Auto sexing/sex link question cream legbar roo

[IdyllwildAcres]

So I have ordered my chicks for Spring and for the first time in 8 years of chicken keeping I decided to do some breeding. I like cream legbars and since they are auto sexing I figured I would start out with those.

My question is what other hens on my order would be auto sexing or sex linked? Do these breeds even make sense together?

Also I am planning to split them up into two setups, which should I for certain leave in the breeding pen and who should definitely not go in the breeding pen?

My goals are pretty eggs and being able to ID the boys at hatch

This is my order: from Meyers:


Buff Orpington Female 2

Light Brown Leghorn Female 2

Partridge Penedesenca Female 2

Mottled Houdan Female 2

Cream Legbar Female 2

Columbian Wyandotte Females 1

Black Jersey Giant Female 1

Delaware Female 1

Lisa Steele's Cookies and Cream Female 1

Cream Legbar Male 1


Thanks

 

[sybonbon]

The cream Legbar are the only autosexing breed.

 

[NatJ]

Also I am planning to split them up into two setups, which should I for certain leave in the breeding pen and who should definitely not go in the breeding pen?

My goals are pretty eggs and being able to ID the boys at hatch

This is my order: from Meyers:


Buff Orpington Female 2

Light Brown Leghorn Female 2

Partridge Penedesenca Female 2

Mottled Houdan Female 2

Cream Legbar Female 2

Columbian Wyandotte Females 1

Black Jersey Giant Female 1

Delaware Female 1

Lisa Steele's Cookies and Cream Female 1

Cream Legbar Male 1


Thanks

Breeding pen:
Cream Legbar rooster
Cream Legbar hens (autosexing chicks)
Columbian Wyandotte hen (sexlink chicks: silver sons/gold daughters)
Delaware hen (sexlink chicks: silver sons/gold daughters, all with white barring)

If you want to sex chicks at hatch, put all the other hens in the other pen.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

Breeding pen:
Cream Legbar rooster
Cream Legbar hens (autosexing chicks)
Columbian Wyandotte hen (sexlink chicks: silver sons/gold daughters)
Delaware hen (sexlink chicks: silver sons/gold daughters, all with white barring)

If you want to sex chicks at hatch, put all the other hens in the other pen.

Thanks!

So thats 5 of 15, maybe Ill put the brown leghorns in the breeding pen to even out the numbers some and just not incubate the white eggs.. If I did incubate them would they be green eggs/EE's?

Thanks again

The hard part will be separating the different breeds early on to get them in the right pens. Oh, and there will be a surprise one too, a meyers meal maker which could be anything.

Next year will be fun

 

[NatJ]

So thats 5 of 15, maybe Ill put the brown leghorns in the breeding pen to even out the numbers some and just not incubate the white eggs.. If I did incubate them would they be green eggs/EE's?

Cream Legbar father and Brown Leghorn mother should give Easter Eggers that lay blue eggs. Both male and female chicks from that cross will look like female Legbar chicks. The daughters of the Wyandotte and Delaware hens may also look the same. So you might have some trouble sorting out those chicks, unless you hatch the different egg colors at different times or keep them separated with baskets or bags while they hatch (and then legband the chicks or raise them in separate brooders).

The Penedesenca might lay dark enough brown eggs that you can recognize them. Her chicks will be colored like female Legbar chicks, and should lay green eggs, maybe dark enough green to be called "olive."

The Houdans and the Black Australorp should produce black chicks with white barring, and the Cookies & Cream hen probably will too. (There is a chance of some other colored chicks from the Cookies & Cream.) Black chicks would look different than your other chicks, so they will not affect your ability to sex the Legbars and the gold/silver sexlinks. The Houdans should lay white eggs (easy to recognize), but the Australorp eggs and the Cookies & Cream eggs may look the same as the other brown eggs. Any of these hens should produce daughters that lay blue or green eggs when the chicks' father is the Cream Legbar.

I think the Houdans would be my first choice to add to the breeding pen if you want to increase the numbers, because you should be able to recognize both the eggs (white) and the chicks (black).

I would definitely leave the Buff Orpington out of the breeding pen. You probably will not be able to recognize her eggs or her chicks, so they could mess up your ability to sex any chicks. So she is the one I would definitely put in the other pen.

The hard part will be separating the different breeds early on to get them in the right pens.

You can raise them all together until you are ready to collect eggs for hatching, then separate them. Since you will only have the one rooster, you only have to separate them in time to actually collect the eggs. If you had other roosters, you would need to separate them a month or so in advance, to avoid having chicks with the wrong father.

If you don't get around to separating them at all, you can still collect the blue eggs for hatching (Cream Legbar) and have auto-sexing chicks from them, and eat all the other colors of eggs.

Oh, and there will be a surprise one too, a meyers meal maker which could be anything.

Once you have that chick, and they've all grown enough feathers to tell who is who, post photos and someone can probably identify it. Once we know what it looks like, if it is a female, we can probably predict whether it can also produce sexlink chicks or not.

Next year will be fun

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

Thanks @NatJ you have been SO helpful. I am reading the 335 pages of comments in the Cream Legbar Hybrid Thread and my eyes are going crosseyed trying to understand most of it.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

So now that this is getting real I am looking at the current flock that is in the space that will become the breeding pen. I bought them as a hatchery choice assortment and there seams to be 1 white legbar, 2 splash marans 2 white cochins and I am not sure who the big brown one is.

Just looked up ther order these were spring of 2023, they had their first molt this fall and they are not laying right now. So maybe just keep the frost white legbar going into next fall for another true blue layer if I do not need to make more space sooner.

Hmmm

 

[NatJ]

So now that this is getting real I am looking at the current flock that is in the space that will become the breeding pen. I bought them as a hatchery choice assortment and there seams to be 1 white legbar, 2 splash marans 2 white cochins and I am not sure who the big brown one is.

Just looked up ther order these were spring of 2023, they had their first molt this fall and they are not laying right now. So maybe just keep the frost white legbar going into next fall for another true blue layer if I do not need to make more space sooner.

Hmmm




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The white Legbar might produce color-sexable chicks with your Cream Legbar male (sexing would be the same as Cream Legbar chicks).

I would not expect any of the other hens in this group to produce color-sexable chicks with your Cream Legbar male.

The big brown one looks partridge colored. Given the feathered feet and single comb, I'm guessing Partridge Cochin (standard size, not bantam).

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

Good news/bad news...

The good news in I am going to Portugal in April!

Bad news is I am going to have to cancel my chick order because I can't leave babies without constant care.

So plan B .... I have a friend with Lavender Orpingtons who has the quietest roo I have ever come across, I will get fertile eggs from him when I get back and hatch out some chicks. I also found someone who was selling cream legbar hatching eggs last year, I will reach out and see if they have any this spring so maybe.

Dang it