Crossing different breed sizes?

[Nicos]

I was wondering if anyone has any knowledge/experience of this please?

thing is....not sure how this applies to chooks....

i used to breed pet rabbits and was very aware that it was preferable to have a similar sized or smaller male (ratherthan a larger one compared to the female ) to reduce the possibilities of any babies getting stuck during birth.
yep...I lost two does because of this and want to avoid this situation if it also applies to chooks developing inside their eggshells.

I have previously had 2bantie cockerels but now have a large Marans one.
i'm thinking of buying some pure breed banties and wondered if I decided to try and hatch any chicks from this cross if they would develop too big for the small sized shells and would die prior to hatching?

i'm not worried about this big lad treading the gals...he's a very gentle sole (I've already watched him with some of our larger banties) and has 8 other gals to 'bother'... plus they free range so can keep out of reach more often if they choose....

so-basically....is this a hatching waiting to fail miserably...?

[Scarlet]

I don't think so, I haven't got any experience of it though - mine was the other way around. I had a lovely silver Sussex bantam cockerel - he loved the big girls and would insist on getting in the coop with my light Sussex flock and would be prepared to be chased around the tree by my Sussex boy.

[Snadger]

I've always believed that the yolk was the same size in bantams and LF eggs.(Thats why I prefer bantie eggs becaue theirs less white) Its only the white's proportions that change. Consequently any hatchling will start off the same size ie all egg yellows(chicks) the same size? The growth rate once outside the egg will vary considerably though.

Dunno whether this is correct, but I've never had any bother crossing bantams with LF.