Super impressed with these golden sex links

[TNBielefelder]

I went to our county 4H poultry show and auction last night. Our county chose to let the 4H classes raise golden sex links this year. The state vet was there and all birds received a clean bill of health and the State Judge was there and judged each group of 6 pullets per 4H member. Out of the top 10 groups 8 groups were already laying at 5 months of age. They also judged the eggs and I was super impressed with size and color. So impressed when the auction got under way I bought the grand champion group plus 4 more the same girl raised in that flock for a total of 10. I got these young pullets home last night put out some fresh water handled them a little and put them in the coop/run for the night. I had an early morning errand to run came back home gave them some laying mash and went to work. When I got home 7 out of the 10 pullets had already laid eggs. I thought that was real good considering the stress of being bathed for the show, put in a cramped wire viewing cage for hours, handled by the judge including vent examine, and blood test by vet, handled again and moved to a new location. This picture absolutely do not do these girls justice they are beautiful!! I call them the golden girls. Are all these sex links this amazing?? These are my first.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I went to our county 4H poultry show and auction last night. Our county chose to let the 4H classes raise golden sex links this year. The state vet was there and all birds received a clean bill of health and the State Judge was there and judged each group of 6 pullets per 4H member. Out of the top 10 groups 8 groups were already laying at 5 months of age. They also judged the eggs and I was super impressed with size and color. So impressed when the auction got under way I bought the grand champion group plus 4 more the same girl raised in that flock for a total of 10. I got these young pullets home last night put out some fresh water handled them a little and put them in the coop/run for the night. I had an early morning errand to run came back home gave them some laying mash and went to work. When I got home 7 out of the 10 pullets had already laid eggs. I thought that was real good considering the stress of being bathed for the show, put in a cramped wire viewing cage for hours, handled by the judge including vent examine, and blood test by vet, handled again and moved to a new location. This picture absolutely do not do these girls justice they are beautiful!! I call them the golden girls. Are all these sex links this amazing?? These are my first.

Sex links are very popular choices - primarily due to being sex links which takes all the guess work out of gender ID from day #1,but also (depending on the parent breeds used, as there are MANY crosses that can be used) for their production. Some of the proprietary lines were developed and are used specifically for the commercial laying houses that produce brown eggs for retail/wholesale.

 

[TNBielefelder]

If these girls were bred by an auto sexing rooster such as a Bielefelder I wonder if the chicks would keep the auto sexing gene? I do not need to hatch any more chicks right now just curious.

 

[Blooie]

I know I was happy enough with my first Sex Links that I added more to this spring's chick order. I have found them to be curious, friendly, a little chattery but not obnoxious, and can always count on them for nice sized brown eggs regularly. They even handled our cold winter here with no problem at all. I will always have them in my flock, no matter what else I have. Besides, no hen out in the coop sings the egg song as loudly and as beautifully as our Ida!

 

[TNBielefelder]

Blooie what color variation of the sex links do you have? And tell Ida to keep on singing I bet it wonderful!!

 

[Blooie]

The ones I have are called Red Sex Links. The hatchery also calls them Golden Comets. So many names! But I'm learning that the names are often proprietary to the particular hatchery, and can also vary depending on the parentage. (I think I have that right.) They look just like your new girls.


Ida, with the more golden neck, and Beatrice. They were just starting to lay regularly at this point so I guess they were about 5 months old. Our first egg came from Ida when she was a few days past 17 weeks old.

Edited to add: I need to go out and get some shots of the others. They have more white around their necks than Ida and Beatrice.

 

[TNBielefelder]

Awesome! I let them out this evening and they can flat mow some grass down. They had ate a feeder of laying mash already but when I let them forage you would have thought they hadn't eaten in weeks. WOW!! My Bielefelder hens just stood there speechless. lol

 

[junebuggena]

If these girls were bred by an auto sexing rooster such as a Bielefelder I wonder if the chicks would keep the auto sexing gene? I do not need to hatch any more chicks right now just curious.

They aren't auto sexing. They are sexlinked. Two very different things. Auto sexing is done within lines of a pure breed to sex males from females early on. Sexlinks are a cross breed. They usually involve a Production Red or Rhode Island Red rooster and a silver-base color hen. The silver gene is both dominant and sex linked. A silver hen can only pass her dominant silver gene to her male offspring. I'm surprised they allowed hybrids for 4H showing. They aren't a 'breed.' And you can't make more red/gold/brown sexlinks by breeding a sexlink rooster to a sexlink hen.
Autosexing is a trait that certain breeds have, but breeding must be done carefully to ensure that each generation possess the autosexing qualities.

 

[TNBielefelder]

They aren't auto sexing. They are sexlinked. Two very different things. Auto sexing is done within lines of a pure breed to sex males from females early on. Sexlinks are a cross breed. They usually involve a Production Red or Rhode Island Red rooster and a silver-base color hen. The silver gene is both dominant and sex linked. A silver hen can only pass her dominant silver gene to her male offspring. I'm surprised they allowed hybrids for 4H showing. They aren't a 'breed.' And you can't make more red/gold/brown sexlinks by breeding a sexlink rooster to a sexlink hen.
Autosexing is a trait that certain breeds have, but breeding must be done carefully to ensure that each generation possess the autosexing qualities.

Yes I was aware that the sex links can't reproduce other sex links and I find all the gene science very amazing. Thanks for the information these are my first sex links. This is the second year in a roll that the 4H club has allowed sex links chicks to be raised. Last year it was black sex links. They do it so they know that all students are getting pullets and they like to use early laying chickens so they can judge eggs as well.
Also I understand they are not an auto sexing breed what I was asking is if they were bred to an Auto sexing rooster like the Bielefelder would the chicks get the auto sexing gene from him?

 

[junebuggena]

No. Autosexing can be difficult to maintain, even within purebred lines. It takes a lot of careful selection to get a line to breed true, and it must be strictly maintained or it could be lost. You can't just breed any two Bielefelders and expect to get autosexing chicks, at least, not until you've done several hatches to make sure.
There would be absolutely no way to tell the male chicks from the female chicks if you bred the Bielefelder to the sexlinks. They would all likely be barred and red.