my girls

Gareth,
You asked what is a hybrid?  It is nothing more than a cross-breed.
 
Rhode Island Red and Light Sussex are two dual purpose birds.  The hens lay approx 200 eggs per year and the cockerels would be very meaty.  (The hens, too, if you want a chicken stew at the end of their laying life.)

I have a mixture of hybrids, which are rather skinny birds, bred for egg laying mainly - about 300 per year.  My marans are both broody and sitting on pure Light Sussex and pure Maran eggs at mo, with about 12 days to go, if all goes well.

cathangirl

I have both hybrids and pure breeds. The only ones that I have any trouble with are my amberlinks which are aggressive to my new ones but they are the best layers and the tamest, they show no fear with regards to my dogs and have often ventured into the house and even made their way upstairs into the bathroom. If you get these after your others are well established then there should be no problem. My two are in the "pen" for bad behavoir at the moment for striping the back of one of my new girls - I know it was them as they had blood splatters on them. They will get their freedom when my beak clips that I have ordered come through. I have also rearranged the shed so that when they do go back in there they will have lost their places. I wouldn't part with them as they are absolutely brilliant characters and fantastic layers - every single day without fail, even whilst in jail  , by the way I do have six 3 week old bantams but don't know what sex they are yet - my cuckoo maran sat on these eggs for me.

I got these eggs off my local freecycle as my maran had gone broody, so have not owned bantams before, some of the chicks are getting furry feet and boots. My grandad used to have bantams and loved them. Mine will be just like smaller chickens they aren't fancy like some, some like silkies and frizzles have posh hair do's and feathers. Will try and get a couple of photos of them tomorrow now that they are 3 weeks old, there are tow yellow/golden, 3 browny black and one a mixture of the two colour. Very cute, I do want to keep two or three myself. Bantams make good mothers and the cockerels are supposed to be very prolific if you know what I mean 

One of mine said that to me and told me to try pets for life, so I went on another (I'm a member of 4). Yet a month later the same group that dissallowed my request placed an add for 3 chickens needing a new home, so I think it depends on which moderator reads your request. The woman I got them off said I could have some more any time I wanted without goung the freecycle route, but have decided to go with araucanas and marans now.

no don't say that cathangirl cause they are proper hens just smaller, better things come in little packages (says she who is only five feet tall - mind you what I lack in height I make up for in width  ). They do lay well Gareth so I have been told and the eggs I fetched were about the size of eggs that large fowl hens lay when just starting out.

non taken  , besides I'm in too good a mood to be mad with anybody, got five ickle baby blue copper marans hatched