Over the last couple of weeks I've done some digging into the mystery that is the Ross Chicken, and I've started to find some results. I still don't know things like which breeds were involved in creation of the Ross strain, but I've found out some things that a semi-science geek like me would find fascinating.

It looks to me like Ross chickens were created by a company called Ross Breeders, which is a subsidiary of Aviagen. Yes, you guessed where they likely got their name - from Avian Genetics.

Aviagen/Ross has four types of chickens available to commercial breeders:

Ross Males are compatible with (excuse me, they're a complement for) the three strains of female. They're bred for both efficient meat production and, um, barnyard virility (I don't know - shades of Dr. Strangelove here).

Ross 308's are multi-purpose broilers designed to meet broad market requirements.

Ross 508's are designed for deboning and high yield of white meat.

Ross 708's are large birds for deboning and roasting - the objective here is high meat yield.

I've got to admit I find this whole thing of numbering the strains a little bit eerie - although it makes perfect sense. I've been seeing signs in corn fields for years that gave the strain number of what was growing there. I suppose I'm simply not used to seeing this done in the context of an animal.

Also, I don't know quite how this strain thing works when you start talking about one type of male and three strains of female. Are all males produced between a union of a Ross Male and an x08 female always a Ross male, or are they x08 Males? I'll have to check with my wife, the biology major.

Judging from the massive size of Mildred and especially Bob, I'd have to guess that they come from the 708 line of the family (unless, as I said, every male produced is simply a Ross Male). I base this on some of the breed specs given by Ross.

That's what I know so far. I registered with the Ross section of the Aviagen web site and found it quite useful - as I write this, I am printing out a Breeder Management Guide that I downloaded. If it yields any other clues, I'll report in.

And I'm still determined to find out what breeds were the ancestors of the Ross - no matter what their number is.