Easter Egger Sexing "tips and tricks" *Pictures Included*

[Flowerbh]

My BSL hens lay a very large Dark brown terra cotta colored egg, sometimes I even get the speckles............ so you may want to add a couple of them, they do start early and they lay like crazy....... I don't think my one hen with the very huge egg has ever taken a break in a year and a half, makes me sad she is using up all those beautiful eggs so quick because she is such a sweet hen 1 of my favorites.

I'm not sure what BSL stands for, but I will look them up. See as a chicken is born with 4000 potential eggs, it is unlikely she could even live long enough to lay them all! But, WOW, thats a lot of eggs she is laying!

 

[GhostRider65]

I'm not sure what BSL stands for, but I will look them up.  See as a chicken is born with 4000 potential eggs, it is unlikely she could even live long enough to lay them all!  But, WOW, thats a lot of eggs she is laying!  

Black Sex Link hen named Daphne this is her in the efront with her sister Suzi in back she also lays nice laarge dark egg, but only 5 or 6 a week......

 

[Flowerbh]

Black Sex Link hen named Daphne this is her in the efront with her sister Suzi in back she also lays nice laarge dark egg, but only 5 or 6 a week......

They look like leghorns or welsummers. What are the crosses on these?

 

[GhostRider65]

That I couldn't tell you but , I sure wish I knew, I got them at TSC last spring just because they were cute..LOL not even sure what hatchery they came from, but they are awesome layers.
I would guess they are a wellie or Marans cross of some kind, because there eggs are very dark....... and only Daphne has alot of yellow brown on her neck, betsy and suzi have some but very little next to her. So who knows? if anyone out there knows what they use to cross these babies let me know cuz I will buy what roos/hens I need and make me some more............. They may also have leghorn in them the way they lay, but by body type I would say no, they look alot like a WelSummer.....heavy body type not tall and lean like a leghorn........ I think the mother was a BR because the couple eggs I hatched this year from Daphne, all the babies male and female were BR looking I'll post a pic. tomorrow of the 3 I hatched. BR babies about 14 weeks old

 

[Wishing4Wings]

The black sex links are a cross of production red rooster (RIR or NH) and barred Rock hen.

We need to create an EE sex link!

 

[DMRippy]

The black sex links are a cross of production red rooster (RIR or NH) and barred Rock hen.

We need to create an EE sex link!

I have 2 barred EE hens that I can use to make sex links. I have them in my Olive Egger pen. Wish I had more. Maybe I will try to make more. I may try to find an Ameraucana I can put in my BR pen to make more. I would like them to have the puffy cheeks, my hens don't have that

. I also like to breed to blue eggs, and that cross makes greener eggs, but I can live with that. I need to make sexlinks, Nashville passed a law allowing 6 hens, but no roos, so sexlinks will help with sales next spring. I really need to start planning that out.

 

[Wishing4Wings]

I have 2 barred EE hens that I can use to make sex links. I have them in my Olive Egger pen. Wish I had more. Maybe I will try to make more. I may try to find an Ameraucana I can put in my BR pen to make more. I would like them to have the puffy cheeks, my hens don't have that

. I also like to breed to blue eggs, and that cross makes greener eggs, but I can live with that. I need to make sexlinks, Nashville passed a law allowing 6 hens, but no roos, so sexlinks will help with sales next spring. I really need to start planning that out.

Very cool! And complicated! Do your barred EEs have a pea combs? You'd have to figure out how to breed out the brown egg gene so the color will stay more blue. Is there a barred breed that lays white eggs? If hatchery sexlinks use a male production red type, I wonder if a mostly red EE roo would work?

This sounds tricky.

 

[GhostRider65]

Very cool! And complicated! Do your barred EEs have a pea combs? You'd have to figure out how to breed out the brown egg gene so the color will stay more blue. Is there a barred breed that lays white eggs? If hatchery sexlinks use a male production red type, I wonder if a mostly red EE roo would work?

This sounds tricky.

I have red splash roo,. and it didn't work with him............ I think I was told it depends on what male color gene your rooster has, a red male over a barred hen will make a sex link, or even a red male over a silver hen, will , theirs a great thread here on Sexlinks, lots of info there............ but I have read it all and still don't really understand it all, its more complicated than one would think........Kim

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Kim, it is complicated! I know about basic genetics, but not specific to chickens. The big difference I finally found out is that the hens carry the sex chromosome (XY in people) and the roosters' sex chromosomes are the same (XX). So a pullet will always get whatever genes are carried on the longer (X) chromosome from her rooster papa because her short (Y) had to come from her mom. Then you get into recessive and dominant and blended and masked genes and I am in the dark with chickens! If it was easy, the hatcheries would have sexlinks for all types!

I think Cream Legbars are autosexing (even better!) and lay blue eggs, but they don't have the fuzzy faces.

Maybe you could incorporate these into your project and get autosexing EEs!

 

[DMRippy]

Quote: They do have a wonky pea comb. Not a dark green egg, just light green. They do have barred leghorns, but I don't know much about them. I should have kept that barred EE roo I had

He came from a California White (Barred but you can't see it) He was a sex link though and because she was dom white I couldn't see his spot. Could barely see the barring when he was older.

Any Solid Color roo with a barred hen will make sex links. You can cross cuckoo marans hens with BCM and make sex link Marans. Solid colored EE with a barred hen will work for sex links. The red has nothing to do with the sexlink in this case. I think if you make red stars, you need a red roo with a SILVER hen.... I could have that backwards. I do know that sexlinking has to do with the SILVER and not white genes. They are dominate and are sexlinked..... I think. There is a good page on here for sexlink crosses

I need to brush up on that too for the spring.