Black Stars...

[cchardwick]

I've been breeding Rhode Island Reds and I decided to take the plunge and buy some Barred Rocks so I can make 'Black Star' chickens. Does anyone have experience doing this? As I understand it the Black Stars don't breed true, has anyone every tried to breed them and if so what kind of mixes do you get?

My Rhode Island Reds are impossible to sex as chicks and that's the main reason that I'm getting into black stars since they are a sex link chicken. For people who can only have hens and can't butcher any chickens (i.e., city dwellers) I'd like to give them an option of getting hens the first time around.

 

[donrae]

If you breed your sex link roo to your sex link hen you'll just get half barred offspring but the barring won't still be linked to the sex. So, half barred roos and half barred hens. They'll still lay fine, you just lose the ability to sex at hatch. So, just keep a nice red roo and keep breeding first generation birds.