sexlinks breeders... specifically BO roo to BR hens

[goodolsurvival1]

ive been reading on the forum about crossing bo roo to br hens... right now we have all BO (2 roos and 6 hens) , 3 of which we hatched ourselves (well a hen did which gave us 2 roos and our 6th hen)

anyways we are wanting to be able to sex chicks easier lol... and this seems like a good meet in the middle by us getting some BR hens and letting our BO roo with them.

We want to be able to sell chicks and also raise meat birds (the extra roos), along with more layers for us, thats why was researching this.

but I have a few questions still (i may have missed the answers from my reading in the forums)

1) am i correct with the cross the females will be black bodied and the males will be more of a silver?

2) what color eggs would they lay? (only curious to see if they would be able to be told the difference from the bo hen eggs)

3) now if a bo roo breeds with a bo/br hen and we would let those eggs hatch do they keep the sexlink trait or does that get bred out?


I'm just doing my due diligence before we get some br pullet chicks... as i find that the 3 chicks that we left a hen hatch and raise are better tempered and more people liking (as in likes getting petted our hen precious and our 1 roo moonie likes to get petted like cats and come to you for it... roadrunner the other roo is fine once he realizes you're just going to pick him up before that hes afraid of his own shadow and you have to kind of run him down to get him) then hatchery chicks... thats just our experience so we are wanting to get our flock correct and by correct i mean by the breeds we want (which would be hatchery first) and i prefer the buff ops and then 1 other breed (trying to stay away from RIR cuz of bad experiences as a kid lol) hens to where we can have bo roos and breed them with the diff bred to get sexlinks and bos to get bos (buff orps lol the abbreviation made me laugh sorry) we want to carry on the friendlier off spring (i know we will still get some bad birds that want to be different lol) to keep our flock going when we need to add to or expand or replace.

so just want to make sure that i have as much info as i can just like i did before getting our bo flock

 

[Egghead_Jr]

The sex link your going for here is keyed on the barring gene. What you need to know about this is female cuckoo and barred birds only carry one copy of that gene. Males carry two. That one copy of barring is linked by sex. She only gives it to male offspring. With any non barred/cuckoo male over a barred/cuckoo hen the chicks are black sex link. At hatch all birds with white dot on head are male. The females will grow out black bird with buff leakage around neck and chest. Your using a buff sire so random buff feathers in those areas. If a red sire then red leakage around neck and breast.

Sex link crosses are a one off. The female chicks wont carry a barring gene so no longer will make for sexable chicks. The males of that cross will have a barring gene so no longer can be used for that cross either. You can always just hatch eggs from barred hens and non barred sire.

 

[goodolsurvival1]

The sex link your going for here is keyed on the barring gene. What you need to know about this is female cuckoo and barred birds only carry one copy of that gene. Males carry two. That one copy of barring is linked by sex. She only gives it to male offspring. With any non barred/cuckoo male over a barred/cuckoo hen the chicks are black sex link. At hatch all birds with white dot on head are male. The females will grow out black bird with buff leakage around neck and chest. Your using a buff sire so random buff feathers in those areas. If a red sire then red leakage around neck and breast. 

Sex link crosses are a one off. The female chicks wont carry a barring gene so no longer will make for sexable chicks. The males of that cross will have a barring gene so no longer can be used for that cross either. You can always just hatch eggs from barred hens and non barred sire. 

That makes sense and figured we would have to hatch the br eggs... Curious as you said the sexlink roo keeps the barred gene so does that mean if breed with br hens then it would make more brs? Only curious if we do get some br chicks and let them cross but want to add to the br line if that is possible. As im assuming if so then the barred gene is there and can become sexlinks if put and bred with br roo.

My only question is are br eggs bigger and or browner then bo eggs?

Right now our bo eggs are about palm size and more of a light brown then anything

 

[Egghead_Jr]

The eggs are about the same size. Orpington eggs are a bit bigger. Pymouth Rock eggs are on the low side of Large. Orpington Eggs are on the heavy side of Large. Not a big difference at all. Color is same, pale brown. The Plymouth Rock was foundation breed when England made their National "utility" breed of Orpington.

The male sex link will have one barring gene. Male barred/cuckoo have two. If you breed it back to it's brooder mates you'll result in half the chicks have one copy of barred gene. It will be random males and females. Of those females that have a barred gene you can use them in future cross for sex links if the male used over them is not barred. You'll never get back to a Barred Plymouth Rock in these breedings. You can hop scotch along to get sex links but only if a barred female and non barred male. You'll end up with multi colored mutts but will have birds with barring though will be incomplete barring. The problem with trying to continue sex links in this way is eventually you'll have some buff barred chicks. It will be very difficult to sex via a white spot on head with a virtually white/pale yellow chick. It makes the sure fire sexing at hatch of sex links not a 100% in that you may not see the white spot on a light chick.