"The OP is breeding a Barred Rock Rooster to a Buff Rock Hen so all offspring would be Barred,
If the OP took a Barred Rooster from there first cross and bred it to a Barred Hen then the offspring should be all head spot sex-able as with most all Sex-linked barred chickens.
Chris"
The reason Barred Plymouth Rock chickens are sex-able at birth is because males have two copies of the barring gene and females only have one, due to the fact barring is sex-linked. Remember, while XY=Male in humans and XX= Female, in poultry it is ZW for females and ZZ for males. So, Barred Rock hens only have one copy of the barring gene. You can sex Barred rocks at hatch because males have two copies of the barring gene, making them lighter overall than their female hatchmates.
Now, the Barred rock rooster in the original cross gives a barring gene to all offspring, but the Buff Hen has NO barring genes. Thus the male, barred offspring only carry one barred gene. Crossing the single-barred male to a barred female would not necessarily give you sex-linked offspring as the barring would go over a Punnet square like this:
You might not be able to tell a single-copy barred male from a barred female (which normally only has one barring gene) at hatch. You'd have to wait for secondary sex characteristics. Since I've never done a live test of this, I don't know if the single-copy barred males and single-copy barred females would both have head spots or not. Edited to include this sentence: The reason that the typical black sex-link (Rhode Island Red male x Barred Rock female) works is because the females are solid black at hatch and the males have the head spot due to the presence of a single copy of the barring gene.
If the OP took a Barred Rooster from there first cross and bred it to a Barred Hen then the offspring should be all head spot sex-able as with most all Sex-linked barred chickens.
Chris"
The reason Barred Plymouth Rock chickens are sex-able at birth is because males have two copies of the barring gene and females only have one, due to the fact barring is sex-linked. Remember, while XY=Male in humans and XX= Female, in poultry it is ZW for females and ZZ for males. So, Barred Rock hens only have one copy of the barring gene. You can sex Barred rocks at hatch because males have two copies of the barring gene, making them lighter overall than their female hatchmates.
Now, the Barred rock rooster in the original cross gives a barring gene to all offspring, but the Buff Hen has NO barring genes. Thus the male, barred offspring only carry one barred gene. Crossing the single-barred male to a barred female would not necessarily give you sex-linked offspring as the barring would go over a Punnet square like this:
You might not be able to tell a single-copy barred male from a barred female (which normally only has one barring gene) at hatch. You'd have to wait for secondary sex characteristics. Since I've never done a live test of this, I don't know if the single-copy barred males and single-copy barred females would both have head spots or not. Edited to include this sentence: The reason that the typical black sex-link (Rhode Island Red male x Barred Rock female) works is because the females are solid black at hatch and the males have the head spot due to the presence of a single copy of the barring gene.
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