Breeding Sex Links - third generation - Page 6

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nsampsel 

Gorgeous birds. I wouldn't have ANY problem selling those...LOL

Next year, we intend to hatch out a ton of those red chicks.  Fingers crossed. LOL.   First, I need to evaluate their laying this fall and winter.  But..... how about those bright yellow legs, eh?   Gosh, I'm a such a sucker for that leg color on a red bird.

Some Thoughts.

The particular Red Sex Link, aka ISA Brown, the strain we have, is originally made by mating a red bird over a silver(white) bird.  Since the ISA is a patented, 4 way cross of grand parent birds and the make-up is a closely guarded secret, there is no way to know for certain the makeup of the grandparent birds with any accuracy.  Obviously, the white side has Leghorn, perhaps, and White Sussex, given the European origin of the bird. The red side no doubt has European Brown Leghorn, perhaps for heavy laying and a large dose of Rhode Island Red for the deeper red coloration and solid egg laying performance.

The ISA Brown won't breed true, of course, but through selection, we have gotten really nice, silver white birds.  Within a few more generations, we fully expect these silver-white birds to breed fairly true.  This bird is one of our favorites and has made this experiment worthwhile, in some respects.  The F3 and F4 white birds are larger than the original ISA Brown hen used by almost a pound.  This makes the white bird closer to being a DP fowl, but we're still not satisfied with the size.  We'd like to get another pound onto the pullets, frankly.  Why do this at all?   We simply want a re-producable, top notch laying bird for our flocks.  We don't see this as the cure for cancer or anything all that important, but if we can breed our own top of the line layers, from our own flock, using our own gene pool?  That'd be great.  

The egg laying has been fantastic, with this pullet having now completed her pullet year, having laid 286 eggs.  We are most pleased.  That her temperament is so very pleasing is an unexpected bonus.  Not the least bit flighty and much more a Sussex type personality and regal, business-like attitude.  

I'll update the project on the "red" side of the original ISA Brown in another post.

Going Back To Red

Earlier, I discussed how difficult it was to keep the white from covering up everything.  We did get a few "ginger" colored offspring in every generation, but surprisingly few and less with each passing generation.  Here's some of the original ISA Browns from 4 years ago.  As pullets and at POL.

Here is what we got in F2 and again in F3

The "ginger" coloring was becoming rare.  The white seemed to cover everything.  Being partial to red birds and realizing that not everyone wants a snow white bird, we finally gave in and decided to make the F4 by breaking out, and put a true, Rhode Island Red over the ginger pullets.  There was a lady liquidating her heritage fowl in a nearby locale, last spring, and my brother and his wife decided to purchase this cockerel.

He filled out nicely over the spring and he was doing his job well.  His tail is held a bit high, and back is perhaps a little short for my taste, but his black/mahogany color is right and shape is fair to midland.  It was a place to start.   

Because we only had a few of the "ginger" hens for breeding, our hatch wasn't large, only 18 chicks, of which a dozen were pullets.  Production reds.   We decided to leave 10 of the pullets to winter over in KY and will breed them next spring.  I brought three of littler pullets home to evaluate them, finish them, chart their winter laying and the like.  

Here they are.  They were hatched on or about June 20.  So, they're about 12 weeks now.

Their purpose is to be productive.  This is the 4th generation on the Red side.  I shall keep careful charts on their laying.  I fully expect laying to exceed 240 eggs the pullet year.  I'd be completely satisfied with that, and very pleased if it hit 250.  Since we will be breeding these red birds, in the future, for quality, they do not need to be 300 egg per pullet year birds, but it could happen, as it is hard to slow that ISA heritage down.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by cedavid2012 

Just found this thread and love the information!  I've always liked studying genetics, but am a total newbie to chickens.  Are there any new findings to report?

Nothing new until spring, when we mate/hatch again.   We'll be putting the red birds under a heritage Rhode Island Red rooster.   Here's the cockerel we brought here from KY a month ago.  He's filling out nicely.  Here is also a pix of one of the red pullets we'll put under him.

The White hens.  We can go a couple different ways here and we've still got time to decide.   I'll either put a White Rock over them, or take them back to Red, using the same Red cockerel above.

Since we've some orders for Black Sex Links (Black Stars), I'll probably put the utility Barred Rocks, shown above, under a RIR rooster as well.