Potential Breed Creation

[RaineyTN]

Yea your fayoumi crosses are very cool, I’m goin to read up on them never knew too much about that breed

 

[Blw18]

If you’re looking for a breed that requires the least care possible, they’re the way to go. My pure fayoumi hen is friendly and doesn’t act “feral” like most do but most of the crossbreds act wild and hardly ever come around at feeding time. They lay really well and get majority if not all of their food on their own. They don’t do well at all penned up.

 

[derBauer]

That is how mine are too! That’s what I love about mixes.

 

[Blw18]

Exactly! You never know what you are going to get. Since I’m not raising for show or to sell pure stock, almost all of what I hatch are mixed breeds. Some are 4th generation mixed breeds. And the thing is, the quality has seemed to go up the more deeply they’re mixed. I’ve always been told that crossing two or more mixed breeds together would just decrease the egg and meat yield and I can see if you introduce a bad line that could happen, but that applies to purebreds too.

 

[derBauer]

Right, I had someone on another forum say that without inbreedI gotta, their BO xBR production was decreasing. That didn’t make any sense to me.

 

[Blw18]

Update: Over the past few months I’ve been narrowing down my breeders for later this fall and next spring to around 4 cockrells and 12 pullets. My current main line project juveniles are 4 months and 5 months old and I really like what I’ve got. One rooster has nearly outgrown his dad (the pure Brahma) at 5 months old and they all have amazing temperaments. I had a coccidiosis outbreak in the juveniles of several other pure breeds but the projects never were phased even though they were in the same pen on the same dirt eating and drinking the same food and water. I assume they’ve got some resistance to whatever strain of coccidiosis on the farm. They’ve all become excellent foragers and have taken 100 degree days and daily thunderstorms with stride. The only downside is they have feathered legs and aren’t very meaty. They’re also really slow feathering. The 4 month old roosters still have chick down on their back and haven’t grown in any tail feathers. The 5 month old roo didn’t start growing tail feathers until two weeks ago. I know given their size they’re going to be very slow maturing. I’ve kept back 7 Cornish rock pullets who are almost to laying age that I plan to cross into the line to add some meatiness. I think I’ll cross the project roosters with them. And then I’ve got several liege fighters I’m planning on crossing to the project hens. The liege are extremely intelligent, colorful, super friendly, and really good foragers.
Project roo 5 months old:

Project roos 4 months old:

Project pullets 4 and 5 months old:

Liege fighter 2 months and Cornish cross at 4.5 months:

 

[RaineyTN]

Those are cool man. Where’d you get the leige fighters? I have wanted to get a couple just to see what they were like.

Here’s my last hatch I had but i ended up selling all of my Brahma mixes, breeders and all a guy came by and bought the whole lot.

 

[Blw18]

Thanks! I really like the colors on yours. I got them from a breeder in east Tennessee. I can give you his info if you’d like. I’d recommend him to anybody. I paid $15 a chick and he sent 5 extra to the 10 I bought. I was skeptical at first because of how much other liege chicks are going for but they’re indeed pure and my favorite breed by far. Super friendly and intelligent. Mine are 9 weeks old now and getting huge. I’ve got 5 month old ameraucanas and Delawares that majority of the liege have outgrown and they’re less than half their age.

 

[RaineyTN]

Nice post some pictures of them as they grow. I found a lady within an hour of me that has a couple said she’d have chicks next spring I want a couple hens put under my ameracaunas get some bigger bodied Easter eggers

 

[NatJ]

I just found this thread, so I know I'm responding to older posts. But I did read it all, and I didn't notice anyone else saying what I intend to say

The project birds do well all year minus getting a little hot...the pure orpingtons and other cold-hardy breeds thrive in the cold but as soon as those 95+ degrees days hit, they sit in the barn, lose weight, and basically inhale water to keep cool. I’d like to reduce the feathering on the projects a little more but not so much that they start getting chilled when it gets cold.

One way to reduce the feathering, increase the meat, and maintain the pea comb: add hatchery-quality Dark Cornish. Not Cornish Cross that grow so fast, not the show-quality Cornish that are wider than they are tall. The Dark Cornish I've had were from McMurray Hatchery and Ideal Poultry. They had pea combs, enough feathers for warmth but not a lot of extra fluff, clean legs, feather patterns that I liked, were fairly good layers-- basically a dual-purpose bird that was a little more compact than most and has the pea comb.

I need to get some more color in somehow because my main chickens in the main project line are either solid black or solid white with maybe two or three tiny black spots randomly placed somewhere on their neck or back. Some are solid white. The parent hens were black but where the solid white came from I have ZERO clue. I don’t own a single white chicken on the farm. I’m not good with genetics but is that a recessive white gene? It’s weird because majority (probably 70%) of the chicks have been white.

The white came from your Buff Laced Brahma rooster. He had white lacing on buff. That means he had the Dominant White gene that turns black into white.

So the chicks were black (because of the Extended Black gene from their black mothers), and then all the black was turned white by the Dominant White gene.

They’ve all become excellent foragers and have taken 100 degree days and daily thunderstorms with stride. The only downside is they have feathered legs and aren’t very meaty. They’re also really slow feathering. The 4 month old roosters still have chick down on their back and haven’t grown in any tail feathers. The 5 month old roo didn’t start growing tail feathers until two weeks ago. I know given their size they’re going to be very slow maturing.

Sounds like they're coming along pretty well!
Slow vs. fast feathering is controlled by one gene, and that gene is on the Z (sex) chromosome. Slow is dominant, so it cannot hide and pop up again later.

The simplest way to get rid of slow feathering is if you can use a fast-feathering male next year. All of his daughters will have fast feathering, and some of his sons probably will as well. (Any sons who feather slowly will carry the fast feathering gene, and can pass it to half of their chicks.)

Those Liege chicks look nice! And I see they have many of the same qualities that I found in Dark Cornish (pea comb, close feathering, compact body, patterned feathers. Looks like they feathered out fast, too.) So I can see why you've decided to cross them in to your mix!