Chickens - Raising Small Animals - page 108

the bird looks and sounds healthy and has the qualities you want to breed, take your bird
home.
Selective breeding and crossbreeding
Selective breeding entails mating two birds of the same breed that have the desired character-
istics you are looking for to produce a new bird that will hopefully have all of the qualities
you want. This can help establish a new bloodline for your flock. Crossbreeding is taking
two or more different breeds of birds and mating them together to achieve a new breed that
has the most promising characteristics you want. These are known as hybrid chicken breeds .
Creating the perfect bird is not always successful, as some genes may not be passed down to
the new chick on the first try or ever. However, if you keep breeding your chickens, you
should be able to get the outcome you desire.
Types of hybrid chickens:
1. Golden Comet = crossing a Leghorn and Rhode Island Red
2. Isa Brown = crossing Rhode Island Reds and Rhode Island Whites
3. Daisy Belles = crossing Rhode Island Reds and Sussex
4. Black Sex Link chickens = crossing Rhode Island Reds or New Hampshires and Barred
Rock hens
5. Cream Legbar = crossing a Brown Leghorn with a Barred Rock and Aracauna
You can create your own breed. Just like dogs and other domestic animals that are crossbred,
chickens can have many types of breeds in their bloodline if they are not purebred. These
breed mixtures can provide beautiful and distinct birds.
Here is an example if you want to breed blue-laced red Wyandottes:
If you mate:
Blue with blue, you will get: 50 percent blue, 25 percent black, and 25 percent splash
Blue with a splash, you will get 50 percent blue, 50 percent splash
Blue with black, you will get 50 percent blue, 50 percent black
Splash with black, you will get 100 percent blue
Black with black, you will get 100 percent black
Splash with splash, you will get 100 percent splash
Roosters