Purebreds vs. neighbourhood assortments

[Pupsnpullets]

Hi,

I would like to hear any opinions on whether I need to concentrate on a particular breed/s for egg laying or do the neighbourhoods mutts perform moderately well, too. I need to be able show a reasonable number of eggs to justify my feed bill but I do enjoy the 'mystery' of what may hatch out of that particular egg, or exactly what colour will that cute little chick be when she grows up.

Thanks,

Barb

 

[Katy]

Not a thing wrong with the mutts!

Their eggs taste just as good as the purebreds. I've got both and I wouldn't want to be without either.

 

[Rafter 7 Paint Horses]

Unless you want purebreds, then it wouldn't make any difference. Not to me anyway.

We raise & sell a lot of chickens, and we don't get top dollar for the mixed breeds, but we sell a lot of them. Some of mine free range and when we hatch those eggs, it's like Christmas, you never know what you are going to get. If the parents are from egg laying breeds, you should fine. If you get a little game blood in there, you will get eggs and chickens that will be better suited to take care of them selves.

Jean

 

[Pupsnpullets]

Thanks,

I think I may already have some game blood. Mousy brown with a reddish neck and almost non-existant comb? I have a pullet like this and she laid 12 eggs then went broody. I isolated her until she wanted to lay again, and, low and behold, another 12 eggs and another maternity leave. She's now a fiesty little momma to 9 (adopted) chicks which I got from purebred stock.

Barb

 

[Kev]

I agree with others that mutts or even mixed colors in a single breed can be really enjoyable for the surprises and variety of colors/patterns. Kind of like getting almost the breadth of the chicken breeds in just a few chickens....

An idea: Get a few production hens such as sex links, cherry eggers, leghorns or... some pure breeds with reputation for decent or better egg laying abilities such as RIR or BR. Those few hens could be a way to have more dependable source of fresh eggs while you can have those fun mutts all around.

Crossing the mutts with those production breeds are likely to produce majority white offspring though as a lot of them are based on Dominant White. Using BR would introduce the barred gene throughout the flock.

 

[DementedHam]

I prefer mixed because they are eye pleasers and moderate egg layers. Even when I only had 4 egg laying breeds, my whole family had more eggs than we knew what to do with! I would assume breeds not specificly concentrated for producing eggs would lay just the right number of eggs.

Quote:
Would you happen to have a picture by any chance? I have apullet that fits your descriptioon exactly and lets hope I'm lucky enough for it to be true. [she's kind of long legged and has a slightly longer beak than all my other chickens.]

 

[Frozen Feathers]

Some of my favorite birds in my flock are mutts.

I have both pure and mutt birds and love them all.

 

[Pupsnpullets]

Hi DementedHam (great moniker!),

Yes, I have a picture of her but my computer downloading skills are pretty much entry level. If you're patient, and I am too, you may get to see her!

By looking at your location you're almost close enough to come and see for yourself. I'm near Palm Springs.

Barb

 

[nightshade]

I love mutts, exspecially the roos! All 5 of my freerangers are what I call lawn ornaments. They are fancy roos. 1 RIR, 1 EE, 2 possibly 3 mutts cause I am not sure what the little guy "dog" is. Probably will have a few more by mid summer. I am hoping to get a couple more phoneix roos at auction. But I am a sucker for a nice looking roo and will often pay more for them then I do hens.

And the eggs out of mutt hens I think are just as nice usally as fancy breeds but they often are nicer to look at.