Hybrids/Cross-Breeding

[ourlilfarm2015]

Hello!

Hybrid chickens fascinate me especially how certain crosses make sex links and such. I would like to learn more! Is there a rhyme or reason to knowing what a cross will create? Or is it all trial and error? I would like to incubate eggs from my own flock just to have a fun group of barnyard mutts.

Our rooster is a French Black Copper Marans.

For other breeds of hens we have:
Gold Laced Wyandotte
Silver Laced Wyandotte
Blue Laced Wyandotte
A blue egg laying Americauna
A green egg laying Americauna
Rhode Island Red
Black Jersey Giant
Silver Olive Egger

Has anyone done any of these crosses before?

I would like good temperaments, efficient layere, dual purpose, pretty eggs are a bonus point, flashy colored birds are a huge bonus point.

I was reading Marans maybe don't have the best temperament so maybe he isn't the best rooster to have (?) We actually got him by accident in a group of pullets. Previous roosters we have had are a Gold Laced Wyandotte and later a Barred Rock. Both of those became aggressive to us and our children at 2-3 years of age.

 

[cavemanrich]

Just do your barnyard mix, and hatch out the chicks. Then decide which you like. For an individual,, yes, it is a trial and error type of venture.
There are many sexlink combinations, as well as production grade combinations... Don't forget about the meat-bird crosses. They have been done a long time,, and you can research those if you desire.
I am not one to breed chickens. Can't keep roosters at my location.
Roosters can be docile, or aggressive, from same breed. It sometimes comes down to the individual one.
The more aggressive ones tend to be better protectors of the flock. But in reality,, they have limitations, depending on the predator.

WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[NatJ]

Hybrid chickens fascinate me especially how certain crosses make sex links and such. I would like to learn more! Is there a rhyme or reason to knowing what a cross will create? Or is it all trial and error?

If you learn about chicken genetics, you can predict some of the results.
But chicken genetics is either a big, fascinating puzzle or a big confusing mess, depending on whether you like such things

Our rooster is a French Black Copper Marans.

For other breeds of hens we have:
Gold Laced Wyandotte
Silver Laced Wyandotte
Blue Laced Wyandotte
A blue egg laying Americauna
A green egg laying Americauna
Rhode Island Red
Black Jersey Giant
Silver Olive Egger

Predictions about some of those crosses:

--if you cross two chicken breeds that lay brown eggs, the chicks will also lay brown eggs. The shade of brown can vary, but is likely to be in between what the two parent breeds prdouce. There are lots of genes that affect the amount of brown, but individual ones aren't clearly understood at present.

--if you cross a brown egg rooster (like your Marans) to a hen that lays blue or green eggs, you should get chicks that lay green eggs. You may also get chicks that lay brown eggs. There is one gene that controls whether the shell has blue, so either a hen has it or she doesn't. If she lays blue eggs (or green), she has that gene, but she may also have the gene for not-blue eggs. Green eggs are genetically blue with a layer of brown on the outside. Dark green eggs ("olive") are blue eggs with an extra-dark layer of brown on the outside.

--Your rooster is genetically "gold." If you cross him to a "silver" hen, you get sexlinked chicks (gold daughters, silver sons.) In your list of hens, the Silver Laced Wyandotte is silver, and the Silver Olive Egger probably is too. ("Silver" replaces all gold on the chicken with white. But several other genes can also cause white on a chicken, and some genes allow silver chickens to show red or tan shades, so sometimes it's hard to tell whether a mixed-breed chicken actually has the silver gene or not.)

--Rose combs and pea combs are dominant over single combs. So when both parents have single combs, so do the chicks. But when you find a chick with a rose comb, or a chick with a pea comb, you know at least one parent must have that kind of comb. (Wyandottes have rose combs, Ameraucanas have pea combs, although either one can sometimes carry gene the for single comb too.)

--Your Jersey Giant will probably produce black chicks. The gene for Extended Black is dominant over most other genes that affect chicken color.

If you want to learn about chicken genetics, there are some webpage that talk about it.
http://kippenjungle.nl/sellers/page0.html
This is the starting page for one site.

There is also a chicken genetics calculator, where you can change individual genes in dropdown boxes and see the image of the chicken change accordingly. It can also calculate the offspring from any particular set of parents. The creator seems to keep updating it with more genes and more features, so there are several versions by now:
http://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html
http://kippenjungle.nl/breeds/crossbreeds.html

There are also several people on this site who know quite a bit about chicken genetics.
It usually works best to post genetics questions in this section of the forum:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/exhibition-genetics-breeding-to-the-sop.16188/
(Exhibition, Genetics, Breeding to the SOP)

 

[Ridgerunner]

The first post in this thread tells you about sex inks. I had to read it several times to catch on but eventually the light came on. You can read the entire thread if you want but the first post covers the basics.

Sex- linked Information | BackYard Chickens - Learn How to Raise Chickens

If you know the starting genetics you can predict the results of a crossing. To me that can be the hard part, coming up with the starting genetics. If both parents are each pure for a different color/pattern and you know which is the mother and which is the father you can determine what the chicks will look like. But if either or both are not pure for a color/pattern you can come up with all kinds of different looks. By pure I mean both genes at a gene pair are identical. To use NatJ's comb example. If one parent is pure for the genetics for the rose comb (both those genes at that gene pair are rose) and the other parent has the genetics for a single comb, all chicks will have a rose comb. They will have one rose gene and one not-rose. Since Rose is dominant you will see rose.

If one parent has one rose gene and one "single" gene and the other parent has one pea comb and one "single" gene then you can get chicks that are single, rose, pea, or walnut. Walnut is a combination of rose and pea. To make it more confusing there is not a "single combed" gene. Single is the default if you don't have a rose or pea comb gene.

Like NatJ said, either a fascinating puzzle or a confusing mess. It is a science. You can get a doctorate degree in this type of stuff at some universities.

 

[mwturn99]

There is also a chicken genetics calculator, where you can change individual genes in dropdown boxes and see the image of the chicken change accordingly. It can also calculate the offspring from any particular set of parents. The creator seems to keep updating it with more genes and more
http://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html
http://kippenjungle.nl/breeds/crossbreeds.html

There are also several people on this site who know quite a bit about chicken genetics.
It usually works best to post genetics questions in this section of the forum:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/exhibition-genetics-breeding-to-the-sop.16188/
(Exhibition, Genetics, Breeding to the SOP)

How do I use the calculator where I can select the breed? It's very complex

 

[NatJ]

How do I use the calculator where I can select the breed? It's very complex

http://kippenjungle.nl/breeds/crossbreeds.html
This one?

(I'm accessing it from a desktop computer. If you are using a cell phone or other device you might see it differently.)

At the very top of the page, there are two dropdown menus, one for roosters and one for hens. You can select a breed for each, then click the text that says "put in calculator."

You can also change specific genes for the rooster and the hen, after you put in a breed or instead of putting in a breed.

There are a bunch of tabs on the page.
The leftmost tab (seems to be the default) is "parents"
That's the two chickens you are going to cross to get chicks.

The tabs "browse M" and "browse F" let you look at images of male or female chickens. There are a few dropdown boxes that change the selection of images, basically choosing a few specific genes that have large effects on the apearance. Click a chicken image to use it in the calculator (on the "parents" page.)

Several tabs have different ways of viewing the offspring from the cross (various lists, with and without images.)

The tab "gene info" has information about the different genes, what their abbreviations are, and what they do.

The tabs "Recall M" and "F" let you choose a chicken you previously used in the calculator, to use it as the parent in another cross (rather than having to re-select or re-enter the original information.)

I mostly use the "parents" tab, and change genes to see how those change the appearance of the chicken. For each gene, one form is marked with + in the list. That's the wildtype form, found in the wild ancestors of chickens. It's also the default setting for each gene, when you first open the page.

Some specific examples of how changing genes will change the chickens:

B (Barring) makes white bars across the chicken.

Bl (Blue) turns all black into blue.

S (Silver) turns all gold into white.

Some of the other genes change how black and gold are distributed on the chicken, and some of those work together in complex ways. The example genes I listed are among the easier ones to understand.

 

[RememberTheWay]

Hello!

Hybrid chickens fascinate me especially how certain crosses make sex links and such. I would like to learn more! Is there a rhyme or reason to knowing what a cross will create? Or is it all trial and error? I would like to incubate eggs from my own flock just to have a fun group of barnyard mutts.

Our rooster is a French Black Copper Marans.

For other breeds of hens we have:
Gold Laced Wyandotte
Silver Laced Wyandotte
Blue Laced Wyandotte
A blue egg laying Americauna
A green egg laying Americauna
Rhode Island Red
Black Jersey Giant
Silver Olive Egger

Has anyone done any of these crosses before?

I would like good temperaments, efficient layere, dual purpose, pretty eggs are a bonus point, flashy colored birds are a huge bonus point.

I was reading Marans maybe don't have the best temperament so maybe he isn't the best rooster to have (?) We actually got him by accident in a group of pullets. Previous roosters we have had are a Gold Laced Wyandotte and later a Barred Rock. Both of those became aggressive to us and our children at 2-3 years of age.

Curious where you read that marans don't have good temperment