black sex link question

[myetter5]

i keep reading barred rock hens RIR rooster why? wouldnt it work the other way barred rock rooster and RIR hens?

 

[Pyxis]

No, it wouldn't. The trick is in the barring. The way it works, a female barred rock is single barred, and she can only pass barring to her male offspring, which leads to only the males being barred and having a head spot, while the females are not barred and do not. A male barred rock however is double barred, and he passed his barring to both genders of offspring. You can use other roosters than RIR over a barred rock hen to make the sex links though. Pretty much any rooster that is not white or barred will work in the cross, but yes, the hen HAS to be barred. You can use barred rock hens, dominique hens, legbar hens, etc etc as long as they're barred. So pretty much to make a black sex link, you put any non white, non barred rooster over any barred hen, but it HAS to be in that order, it won't work if you put a barred rooster over a non-barred hen.

 

[Michael OShay]

Pyxis has given a very good explanation of why the barred parent in the Black Sex Link offspring has to be the hen. If you cross a barred gene rooster with a red gene hen, the offspring will not be sex linked; they will just be barnyard crosses.