Debate! Hybrids or heritage chickens?

[Emmaloveschickens9156]

Hybrid layers or heritage layers/hens?

 

[MysteryChicken]

Heritage breeds 100%.

 

[Coops Dad]

Depends on what your goals are. If egg production was my only goal, I'd get hybrids bred for laying. If my only goal was meat production, I'd raise Cornish Crosses. If I wanted sustainable eggs and meat, and cost per dozen eggs and pound of meat wasn't a major factor, I'd raise the fastest growing, most productive heritage breed I could find (my choice would be Rhode Island Red because I have experience with them and found that they're hardy, fairly fast growers, precocious layers, excellent foragers, assertive, curious and smart).

Our own flock is gradually moving from Ameraucanas and Rhode Island Reds to American Bresse and Bresse/RIR crosses. Since we keep a main flock of @35-40 layers and a second flock of 10-20 birds for meat (mostly crosses and non-conforming Bresse) plus a bachelor pen of whatever cockerels hatch out, we have plenty of eggs for our family and at least one processing day a month for meat. Last processing day put 70 lbs of chicken in the freezer. 3-1/2 to 4 month old Bresse/RIR cockerels came in @3-1/4 lbs +/- dressed for the freezer.

 

[Chicken_tiger_catt]

Hybrid layers or heritage layers/hens?

I literally got what my siblings wanted. I started my flock with 2 Rhode Island Red, an Australorp, I think another Australorp but with a ring of gold neck feathers, some kind of blue egg laying EE, a Sapphire Splash, and a Plymouth Barred Rock.

I gave away the Sapphire, and my aunt gave me some eggs and a Plymouth Barred Rock rooster. (She already had a Rhode Island.)

So now I’m hatching things left and right, the dang fox ate 14 of my older chicks, including one of my two Bearded Americana I just bought, but I’ve got a better coop now, and I need to get another coop because I own nine quails.

So I would say both, neither, and my aunt’s Midnight Maran/ Rhode Island Red hybrids are really pretty.

The photo is of some barn mixes, I know Twister’s wing looks funny, I already posted a thread about her. The black one is really nice looking, and of course the only one that isn’t looking at the camera

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Hybrid layers or heritage layers/hens?

For what? They have different purposes

 

[Emmaloveschickens9156]

I literally got what my siblings wanted. I started my flock with 2 Rhode Island Red, an Australorp, I think another Australorp but with a ring of gold neck feathers, some kind of blue egg laying EE, a Sapphire Splash, and a Plymouth Barred Rock.

I gave away the Sapphire, and my aunt gave me some eggs and a Plymouth Barred Rock rooster. (She already had a Rhode Island.)

So now I’m hatching things left and right, the dang fox ate 14 of my older chicks, including one of my two Bearded Americana I just bought, but I’ve got a better coop now, and I need to get another coop because I own nine quails.

So I would say both, neither, and my aunt’s Midnight Maran/ Rhode Island Red hybrids are really pretty.

The photo is of some barn mixes, I know Twister’s wing looks funny, I already posted a thread about her. The black one is really nice looking, and of course the only one that isn’t looking at the camera

Your hen with black around her neck is probably a sex link or BCM.

 

[Emmaloveschickens9156]

For what? They have different purposes

Dual purpose.

 

[Franklinridgefarms]

Depends on what you want. Crossbred layers like ISA Brownor Amber Link are great dependable layers but will not hold up as long.
To me if I were very limited in number of birds I could have. I would go with a commercial type crossbred layer or production type Rhode Island Reds.
That way the supply of eggs would be higher.
I like the concept of heritage type chicken breeds, most breeds carried by the big hatcheries are going to be selectively bred for egg production anyways and the mainstream breeds are going to be fairly decent layers. I like breeds like New Hampshire, Barred Plymouth Rocks, Black Australorp, Buff Orpington, they are pretty good layers and should also be pretty good for meat birds too.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Depends on what you want. Crossbred layers like ISA Brownor Amber Link are great dependable layers but will not hold up as long.
To me if I were very limited in number of birds I could have. I would go with a commercial type crossbred layer or production type Rhode Island Reds.

And other crossbreed are superior for meat production

 

[NatJ]

Your hen with black around her neck is probably a sex link or BCM.

Probably not, because of this:

The photo is of some barn mixes