Suggestions for Fun/Good Hybrids?

[DesertChic]

Also I am hoping that the leghorn breed will improve the age of maturity of the turken. By adding the turken in I am also hoping it will help with the friendliness and docility.
So my next question...would you use a turken rooster over white leghorns or a white leghorn rooster over turken hens? Or would you use both? What are the pros/cons? I am also fine with getting white birds from the cross and would eventually like to breed for true naked necks and get rid of the bowties (quick all mine have) as well as breed for yellow shanks (which my rooster has). Right now I don't have a leghorn rooster because he got aggressive with kids and had to be turned into a freezer chicken but I am hoping to replace him down the road.
Does anyone have good reading suggestions for researching more about genetics and such?
Thanks!!

NN Turkens are my primary breed and I cross them with darn near everything. Yes, NNs are typically friendlier and can improve upon the friendliness of the Leghorn, but only if you're starting with breeding stock possessing the temperament qualities you're working for in your crosses. If you breed a flighty or aggressive NN with a Leghorn, you will wind up with flighty or aggressive offspring. Temperament is genetic. I've been breeding for temperament since I started breeding and as docile as my own birds are, there are still variances in their personalities that allow me work around all of them without fear of aggression, be able to handle some with minimal complaint, and actually snuggle with others that run to me seeking hugs and affection. (And yes, I'm talking roosters here.)

As far as improving maturity, what exactly are you looking for? Meat production? Earlier point of lay? Most of my NN girls reach POL around 18-22 weeks and egg size typically increases pretty quickly. My top laying homozygous NN laid an average of 250 X-Lg eggs per year for her first two years and weighed in at over 6 lbs at the end of her pullet year. My extra roosters reach my preferred butchering weight around 16-20 weeks, producing 3-5 lb carcasses. Crossing NNs with Leghorns may help them reach maturity sooner, or may not, but it will probably reduce their weight and size.

As far as NN/Leghorn vs Leghorn/NN....that really doesn't matter too much. It's more important to select breeders that possess the traits you prefer and cross them accordingly.

If you're really interested in learning about poultry genetics, this is probably the best book you'll find:
"Genetics of the Fowl:..." by F.B. Hutt
https://www.amazon.com/Genetics-Fow...14576336&sr=8-1&keywords=genetics+of+the+fowl

 

[DesertChic]

What do you mean...to breed out the bib? Do you mean the bowtie? I do realize that will take a fair amount of time and culling just because my turkens do all have bowties. Maybe I should work on breeding that out first? Then it should reduce the amount of culling a little when I start crossing? Does one gender of one breed (the leghorn in this case) tend to make a difference when helping breed to keep the size smaller? I haven't weighed my turken rooster but he has got to be right around the same size as my black australorp rooster. One of my hens is on the smaller side and started laying around the same time as my leghorns but the other two are a little larger and I don't think one of them has started laying yet. I am actually thinking I may focus a fair amount of time on making sure I get a large amount of chicks out of her because she is so close to what I am looking for as an end result. I guess as my little white turken in the brooder grows I will get a small idea of the growth rate and size of bird I could end up with with that cross (leghorn hen x turken rooster). I will probably be posting pictures of them at some point to see if we all can guess which roosters are the fathers. they were just a test batch of chicks so I didn't separate any of my roosters.
Thanks for the response!

Breeding the bowtie out should probably be secondary to your other goes. As you crossbreed your NN hybrid offspring, you'll steadily minimize the size of the bowtie. Crossing them with fully feathered birds results in larger bowties.

Just keep in mind that if you're starting with heterozygous NN hybrids to cross to your Leghorns, the majority of your offspring will be fully feathered. Ideally you should select a homozygous NN (with minimal or no bowtie) with your Leghorns to create 50/50 hybrids. After that you either cross the heterozygous NN offspring with other heterozygous offspring to increase the number of NN offspring, or cross the heterozygous NNs to homozygous NNs to strengthen the dominance of the naked neck gene.

 

[DesertChic]

I can't tell...did you end up with feathered shanks? Not that it really matters, just curious.
I'm really on the fence still about keeping my cochin rooster. It's not that I don't like him, he just does not really "fit" with my flock very well. I feel like anything I crossed him with I would do with the intention of eating the offspring so they would all be short term, making the cuteness factor null Good to know that the cross does make some nice sized birds though!

Duckie didn't have feathered shanks, but about 25% of her offspring did. Even one of her grandchildren developed feathered shanks.

 

[rodeorulz]

@DesertChic Thank you so much for the in-depth replies, that is so very muchly appreciated! I'm going to check out the book recommendation as well
Sending you a message shortly

 

[rodeorulz]

Oh and as far as maturity I am hoping to affect the Point of Lay. I love that the Leghorns consistently start earlier than most(?) other breeds. My one Turken did start laying right around the same time as my Leghorns and she is really so close to what I'm looking for just the way she is, so I really want to get babies out of her that I can get into this project (sadly I had to send my Leghorn rooster to the freezer so at this time all I can get out of her is more straight Turken babies, which is ok too, they can always be added into the mix later ). Meat production is not a goal with this particular cross.
Thanks again!