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Which
Chicken?
We take a look at the different types of hens available for the backyard. This month we look at the LBJ, or Little Brown Jobbie- that hybrid hen found almost everywhere from intensive poultry houses to pampered pullets in the garden.
This series looks at which hens are the best ones for the garden poultry keeper, a little of how to care for them and how to buy them.
Mostly, these days at least, when someone thinks of a hen it is most likely to be one of these, a little brown hen clucking her way around the garden and laying an egg every day. This is the common hybrid hen that is great for first time poultry keepers.
What is a hybrid?
A hybrid hen is formed when two different breeds are used to create an animal that is a mixture of them both. Hopefully with some of the good characteristics of both parents.
So a hen, such as the Rhode Island Red, with good egg laying characteristics and a Maran, with good quality eggs, and brown shells, might well produce a good egg laying bird.
It was in the 1950’ s when hybrid hens were first produced in large numbers to meet the demand for a robust hen which laid well, in sufficient numbers to feel a hungry nation, and could also, at a pinch, be used for meat.
Hybrid hens were so successful they soon became the mainstay of the caged hen industry.
On the whole, hybrid hens are sterile, and since you don’ t need a cockerel to initiate egg laying, it us unusual to find hybrid males.
Through the 1960’ s, the Warren became the most popular hybrid hen, but with the explosion of poultry keeping in small flocks in homes everywhere, a number of traits have been brought into newer hybrids.
Broodiness has long been something poultry keepers have wanted to avoid, and bullying, which can be somewhat distressing in small flocks has been partially reduced by breeding with more docile hens.