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One of the universal chicken crosses intended for breeding by small farmers and in private backyards was bred in Hungary and, despite the sellers’ advertising, is still little known both in Ukraine and in Our Country. However, the cross is very similar to egg Red bro and Loman brown. Perhaps the chickens are just confused.
Foxy chick chickens, whose name literally means “fox-colored chicken” or “chanterelle chicken”, got their name not for a friendly relationship with a fox, but for the color of the feather. The true color of these hens is dark red, although slightly different from the most common brown egg crosses like Lohman Brown. The photo shows a cross foxy chick with a small amount of feathers of a different color.
After the cross was brought to Ukraine, these chickens received the additional names “Hungarian giant” and “red broiler”. The same names migrated to Our Country. In general, the cross is bred in few places, so you should be very careful when buying chickens of this breed or hatching eggs. For example, it is impossible to say with certainty whether foxy chickens or another “red” breed are captured in this photo.
Attempts by private traders to buy any thoroughbred bird have shown that the sale of chickens is often carried out by dealers who themselves do not understand well who they are selling. They just don’t care.
Therefore, if you want to start a real foxy chick, you need to look for a proven breeding farm, possibly according to the recommendations. It is not worth buying chickens on an ad from private hands, since foxy chick is a hybrid, the manufacturer traditionally keeps the parent breeds a secret, and purebred breeding of this cross by private owners is impossible.
They can sell at best a cross between red Orlington roosters or red Rhode Island. Chickens from foxy chick hens and these roosters are very similar to cross-country, but they are inferior to cross-country in terms of productive characteristics.
Foxy Chick. Pros and cons of this cross
Description and characteristics of the foxy chick chicken breed
Foxy chick are large chickens gaining up to 4 kg of weight with the right diet. Roosters can grow up to 6 kg. Foxy grow more slowly than broiler breeds, but their cultivation pays off in that chickens are suitable for both meat and eggs.
Foxy gain weight very well, although they are inferior to broilers in daily weight gain. At week 4, the average weight of chickens is 690 g, and at 50 days, chickens already weigh an average of 1,7 kg. Egg production in chickens of this breed is 300 eggs per year. The eggs are large, weighing 65 – 70 g. The color of the shell is light brown.
The standard specifies that foxy is a squat, broad-bodied chicken with a powerful body. The description of the breed is true, but only for adult birds. Chickens first grow in length and only then their body begins to be heard. Moreover, the young growth is so different from the description that the owners mistake it for some other breed.
The breed was bred specifically for private traders and local farmers, so the question of what to feed foxy is usually not worth it. Unlike broiler and egg breeds, which require specialized feed to obtain the result declared by the seller, foxy completely manage the same feed as ordinary domestic laying hens.
Growing broilers Cobb 500 and Foxy Chick. Comparison
And just like other chickens for private farmsteads, foxy needs greenery.
A serious advantage of the foxy chick cross is the 100% survival rate of hatched chicks. Of course, if you do not put a bucket of water directly on them. This foxy compares favorably with other breeds of chickens and chicken crosses. Especially from broilers, which have a high mortality among chickens.
Foxy is a rather absurd bird, starting fights even among themselves. When keeping a cross at home, it is impossible to leave more than one rooster in a flock. Even chickens are highly pugnacious. When kept with other breeds of chickens, foxy chicks simply slaughter “strangers”, taking advantage of the size and weight advantage.
foxy content
Cross is undemanding to the conditions of detention, but is poorly adapted to the cold. Of course, like all land birds, it does not like dampness and rain, therefore, for winter nights and inclement weather in autumn and spring, it needs shelter in the form of a barn. Chickens are afraid of drafts, so the barn should be without gaps.
With a crowded content of chickens indoors, they can get lice. As a prevention of infection with this parasite, chickens need to put a box of sand or ash. And the ash in this case will be better.
The winter litter should be deep enough so that the birds can “equip” a recess there for themselves, in which it will be warmer than in the barn. It is not necessary to insulate the barn if the temperature is not too low in winter. But, if possible, it is better to insulate the room.
This breed also needs perches, because, despite their considerable weight, the Hungarian giants fly well. This, by the way, must be taken into account when arranging open-air cages for walking. Perches are best done at a height of 40 – 80 cm.
Crossbreeding
The very concept of “cross” already excludes the possibility of breeding, since in the second generation there will be splitting into the original breeds. Moreover, since the inheritance of the genes of highly organized organisms is complex, the offspring will have an arbitrary mixture of the characteristics of the parent breeds. As a result, hybrids of the second generation will be significantly inferior in terms of their productive characteristics to the foxy chick cross.
Incubation and hatching of chicks is not about the hens of any of the specially bred crosses. To get eggs, birds need to equip nest boxes, and chickens will have to be hatched in an incubator.
You can find statements that foxy are good hens. To understand that in these chickens the incubation instinct is completely absent or poorly developed, it is enough to check the productive characteristics. No hen that lays more than 200 eggs a year can be a good hen. She has no time for this, as she needs to have time to lay eggs and shed.
Thus, the chicken lays 20-30 eggs, incubates them for 21 days, then starts laying and incubating again, making 3-4 clutches per season, and “leaves” for molting, eventually laying no more than 150 eggs per year. The second option: the chicken lays 300 eggs per year, leaving 2 months for molting. But in this case, she does not incubate.
You can try to breed foxy with the help of an incubator if you plant not a single-breed, but an Orlington or Rhode Island with a rooster. In the first case, the offspring will retain their size, in the second, egg production.
Feeding young and adult birds
An adult bird is fed in the same way as chickens of other breeds. The young are usually fed with starter feed for broilers. Free access to fresh water is required, as dry feed can get stuck in the esophagus.
You can also give homemade foods high in protein, mixing boiled eggs, semolina, baker’s yeast and green grass. You can also add dairy products.
But keep in mind that all such homemade feeds quickly deteriorate. In addition, they are made by eye and it is impossible to determine the content of trace elements and vitamins in such feed.
In contrast to homemade food, industrial food is made according to the instructions and there are fewer surprises with them.
Reviews of rare owners of the Hungarian giant
Cross foxy chick is not common in Our Country and a little more in Ukraine. Nevertheless, there are those who have acquired these chickens.
Conclusion
Cross foxy chick – the type of hybrid is very convenient when kept in a personal compound. But due to the growing popularity and the small number of real Hungarian giants, it is easy to buy a chicken of unknown origin, so you should not buy this cross from private ads on websites.