[Mays]

So far my little adventure into chooks has got me thus far: I bought two hens last year, one is a Bluebell Hybrid type who lays me one small white egg most days (reliably) and a Cream Legbar type who lays me a blue egg (not so reliably) if/when she is not sat around brooding So, because I am nice like that I gave the CL 6 eggs to hatch the upshot of that was she raised me one stunningRIR Cockerel  .

So I am now trying to decide where to go from here Should I buy the RIR some wives? to give me sellable offspring (I like that idea) so if I choose to do this what breed of hens should I buy? The ideas I had so far was pure bred RIR, or Cuckoo Marams (to get my the Blubell Hybrid) or Light Sussex or cream legbar. What are your thoughts?

My aims are: A, I keep hens for eggs for the house. B, I like the idea of having chooks to sell

[Hopewell]

I think a cross between RIR and Cuckoo Marans will not produce Bluebells but probably more like a Black Rock.  The blue colour in chickens is produced by crossing genetically white chickens to genetically black and the proposed cross doesn't have any white component. I know Bluebells are advertised as being a hybrid of those 2 breeds but I guess that a white Marans was used rather than a cuckoo. Although Marans generally lay a nice dark brown egg they don't lay as many as some breeds. Also a true hybrid that has the production we expect of them is produced from selected in-bred lines and not from simply any representative of the breeds concerned.

I think the pure breeds are more likely to sell and there are still some lines of RIR with good production characteristics so they could give both eggs and chooks to sell, all in one breed.

Another option would be to purchase hybrids to produce your own eggs and then keep whatever breed you like the look of to produce chooks to sell.

Some of this depends on how many eggs you want, how much room you have to keep them but ultimately most of us keep the breeds we do because we like them. I can think of no other reason why we still have Scots Dumpies after 15 years!

[goosepimple]

This isn't going to help you make a decision but is worth keeping in mind - we inherited a pure RIR cockerel who had a huge brood of different hybrid females - all the offspring (and there were many) were totally gorgeous - most lovely looking set of various browny red rich coloured females, really lovely and healthy, really hardy hens.  People would comment all the time on how lovely they were.  He lived until he was 7 and was quite magestic (we called him Henry VIII).  Don't think you could go far wrong mating your cockerel with any type of hen.  What may be worth investigating (or someone out there may know) is that some crosses of cockerels / hens produce autosexed offspring (you can immediately tell at hatching stage how many are cockerels by their colour difference from the hens).  That's always worth knowing as early as possible!

[Hopewell]

What may be worth investigating (or someone out there may know) is that some crosses of cockerels / hens produce autosexed offspring (you can immediately tell at hatching stage how many are cockerels by their colour difference from the hens).  That's always worth knowing as early as possible!

RIR (male) x barred Pymouth Rock (or similar) will produce barred males and solid coloured females. (Could use other non-barred males and not just RIR)

PIR (male) x Light Sussex (or other breed with silver gene) will produce red/buff females and white males. (Using the Light Sussex will actually give some black feathers in both sexes.

Obviously knowing the sex of the hatch is only really useful if you rear them separately or are prepared to cull the unwanted. Having done these crosses once you cant cross them again and expect to know the sex of the next generation.

[Mays]

thank you for the replies, I feel I am tapping into a wealth of knowledge!

I have plenty space, all my hens can be free range during the day & I have plenty indoor space for them at night.

I like the idea of sexing them as chicks, as I can then keep my numbers of males down, however I find the RIRxLS rather uninspiring.

I'd like lots of different eggs, different sizes/colours, I like brown/chocolate/blue solid colours and I really like the look of the Buff Brahma - well the photos I found on the web of them I liked   http://static.mypetchicken.com/images/chickenPix/large/Studio_BuffBrhmaHen_1086_L.jpg

[little blue]

however I find the RIRxLS rather uninspiring.

I'd like lots of different eggs, different sizes/colours

you will get a variety of egg sizes and clours from this cross: pinkish, brownish, creamish.
One of ours laid her first egg yesterday - a double yolker!  now surely that's inspiring! 

[Mays]

however I find the RIRxLS rather uninspiring.

I'd like lots of different eggs, different sizes/colours

you will get a variety of egg sizes and clours from this cross: pinkish, brownish, creamish.
One of ours laid her first egg yesterday - a double yolker!  now surely that's inspiring! 

 

[cluckingnuts]

Going off at a tangent here. Hopewell said blue is created from black x white, this is only correct if the white is actually 'splash' ie double dose of blue which is a diluter of black.
Dominant white (I) + recessive white (c/c) are different genes.

[Hopewell]

Going off at a tangent here. Hopewell said blue is created from black x white, this is only correct if the white is actually 'splash' ie double dose of blue which is a diluter of black.
Dominant white (I) + recessive white (c/c) are different genes.

Sorry if I misled, you are right there are two different white genes, and only recessive white will produce blue. It isn't always possible to tell which white gene you have until you do the crosses.

[jaykay]

See my four breeds in my signature. I chose these specifically to give me pretty, different coloured hens which are rare enough for people to want the 'spares', the cockerels of at least three (CLB least) are big enough to eat and I get very dark brown, light brown, cream and blue eggs   None of them lay as well as hybrids - but that's the compromise for eating size.

PS LF = large fowl not bantams, SLW = silver laced Wyandottes and i have blue-laced too 

[cluckingnuts]

Going off at a tangent here. Hopewell said blue is created from black x white, this is only correct if the white is actually 'splash' ie double dose of blue which is a diluter of black.
Dominant white (I) + recessive white (c/c) are different genes.

Sorry if I misled, you are right there are two different white genes, and only recessive white will produce blue. It isn't always possible to tell which white gene you have until you do the crosses.

It's Bl/Bl that creates white splash, Bl/bl+ makes blue. Recessive white is c/c and does not produce blue, though it can mask Bl/Bl & Bl/bl+.

[jaykay]

That's right 

For those not used to genetic symbols, two 'splash' genes to make splash (not quite white, looks like been playing in wood ash pile ), two black genes to make black, one of each to make blue (effectively grey) in Marans and the same works for the lacing on laced Wyandottes.

It's called shared or co-dominance. Usually one gene (the dominant one) masks the other one (called the recessive one) but in this case, they share and produce something in the middle 

[goosepimple]

Good grief! you all sound like mad scientists!  My eyes are crossed reading all this (now is that RIR crossed eyes or LS crossed)...

[jaykay]

Oh, for real eye- crossing stuff read any chicken colour genetics book - it fries my brain within minutes!

[goosepimple]

  Now that must have been someone's Phd. Can't believe someone would have the time or the inclination otherwise