Breeding our own 'meats'...etc etc

[Lovethembuffs]

Please do!!!!! The summer has gotten away from me and I have not hatched the crosses I set up to do. So I will live vicariously through your efforts!!! Excited to see yours.

2 roosters so far. These are hatching sexlink..they have black feathers yellow dots on their heads. As soon as they all hatch and fluff up an I can get them out of the incubator I will post some pics.

 

[NatJ]

2 roosters so far. These are hatching sexlink..they have black feathers yellow dots on their heads. As soon as they all hatch and fluff up an I can get them out of the incubator I will post some pics.

Maybe sexlinks, maybe not, given the list of breeds involved.

crossing a White Rock rooster over Delaware and Jersey giant hens.

If the White Rock rooster is giving the genes to be black all over, and a Delaware hen is giving the gene for white barring, then yes they are sexlink males.

But if the White Rock rooster is giving the genes to be black all over AND the gene for white barring, then all chicks will be black with white barring, no matter what sex they are or who their mother is.

One thing, with the White Rock being the only rooster, and the chicks showing large amounts of black: that particular line of White Rocks does not have the correct genes to be the mother of gold/silver sexlink chicks (the original poster of the thread was wondering about that for their line of White Rocks. We still don't know about theirs, but now we do know about yours.)

 

[Lovethembuffs]

Maybe sexlinks, maybe not, given the list of breeds involved.


If the White Rock rooster is giving the genes to be black all over, and a Delaware hen is giving the gene for white barring, then yes they are sexlink males.

But if the White Rock rooster is giving the genes to be black all over AND the gene for white barring, then all chicks will be black with white barring, no matter what sex they are or who their mother is.

One thing, with the White Rock being the only rooster, and the chicks showing large amounts of black: that particular line of White Rocks does not have the correct genes to be the mother of gold/silver sexlink chicks (the original poster of the thread was wondering about that for their line of White Rocks. We still don't know about theirs, but now we do know about yours.)

Good Morning!! Here they are! I believe all 5 are roosters and they do have yellow down on their bellies.

 

[Lovethembuffs]

2 roosters so far. These are hatching sexlink..they have black feathers yellow dots on their heads. As soon as they all hatch and fluff up an I can get them out of the incubator I will post some pics.

Good morning! Here they are 5 of 5 I believe they are all roosters. and they do have yellow down on their bellies!!

 

[Lovethembuffs]

Please do!!!!! The summer has gotten away from me and I have not hatched the crosses I set up to do. So I will live vicariously through your efforts!!! Excited to see yours.

Please do!!!!! The summer has gotten away from me and I have not hatched the crosses I set up to do. So I will live vicariously through your efforts!!! Excited to see yours.

Here they are! 5 roosters I believe. they do have yellow bellies.

 

[NatJ]

Good Morning!! Here they are! I believe all 5 are roosters and they do have yellow down on their bellies.

All 5 being male is possible but not particularly common. I think it more likely that they are not actually sexlinks at all (if your White Rock rooster is giving white barring to all his sons and his daughters.)

Either way, I'll be curious to see updates as they grow.

 

[Karoo permaculture]

Please do!!!!! The summer has gotten away from me and I have not hatched the crosses I set up to do. So I will live vicariously through your efforts!!! Excited to see yours.

What are the ones looking like that you did manage to hatch now? They are now 6 months old?

 

[Karoo permaculture]

I too am experimenting to raise my own meat birds....or at least something close. My thought is...what if I could not buy CC chicks from a hatchery...same with the grocery stores...if supply chains went down...So...I did some research and and crossing a White Rock rooster over Delaware and Jersey giant hens. These birds are separate from the rest of my flock. Attempting genetic is a bit challenging but it will be an interesting experiment. First chick just hatched about an hour ago. I'm attempting this on a small scale. I'll update as we progress.

I am on somewhat of the same journey, my concern is that in such a case, feed would also be a problem. So I wont be able to feed "big hungry birds" with what I can grow myself. Which makes me think I must try and aim for an adult size that is between a bantam and a commercial size heritage breed.

Show quality are way too big.
We dont really have Jersey Giants here, but from what I have read they are rather slow to mature, another thing you dont really want when resources are scares

 

[Lovethembuffs]

Good Morning!! Here they are! I believe all 5 are roosters and they do have yellow down on their bellies.

Thanks NatJ:
I have a lot to learn where genetics are concerned. I appreciate your input. I am researching and have text on the way. I will post as they mature.

 

[NatJ]

Thanks NatJ:
I have a lot to learn where genetics are concerned. I appreciate your input. I am researching and have text on the way. I will post as they mature.

Yes, genetics can be complicated!

Some points about barring:
--it can appear in both males and females (example: Barred Rocks)
--barring is a dominant gene, so you can see if it is present in a black chicken (example: Barred Rocks have barring, Black Jersey Giants do not).
--white barring on a white chicken is not obvious.
--Because barring is on the Z sex chromosome, a cross of barred and not-barred will give different results depending on which one is the father and which is the mother.
--A hen gives a Z chromosome to her sons and a W chromosome to her daughters. That means she can give barring to her sons but not to her daughters. Mating a barred hen with a not-barred rooster produces sexlink chicks. (Examples: Rhode Island Red rooster with Barred Rock hen, or solid black rooster with Delaware hen. Either cross will produce black sons with white barring, and black daughters with no barring.)
--a rooster has two Z chromosomes, so he can have either one barring gene or two. He gives one chromosome to each chick he sires. If he has two barring genes (one on each Z chromosome), then he gives one to every chick, males and females alike. If he has one barring gene and one not-barring gene, he gives barring to half of his chicks and not-barring to the other half, but again it has nothing to do with which ones are males vs. females. In either case, you cannot sex the chicks by looking for barring.

Since your chicks are black with barring, we know the White Rock is not giving genes to make them white all over. We do not know if he is giving genes for just black (in which case they got barring from a Delaware mother and are males), or if the rooster is giving genes for black and for white barring (in which case the chicks could have either mother, and could be males or females.)