The Underappreciated Hybrids Thread

[SulkyBantam]

(I suspect this thread will be left to go stale, but here goes-)

How many threads are there about Hybrids/Barnyard Mixes? Not many!

No one chats about the 'SPECTACULAR' qualities of hybrids, or has long discussions about hybrid breeding.
They are not even allowed into shows no matter how beautiful.
But it's hybrids that supply us most eggs! And there are so MANY of them...

Chat all you like, post photos, ask advice- the world of hybrids is large and varied!

 

[WallyG74]

You’re probably right about going stale but I’ll drop my 2 cents. I started out with all pure bred chickens. 2 each or more of several different breeds. It’s been an experiment to say the least. I’ve decided that I want to try and hatch my own chicks for meat birds and more eggs. So the dilemma was keeping the bloodlines pure or not. Well I can’t keep 6 roosters for my 6 different breeds. And yes EE is one of my breeds which I know is a highly debated subject and I’m hoping that’s not the direction this thread goes. So, for my reasons, I think barnyard mixes and hybrids are definitely the way to go. The other option is to start and small hatchery with multiple coops and I decided that was not a road I wanted to travel. I’m hoping more people chime in on this subject. I definitely would like to feed off some of the experience on this subject.

 

[SBFChickenGirl]

Curious and following!

 

[Weeg]

We had our pure Mallard duck hatch out 3 babies this year! Our drake though isn't pure he is a backyard mix between Buff and a Swedish Blue. So she was sitting on 2 Buff eggs, and 1 Mallard egg. All the eggs hatched and the Mallard egg got the Buff from our drake and looks like a Mallard Buff mix! She is really pretty looking, she looks like a Mallard, talks like a Mallard, flies like a Mallard and such, but she has the golden Buff feathers! Then the other 2 Are Buff Swedish blue mixes. One ended up being a Male and he looks jus tiles his dad, who has more Swedish blue coloring then Buff, but he has brown chest feathers, and Axle, we named the baby, has a white feather that hangs down his face too which is really cute! The other egg was female and she has a very light grey color and has more buff in her. She has all the light Swedish Blue colors though. I love backyard mixes!

 

[Sally PB]

I hope this thread catches on. Next spring, I hope one of my girls goes broody and hatches a Buff Orpington over Black Australorp mix.

I even have a name for my "new" breed: Buff Aus.

 

[SulkyBantam]

I hope this thread catches on. Next spring, I hope one of my girls goes broody and hatches a Buff Orpington over Black Australorp mix.

I even have a name for my "new" breed: Buff Aus.

Good idea!

 

[Trisseh]

I’ll have Hedemora/Icelandic and Icelandic/Legbar crosses at the very least next spring... and potentially Hedemora/jaerhon as well, depending on how my jaerhon boys turn out. maybe some other crosses too, once I know what the sexes are for my last batch of chicks. It will certainly be interesting to see how they all turn out.

the problem with many of the hybrid/crossbred birds you’re talking about, when you’re discussing high production/big business, those are “dead end” crosses with one purpose, much the same as commercialized cattle crossbred animals. You can’t carry through a lot of genetic diversity and still maintain the traits you want through an additional cross in the same way as when you cross 2 separate “pure” breeds that have readily reproducible traits, because a crossbred animal has much more of a mix of traits to draw from. Makes me think of the Holstein/jersey crosses that were all the rage for a while. Useful enough in their own way but definitely not a good source of replacements - their calves were too much like one breed or the other without the benefit of either. You lose a lot of the vigour on the second gen cross and see a lot of randomized traits showing up, and usually not for the better. (and some of them were just plain mean. Haha).

that being said, I love seeing crossbred animals of any sort because the diversity and variety is amazing! It all comes down to the purpose that you have for them. Most if not all of us here aren’t commercial producers on the sort of scale of big business so we can play around with small genetic pools and see what we come up with. and really, how are new breeds developed? Selective breeding of crossbred individuals. Lol.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I've gotten some really cool mutts by hatching "barnyard" mixes!! The only real downside I see is they aren't really of any value in terms of selling them, unfortunately.

 

[WallyG74]

I've gotten some really cool mutts by hatching "barnyard" mixes!! The only real downside I see is they aren't really of any value in terms of selling them, unfortunately.

So true. My personal answer to that is having an identifiable egg like EE. I have a rooster and 2 pullets that are EE. Those will be my marketable breed for selling. If that don’t work, maybe get a rooster of one of my other breeds and retire old Rusty. The obvious problem there is that so many chickens lay brown eggs. I’d have to make sure I can identify young birds accurately or risk selling a cross as a purebred.

 

[edgarmongold]

(I suspect this thread will be left to go stale, but here goes-)

How many threads are there about Hybrids/Barnyard Mixes? Not many!

No one chats about the 'SPECTACULAR' qualities of hybrids, or has long discussions about hybrid breeding.
They are not even allowed into shows no matter how beautiful.
But it's hybrids that supply us most eggs! And there are so MANY of them...

Chat all you like, post photos, ask advice- the world of hybrids is large and varied!

More and more shows are having awards for backyard chickens.