Can someone please tell me what they think these chicks are?

They are 5wks old by a RIR rooster and out of a supposedly a RIR hen. RIR rooster is only rooster they have and Most of the hens looked to be RIR but the "Mama" hen was lighter in color than the others with white in her wings. Also Roo or Pullet?

If mama was red with white, she was likely a Red Sex Link. These are hybrids so can produce a multitude of colors in their offspring. I'd say both chicks are good old fashioned crossbreeds. Too young to be sure, but both appear to be pullets.

Thanks. Many of the chicks look different. One of the others was cream with red blotches. Beautiful. Unfortunately stray cat got it.
So would that make these sex links as well? The light one is cream with reddish buff/head and hackles

No, sex links are a one generation deal. Even if you crossed a sex link with another sex link, the offspring would still be a mutt.

SuQMar said:

Ok gotcha.  So if my Barred Rock Rooster covered my Speckled Sussex Hen would offspring be sex links or does it have to be a specific cross?

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Not quite. It has to be the opposite - the hen must be the one carrying the sex linked gene, in this case Barring. You would need to use a Speckled Sussex cock over a Barred Rock hen; that cross would produce Black Sex Links (BSLs). It's less dependant on breed than it is on color; red roosters work best for sex linked crosses, though in the case of the black sex link (made with barring), nearly any color rooster can be used. Hens, though, must always be either barred (for a BSL) or silver (for a Red Sex Link). BSLs tend to be easier to make than RSLs. There are a few other sex linked genes, such as those affecting feather growth and leg color, but these are the common sex linked crosses made.

If the mutt brown chick does turn out to be female, it does have barring. Would I get a BSL with my Barred Rock Rooster. These question are for curiosity, education and fun sake. I have my chickens for egg and fun not for "breeding" per-say, but I'm a vet tech and worked for dog and horse breeders since I was 18 (Now 49), The curiosity of this calls to me. I appreciate the time and information you are providing me with.

SuQMar said:

If the mutt brown chick does turn out to be female, it does have barring. Would I get a BSL with my Barred Rock Rooster.  These question are for curiosity, education and fun sake.  I have my chickens for egg and fun not for "breeding" per-say, but I'm a vet tech and worked for dog and horse breeders since I was 18 (Now 49), The curiosity of this calls to me.  I appreciate the time and information you are providing me with. 

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The sort of Barring this chick shows is not the type of Barring I'm speaking of, so no BSL there. This type of barring is chick down barring - as the bird matures, her plumage will likely look something like this:



(Not my photo) This bird is an Easter Egger, with typical wild-type Partridge coloration - your chick should look similar to this when she's grown.

This, on the other hand, is sex-linked Barring (not my photos):



In a Barred Rock



In a Cuckoo Marans (for practical purposes, Cuckoo is near identical to Barred and is only different in that it is slightly darker than typical Barred. Genetically it behaves the same)



In a Dominique cockerel

There is also a non-sex linked form of Barring, known genetically as autosomal barring and often referred to in variety as Penciled. It's made up of a combination of some of the same genes that cause patterns like Spangling, Lacing, or Double-Lacing. It cannot be used to make any sort of sex links. Only typical, traditional Barring can.

Examples of autosomal barring/penciling:



Campine




Hamburgs

I'm always happy to talk genetics. It's a passion of mine and it's all self taught (I got out of high school early and so I didn't learn much from the system beyond the basics, but I discovered I truly enjoy this stuff so I picked up some books and started reading later on). I'm currently working my way through Genetics of the Fowl by F.B. Hutt, but I started out learning their genetics with this website and by playing around with this genetics calculator made by the same guy. If you have any interest in genetics and hobby breeding I highly recommend learning more about the subject - it's very fun once you get into it though it can be confusing at first. It took me about six months to grasp the concept of the E-locus pattern genes alone but now I can pretty much predict the basic outcome of most crosses without an issue and I've memorized how most of the common genes will function.

SuQMar said:

If the mutt brown chick does turn out to be female, it does have barring. Would I get a BSL with my Barred Rock Rooster. These question are for curiosity, education and fun sake. I have my chickens for egg and fun not for "breeding" per-say, but I'm a vet tech and worked for dog and horse breeders since I was 18 (Now 49), The curiosity of this calls to me. I appreciate the time and information you are providing me with.

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short answer----Nope. A barred rooster won't make sex linked offspring. The barred parent has to be the hen.

long answer--a pure bred barred male like your Rock has two copies of the barring gene. He passes one to each of his offspring, regardless of the offspring's gender. A pure bred barred female only had one copy of the barring gene, it's genetically impossible for her to carry two. That's why males are lighter overall and females are darker. So, he give a copy to each chick, while a barred hen only gives a copy to the male offspring. So, your barred rooster will have all barred offspring, no matter then hen. If you bred him to a white hen, you likely would not be able to see the barring on the offspring, but genetically it would be there. A barred hen under a non-barred rooster will give a barring gene to her male offspring, making the chicks sex-linked (where the sex is linked to the color).

and a big ol x2 to everything QM said

SuQMar said:

They are 5wks old by a RIR rooster and out of a supposedly a RIR hen. RIR rooster is only rooster they have and Most of the hens looked to be RIR but the "Mama" hen was lighter in color than the others with white in her wings. Also Roo or Pullet?

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Am I seeing colored legs? Can we get a better pic of the comb & wattle? You may need to wait another 2 - 3 wks to really be certain as to gender.