breeding chickens

[farmerjon1988]

hi everyone

i was just wondering if anyone cud tell me what i have to breed to make a bluebelle?

cheers

 

[Blue]

rhode island red & a Maran.

 

[Blue]

by the way, Bluebelle is a trade name of the Meadowsweet company so you couldnt call yours that!
like the Black rock breed...

 

[farmerjon1988]

ok cool cheers for that

would it work if i crossed a maran with a rhode island light sussex cross?

 

[foxy]

By crossing hybrids, you will get "all sorts" basically, that won't neccessarily reflect the parent breeds, due to the number of variables in the genetic make up of hybrids. The parent flock (terminal flock) will have been carefully developed by the commercial companies over a number of years.

The gene for a "blue" feathered bird is also an unstable gene - which means you are likely to produce different variations from the same gene - blue X blue =black,blue,spash probabiltiy =25%
If you do go down the route of crossing breeds you will get some lovely colours and likely good vigour and probably reasonable egg-laying capabilties.

One consideration would be the cockerels as no one is likely to want them so you would need to be prepared to despatch yourself.