hybrids?

[nutsburg]

Reading a crazy number of books on chickens have me concned about all the different breeds mixing. I have Brahms, orpington, houdan, easter eggers, silkies, and bantam cochi, (couldn't just pick one or three). Is it a bad thing if I just let them be and not separate them? I don't care if I have pure breeds or if they are pretty. What I do care about is, having a decent dual purpose bird.

Thank-you

[Cyngbaeld]

They are your birds, do what makes you happy. You can always separate some later if you decide that is what you want.

[JasoninMN]

Chickens are great to experiment with. If you don;t like the out come of the breeds, its totally acceptable to eat them!

[KSALguy]

sounds like a fun mix, the chicks could look like just about anything, thoughs are the best kind i think lol, all female chickens lay eggs and ALL chickens are made of meat, you can eat them all just the same,

[suelandress]

Those bantams might be a little sparse on meat

[nutsburg]

Thank you! I was thinking that if it turned out bad that I would just eat it. What now to do with the extra bantam chicks. At almost seven weeks should I be able to see the difference between them?

[bee]

Where you will see problems is "down the road" when your first generation crosses cross. Let's say a standard crosses with a banty but the cross is still an acceptable sized bird and you allow that generation to cross; you could end up with standard sized birds,crosses and bantams.
You say you are after a good dual purpose bird..if you have all these breeds mixing and suddenly there it is your perfect bird. How will you duplicate the cross if you can't be sure what produced it?
I have been involved in just this type of project. I used an unknown breed of bird that I really liked(feed store chicks)all hens and then had to find a compatible roo for them to continue working with them. The closest thing I could come up with was a bantam. After years of trying to "set" my new breed I had to add another breed to try to get the birds size up. More years of trying to get A "type". Wonderful small homestead birds that have short legs and compact bodies,good on feed,broody and faithful layers. Good ending? No, so inbred that I have shell issues even when adding the calcium. I have a small flock of seven older hens and one roo left..simply out of needing the (fragile shelled) eggs until my new layers come on line. Then they will become soup and a fond memory. The new birds are BLR wyandotes; standard size birds that go broody, lay pale brown med-large eggs and have a flat comb for less frost damage.
I know it sounds like I think you should not do it but that is not true! I enjoyed working with my project and even named my birds. Go ahead and work with yours; I just wanted you to know some of the problems I tried to overcome..I was asked once why I "wanted to re-invent the wheel"..there are so many breeds out there already. I am certainly not sorry I did it and when the time comes to close that poultry chapter I may not be able too...I may end up maintaning a few just because I like them.

[SilverFlame819]

You want dual purpose but you have 3 small types?

I think the babies would be fine and interesting, fun surprises, but anything crosses with Silkie, Bantam Cochin or Houdan won't make the best eating...

But you can tell yourself you're having Cornish Game Hen!

[tinknal]

Just a little semantics rant.... hybrids are a cross between 2 species, what you are talking about is crossbreds between 2 breeds of the same species. OK, end rant.

[Terri]

BEE??????????????

Once the breeders get an inbred line with the characteristics they want, THEY OUTCROSS. Or, so says an ag instructor.

So, cross your inbred roo on the wyandotte hens and let one of youir inbred broody hens set on the eggs and raise the chicks. Those chicks SHOULD have it all!

The reason is, ALL inbred critters lack vigor but the offspring of 2 inbred lines are usually OUTSTANDING! Look up heterosis and hybrid vigor.

[nutsburg]

I thought the mottled houdan is a meat bird and ok at eggs. Heck, the French made a dish just for them.

As far as the bantam go, they are the kids pets and my walking incubator. Will a full size cock try to mate with them?

[Terri]

TRY to mate with them, yes. Though I am not certain if my full sized roo had aver scored on my banty or not. Proof would be if the eggs were ertile but I seem to have a sterile roo as NOTHING of his hatches.

I tried to give him away a few weeks ago: I will try again as I hate to kill the birds that I have raised. I have done it but it makes my stomach hurt and I prefer to give them away. And, I cannot bring in a new roo untikl the old one is gone!

[Ms.Lilly]

Mottled Houdans are not a large bird and can have a rough time at seeing because of the feathers in the eye issue. I had 3 of them one was a cross beak and died at a young age the other became egg bound and I was unable to save her. The third is still running around with the flock. She is a good egg layer but I wouldn't consider raising them for meat birds.

Lillian

[KSALguy]

http://www.feathersite.com//Poultry/...BRKHoudan.html

yes standard roosters can cross with bantam hens, as long as the rooster is not GIGANTOR and the hen is not Thumbalina, i have had standard cochin/silkie crosses,
it may be a small meal but any of these birds listed can be eaten,

[bee]

Terri, I would be more likely to let the wyandotte roo have the Ashby hens than have my pure bred hens having cross babies(if incubated) for a period of 3 weeks.....this Wyandotte line is wonderful and the eggs have value for hatching(which I plan to do plenty of next year).

[KSALguy]

i would like to see pics of your Ashby line, what size are they? i think it would be a good idea to keep them and just add a new rooster to help bring new blood back into the mix,

[Wolf Flower]

Originally Posted by SilverFlame819

Houdan won't make the best eating..

I heartily disagree! Houdans are not large birds, but they make great eating. I'm crossing Silkiess and Houdan with larger meat-type birds to get a large, dual purpose bird with Silkie feathering. It's a long road to get the size up, but a tasty road.

[ladytoysdream]

We have orpingtons and a couple of red sex link hens.

One hen given to us, is a half orpington and banty cross.
When we hatched eggs this year, I did NOT use any from the half banty cross hen.
I will however use her again, to brood eggs from the other hens. She is a super mom.
I won't ever have a banty rooster though. One strong personality cross breed hen with banty bloodlines is more than plenty in our coop

We gather eggs daily and often. Next spring when we set eggs aside for a few days so we can do some hatching, I will be spending some time in the chicken coop to make sure I only get eggs from certain hens. Hopefully I get enough volunteer hens to do the job, so I don't have to use a incubater. Then those hens will each go into a large dog crate with a individual nest box. That worked well for us this year.

So to me, this all comes down to control. It won't matter too much if you have lots of different breeds, but that you control which eggs you allow to be hatched. You may have to separate them into groups, if you want certain size birds as offspring.

[VA Susan]

Originally Posted by nutsburg

As far as the bantam go, they are the kids pets and my walking incubator. Will a full size cock try to mate with them?

Nutsburg,
We have a young Red Star rooster (RIR and White Rock) who was lovesick over our Banty before she went broody. We discovered her nest after she was missing several days then we moved her to a safer place with most of her eggs. We didn't want to raise 11 Banty crosses so we replaced her eggs with our other layers' eggs. Since she'd been on her eggs awhile by then we gave them to our cat. All but one of her eggs were fertile.