Chickens For Beginners ?

[deerdogs 418]

Looking at getting 2-4 chickens for eggs. Got a decent sized grass garden for them to roam and looking at a coop for night time. Looking for something that will be quiet and good layers. Any ideas? Cheers folks

[darbo 4,776]

I have had chickens 20 odd years for egg laying easy to keep docile etc hybrids are hard to beat the ones i have kept are isa browns i get them from a place which supplies the battery farm industry for £6.00 for a approx 18 week old bird but there are plenty of hybrids to choose from.Although i have never kept them some people rate black rocks highly good luck.

 

 

Uses: Utility - eggs / meat or looks / egg shell colour.
Origin: Crosses between pure breeds or other hybrids
Eggs: Hybrid layers: usually more pure breeds.
Weight: Various - layers are usually light, fast maturing with good feed conversion and fast maturing. Table hybrids are heavy to provide a good carcass in a short time so are extremely fast to mature.
Useful to Know: Cheaper than pure breeds, available in quantity and usually tame easily. Normally come vaccinated. Ideal for beginners.
Photo: A Bovans Goldline hen, one of the many names given to hybrids from a certain producer.

The Hybrid Chicken is created by crossing 2 or more different pure breeds and sometimes crossing further after this. There are hybrid crosses that produce table birds and hybrid crosses that produce hens for laying. More recently, breeders have been producing hybrids that have attractive egg colours with supermarkets now selling coloured eggs such as those from the Cotswold Legbar or Burford Brown. For hobby poultry keepers there are often many different hybrid to choose from that are productive and ideal for beginners. Commercially, the hybrids' parents can no longer be considered as 'pure breed'. Specific strains have been created by crossing many generations, selecting for certain characteristics within the offspring such as egg numbers, feed conversion or a broad breast, fast maturity and body weight in the case of table hybrids. Hybrids do not breed true so when you need more of them, you have to go back to crossing the original stock again.

Benefits of Hybrid Chickens

There are a number of benefits of using hybrids instead of pure breeds. Since the blood lines are so different from the parents, the offspring are usually very fit and healthy. When certain breeds are crossed, sex linkage allows the sex of the chicks to be established at a day old by a difference in down colour which is useful when producing hens for laying since it reduces the rearing costs to the breeder and ultimately the price you pay. When crossing certain strains of birds, you can get 'Hybrid Vigor' where a chick is better than either of its parents. This is known as 'nicking'. For example, if the strains on the fathers and mothers side both lay 200 eggs per year, then the offspring might 'nick' and lay 220 per year. Some strains can also do the opposite though and lay 180 eggs per year so once the right strains have been established, breeders keep a closed flock of parent birds to ensure the quality of the offspring remains the same.

This is just one of the positive characteristics that is inherited from the parent strains and the reason why commercially, there are many different names given to the hybrids produced from a given hatchery or parent strains of birds. The "Black Rock" Hybrid for example is a registered name for a Rhode Island Red / Barred Plymouth Rock cross that comes from Crosslee Poultry Farm in Scotland. Every seller in the UK must buy their Black Rock chickens from this hatchery since the name is protected and refers to the hybrid that is produced from their specific strains. There are many other names for the same type of cross that are used by breeders but the type of hen you get may well perform differently.

Hybrid Hens for Beginners

Hybrids are ideal beginners birds, they are usually vaccinated (which is often un-economical for small quantities of pure breeds) and are generally quite tame and easy to handle. They are cheaper than pure breeds, you can expect to pay between £10 and £15 for a POL (Point of Lay) Hybrid, compared to £25 - £35 for a pure breed hen.

These are some popular Hybrid Layers:

• Bovans Goldline (Rhode Island Red / Light Sussex)
• Warren, Marans Cuivre (Rhode Island Red / Marans cross)
• Bovans Nera, Black Star, Nera, Rhode Rock (Rhode Island Red / Barred Plymouth Rock cross)
• Speckledy (Marans / Rhode Island Red)

Do you know of more? Please let us know in the comments box at the end of this page.

Breeding Hints

Hybrids do not breed true. If you cross a hybrid chicken with another breed or cross, you will not get the same bird with the same performance as the original hybrid, however 'like breeds like' and if you are careful with your choice of cross, you can still get some reasonably well performing birds.

Common Hybrids:

• Black Rock Chickens
• Bovans Goldline Chickens
• Table Hybrids

Discussion

• Please leave us a comment below if you can provide further information or would like to write an article on hybrid chickens.

Edited February 7, 2015 by darbo

[vfr400boy 3,421]

I too keep hybrid brown hens that I get off a bloke that suplies battey farms very quite and easy to keep I got 2 black rocks and found them very flitey and jumpy ( maybe I just got a bad pair ) they layed well tho

[mattybugeye 884]

I keep pekins great little birds no trouble had them from chicks not laying yet but the ones I had few years ago were good layers

[MoChara 1,632]

Hmm, I've that many breeds (about 5 breeds mixes) I find Sussex a good bird, Rhode Island reds are ok but can be cheeky fecks.

 

 

I incubated a real farmyard special last year, the most normal was of Sussex x RIR, weirdest was seabright x suss. Hoping they'll be good layers this year. Brought my place up to over 20 birds though :/

[Blackbriar 8,569]

I got mine from my local animal rescue. Ex-battery hens - they laid the next day and right through every winter I had them. 6 for a 20 quid donation !

 

(I also had a dozen quails. Don't take up much space and much hardier than you'd think ! Sold their eggs for £2 a dozen, which paid for the feed for all the hens and ducks as well !)

Edited February 9, 2015 by Blackbriar

[MoChara 1,632]

I got mine from my local animal rescue. Ex-battery hens - they laid the next day and right through every winter I had them. 6 for a 20 quid donation !

(I also had a dozen quails. Don't take up much space and much hardier than you'd think ! Sold their eggs for £2 a dozen, which paid for the feed for all the hens and ducks as well !)

(sorry bit off topic) what ducks you got? I bought 3 magpie ducks an a drake last year, I swear best ducks I've ever owned. Laying from end December everyday, and good to look at. Big buggers lol

[Blackbriar 8,569]

 

I got mine from my local animal rescue. Ex-battery hens - they laid the next day and right through every winter I had them. 6 for a 20 quid donation !

(I also had a dozen quails. Don't take up much space and much hardier than you'd think ! Sold their eggs for £2 a dozen, which paid for the feed for all the hens and ducks as well !)

(sorry bit off topic) what ducks you got? I bought 3 magpie ducks an a drake last year, I swear best ducks I've ever owned. Laying from end December everyday, and good to look at. Big buggers lol

They've all gone,now that we've moved back to 'civilisation', but I had Khaki Campbells, including a drake to keep them in order. Smashing birds - not very skittish,easy to handle and laid every day without fail.

[boots 7]

Git some new chickens about 16week old buttwo are not eating to well anybody tell me why

[dean34 3]

Me the same as soon as they started laying