Barred Welsummer cross?

I thought it didn't make a difference which one was male or female. I would love to know how to make these red barred chickens.

Yeah- I thought that too. I thought that only made a difference in red sex-links.
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You will probably need to talk to tadkerson to get the specifics, but I know that when I (much younger when this happened) bred my Barred males to my red females, I got chicks that had red barring, some that had black barring with red flecks and some that had mixed barring. We culled all of them because it simply didn't work the way we wanted it to...after being "schooled" on sex-links by others...

But, I distinctly remember a male that had a similar coloration as we gave him away...I couldn't stand seeing a "pretty rooster" being eaten...LOL
 
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Very interesting! We need this on the Breeds, Genetics board and maybe we would get some more answers as to why this is.
 
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Yeah- I thought that too. I thought that only made a difference in red sex-links.
idunno.gif


Yes it does matter which is the male and which is the female in making sexlinks

solid (non-barred) roo over barred hens makes Black Sexlinks

gold gene roo over silver gene hens makes forms of Red Sexlinks

The red barred roo that I hatched was from a BR roo over a RIR hen, he was the only one that hatched in that particuar batch because the cross was actually accidental, but I have hatched some black Barred chicks from the same cross.

But I am pretty sure that breeding that roo back the RIR hens will give you more red barred offspring, some may not even have the black in them.
 
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Very interesting! We need this on the Breeds, Genetics board and maybe we would get some more answers as to why this is.

This is my take on it, I'm sure someone will correct me if I begin misleading.

Male barred rocks possess two "doses" of the barring gene. It's what makes them lighter in color than females. When a barred male is bred to a non-barred female, theoretically, all offspring should be barred. They should not be as barred as the male since the female did not possess a barred gene. Therefore, each chick is given a single barring-dose by the father.

Now, when the female is barred and the male is a solid color, it works almost in reverse. The female, being the sex-determinant, will give her single barring gene to the males, which possess ZZ. The females would not receive the barring gene since they are ZW. The males from this cross, again only receive one "dose" of the barring since the female only had the single-dose to donate to begin with.

The OP's male appears darker, which indicates that it only has a single dose of the barring. When using a RIR male over a Barred Rock female, the males from the cross are mainly black with a bit of red flecking here and there. When the reverse is done, the males should be more red in color, but still have barring.

Did any of that make sense?

ETA: I'm just using RIR as an example. Any red bird could have been used, such as a New Hampshire Red.
 
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I did notice at feeding time today that his bars are much less sharp than my BR. Much more like my cuckoo maran.
 

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