inviable or sterile, the afflicted sex is much more likely to be heterogametic (XY) than homogametic (XX). We show that most or all of the phenomena associated with HALDANE's rule can be explained by the simple hypothesis that alleles decreasing hybrid fitness are partially recessive. Under this hypothesis, the XY sex suffers more than the XX because X-linked alleles causing postzygotic isolation tend to have greater cumulative effects when hemizygous than when heterozygous, even though the XX sex carries twice as many such alleles. The dominance hypothesis can also account for the "large X effect," the disproportionate effect of the X chromosome on hybrid inviability/sterility. In addition, the dominance theory is consistent with: the long temporal lag between the evolution of heterogametic and homogametic postzygotic isolation, the frequency of exceptions to HALDANE's rule, puzzling Drosophila experiments in which "unbalanced" hybrid females, who carry two X chromosomes from the same species, remain fertile whereas F1 hybrid males are sterile, and the absence of cases of HALDANE's rule for hybrid inviability in mammals. We discuss several novel predictions that could lead to rejection of the dominance theory.

This needs some clarification. Although in theory this appears correct, as well as an excellent interpretation of fertility potential based on sex chromosomes, it is important to remember that animals in Aves, along with some reptiles/amphibians, have a WZ sex chromosome inheritance rather than the alternative XY. This being said, the opposite of the fertility statement is true: female birds are WZ and are known to be sterile in F1 crosses involving the Gallus genus; however males, being ZZ, are in theory not always sterile. A quick online search will provide plenty of anecdotal, as well as peer reviewed scientific, research that does indicate that different species parents, P1, will produce F1/P2 offspring of which females are almost always sterile, while males offspring are indiscriminate in their matings and will produce viable offspring, F2, only if the mated female is of one of the two parent species of the male.

 

[goalaimethic]

It is really important that viewers and participants in this thread understand chicken hybridization limitations.

Gallus species, which includes our domestic chicken friends, have rare occurances of fertile matings between species within the Gallus genus. The reason why the four "fowl", the green, grey, Sri Lankan, and red jungle fowl are grouped within the same genus is not because they can on occasion produce hybrid offspring but rather because they are the most genetically closely related to one another compared to other pheasant species. Hybrids within Gallus are not why these birds are grouped together, hybrids are merely possible due to the close relation. Pheasants that are not fowl, of four species mentioned, are more distantly related to chickens.
Pheasants of different species are capable of mating in captivity. Pheasants of the same genus may be able to produce offspring, but there does not appear to be any peer reviewed articles that confirm pheasant and jungle fowl or chicken hybrids exist based on genetic testing.
Pheasants and chickens can definitely mate with one another but it does not mean the eggs produced from such matings contain an outside species's DNA. This may sound confusing, but keep in mind that mating is not always monogamous for poultry, and the time limit for laying fertilized eggs from a mating is not limited to just a few days...
Chickens, Gallus gallus domesticus, can produce fertile eggs from stored sperm from a previous mating for lengths of about 1 month, potentially longer, even with matings with other males, of any species, in between this period. It is very likely that 'hybrid' offspring may in fact be chicken cross breeds. Still, crossbreed chickens are of a unique combination of genes which can create a chicken that looks of minor resemblance to its parent breeds, rather than parent species, and often chickens from these matings are just as unique and rare in quality as species hybrids.

 

[mrgamefowl]

Any new updates and pix and how was the mating?

 

[Henrik Petersson]

I want an update too!

How long did they live? Are they alive still?

 

[schooner79]

Never knew this was possible. Very interesting.