Single crossing between White Leghorn and Australorp

Abstract

Egg production and related data are presented for 1520 pullets resulting from nine generations of single crossing between White Leghorns and Australorps. Both types of reciprocal crosses were consistently superior to the better of the parental breeds (White Leghorn) in hatchability, chick viability, and egg production. This superiority became still more apparent when pure and crossbred half-sisters were compared. Crossbreeding was not effective in improving the viability of adult birds or the body weight, the latter remaining intermediate between that of the two pure breeds. The number of days required to reach sexual maturity was decreased as a result of crossbreeding. The crossbreds showed less variation in egg production and included in their sample a much smaller percentage of extremely low-producing pullets. A comparison between the two types of crossbreds shoved differences in individual years, but when viewed over the whole period of the experiment the only consistent differences were the superior hatchability and higher fertility, under artificial insemination conditions, when the White Leghorn served as the dam. There were no significant differences in production characters between the two types of crossbreds when housed on deep litter.