Potential Breed Creation

[Blw18]

They all seem to fill out better with the Orpington influence. I tried my F1 rooster with RIR hens and the hens were great layers but when I dressed out the extra cockrells they were a lot scrawnier than I was hoping. I’m thinking about introducing more naked neck blood into them because my brahmas and Orpingtons spend more time in the barn panting in the summer than they do walking around with the others foraging.

 

[rocking chickens]

It looks good. How broody the hens get? How is temperament? I am in a cold climate and when I go to my go to breeds that I know a lot about most of them are so cold hardy that your summers would cook them.

 

[Blw18]

RaineyTN, he’s gorgeous. I have ameraucanas and was thinking about using them for the pea comb but everything I have with muffs free ranging gets eaten by hawks, coyotes, etc. I guess the muffs make it harder to see predators through all the briar patches, hedges, and tall grass they range in so I didn’t want that trait in the project birds.

 

[RaineyTN]

Mine are extremely flighty. I don’t free range my ameraucanas much though since I can’t afford to lose them. Against a coyote I wouldn’t think any chicken would survive unless they got to high ground quick.

But you know your birds better than me and your breeding for a purpose i just do it for the heck of it hah.

 

[Blw18]

Luckily we haven’t had just a ton of large predator problems this year. Yeah I don’t expect any of them to put up too much of a fight against a coyote!! The fayoumi crosses simply pick up and fly into the nearest tree but they’re not quite as large as the project birds. I wish there was a way to breed for better flying ability while still maintaining the integrity of size in the breed. I know flying ability isn’t normally desirable but I live in an area where you can ride down the road a mile and see 10 coyotes scattered out in a field during broad daylight. However, of the chickens I have taken by predators each year, 90% are by hawks. The larger ones almost never get messed with while the smaller chickens get picked off.

 

[RaineyTN]

Yea I think bigger is better for hawks.

Here’s a couple of the newest chicks the second one I crossed back to partridge brahma there huge for 2 half weeks old

 

[Blw18]

Good lord those are huge!! So they are they from your Orpington/Brahma rooster? I’d like to cross back some of the Brahma/F2 chicks I hatched earlier this year to Orpingtons or Orpington/langshan crosses to get some color back (the current crosses are either solid black or solid white with a few black dots) and reduce leg feathering. I had been debating it because I didn’t know if they would get as large as my current projects because the Orpingtons I have are significantly squatter. How is the growth rate of yours? My oldest are just over a month old and have just now started growing feathers other than on their wings. They are leaps and bounds ahead of normal as far as bone structure and frame goes but muscling and feathers are slow.

 

[RaineyTN]

Yea they take a while to fullly feather same as yours. Actually this is the first time I’ve bred to full Orpington. I forgot originally i started with a Brahma and a Orpington cross but I don’t remember what it was crossed with. Really the only reason I still have that rooster is bc it’s the easiest keeping male I’ve ever had.

 

[Severne]

Also, if anyone has done a project like this before I would definitely like to hear about it.

I have done a similar project! Nice job to you too! The larger breeds I’ve actually had worse luck with as far as cross breeding. I have been breeding for a very small, hardy, heat tolerant bird with Exceptional laying qualities. I crossed Orpington, RIR and a bantam and barred rock and astralorp and
Mainly leghorn with this roo

The results where these hens the brown ones and buff hens and a black one,(half astralorp) that roo is a project my uncle worked on and it was too much for him, so he passed It on too me. They lay around 260 eggs per year. Even In the 120 degree summers.

I kept a roo that was half that roo, half barred Rock. It crossed with that hen And this was the result. PERFECT! 275 eggs last year, it used to fly 30 feet into a tree until I changed its habits. It was VERY difficult especially since it was raised by a broody. Once when I tried to knock it out of the tree so I could change its habit, it climbed up another 15 feet to the tip of the 50 foot tree, it was scary, I thought it would die. The next evening I climbed the tree to catch it and it flew 55 feet away into the sheep pasture, (that’s better than my quail). I finally got it and trained it to sleep in the coop. Now I can catch it every day.(I’m NOT exaggerating)

This year I’m going to cross the 1st hens with a isbar roo and cross the resulting roo to the second hen and then back cross it to one of the buff hens. Of course, I have the wrong roo now.... he’s rude and his mom was half BO half this crossbreed

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Luckily we haven’t had just a ton of large predator problems this year. Yeah I don’t expect any of them to put up too much of a fight against a coyote!! The fayoumi crosses simply pick up and fly into the nearest tree but they’re not quite as large as the project birds. I wish there was a way to breed for better flying ability while still maintaining the integrity of size in the breed. I know flying ability isn’t normally desirable but I live in an area where you can ride down the road a mile and see 10 coyotes scattered out in a field during broad daylight. However, of the chickens I have taken by predators each year, 90% are by hawks. The larger ones almost never get messed with while the smaller chickens get picked off.

Do you have pictures of the fayoumi crosses?