Can anyone identify these chickens for me breed and sex?

[psipher]

I bought six chicks marked as leghorn. 3 of them were definately white leghorns, but these three are completely different. This a first time post for me and my first chickens. As a result I'm not even sure if they are hens. My white leghorn roosters are tall, slim and awesome. One of the three unidentified chickens crows but nothing like my leghorns. Kind of an choke and crow combination. They are all about 5 months old. My leghorn hen is already laying but these three haven't produced. They have tried to mount the leghorn hen at different times (before I moved her). I don't know if this a domanent act or a matting act. If anyone has the patience to help a chicken noob, I'd appreciate it.

 

[annageckos]

They are roosters, and look like they could be red sex link roos.

 

[psipher]

Thanks. Awesome of you to respond so quickly. Thank you.

 

[Kelsie2290]

They are roosters, and look like they could be red sex link roos.

X 2

 

[SilkiesForEver]

Yes, red sex link roosters.

 

[psipher]

Would it be advisable to breed the red sex link roos with my white leghorn Hen. Or is that frowned upon. My goal is to maintain about six egg layers for my family and coworkers.

 

[SilkiesForEver]

Would it be advisable to breed the red sex link roos with my white leghorn Hen. Or is that frowned upon. My goal is to maintain about six egg layers for my family and coworkers.

I believe that would be perfectly fine. The offspring would be good egg layers.

 

[psipher]

Thank you. You guys/ladies are awesome. I'm glad this forum exists and there are people like you that donate your time to help people like me.

 

[Kelsie2290]

There's no reason you can't do that if you want to. You'll get good light brown egg layers, but they probably will not lay as well as the commercial white leghorns you have though. Exactly what you get depends on what breeds they used to produce the sex links.

 

[donrae]

I think you'd get good egg layers from that cross. And yes, those are all red sex link roosters. If you only have a few hens, you need to keep them separate from that many roosters or they'll overmate the hens, that's not a pretty picture.

But, breeding your own babies can be more complicated than you'd think. Your leghorn has had just about all the mothering instinct bred out of her in favor of egg production. Leghorns can go broody, it's just very rare. So, to raise your own you'd have to have another hen that was more likely to go broody, or use an incubator. Plus, you'd hatch out 50% roosters by the odds. Sometimes it's just easier to buy more chicks.