What is a hybrid chicken?

The hybrid chicken (meat hybrids & laying hybrids) was invented in the 1960s in the USA. It involves the complicated mating of different high-performance breeds and their inbred lines by means of artificial insemination. This results in mega breeds that either lay eggs or are trimmed for meat production. A similar upheaval has taken place in agricultural crops. Profit maximization at any price. Everyone knows F1 hybrids from seed packets in the supermarket.

Hybrid chickens are not infertile! If you breed your own offspring with a hybrid cock and a hybrid hen, they will not have the characteristics of their parents, just as with plants, where the passing on of the characteristics of the “mother plant” to the next generation is known as a seed.

The patents and rights for animals and plants are held by large companies that keep the exact production process secret. As a result, farmers have become dependent on large corporations.

Due to the one-sided specialization in egg production in laying hybrids, male chicks are worthless. They are not suitable for fattening and are therefore not used in industrial egg production. Male chicks from laying hybrids are therefore usually killed on the day they hatch. The adult animals are also very emaciated by the enormously energy-sapping high egg production and therefore do not live as long as their less highly bred ancestors.

By buying and keeping laying hybrids, you as a private individual would be supporting this approach. We therefore advise you to buy old chicken breeds.