Egg laying genetics, need help.

[seriousbill]

My understanding (from another board that features the posts of a poultry geneticist) is that the Hyline "patented" birds most likely do have some Leghorn ancestry in there somewhere, although it's not a simple first-generation cross. Most of their birds are not merely a simple cross. They are a "secret recipe"

.

However, Old Rando is right that most of the hatchery sex-links you buy don't have Leghorn ancestry. They are usually Sil-go links of one type or another, using RIRs and RIWs or White Rocks or the like.

 

[Birch Run Farm]

Quote:
Old Rando, please give them a phone call. I always order their Red Sex links because this combination is excellent. Years ago their listing did say the birds were crossed leghorns. I had not ordered any in a few years and made an order this past October. I called them back to verify they were still making the same RSL I had purchased in the past. Yes, they are RIR X WL! McMurray confirmed that the same breeds are used.

My oldest turn 7 in 2009, still are power layers!

I do not know (and didn't ask) if the rooster was a RIR, vice versa, like wise. I have very much enjoyed these birds. I have 17 up and coming pullets right now turning 11 weeks old.

When you phone them let me know if they tell you otherwise.

 

[seriousbill]

I don't know what sort of sex-links McMurray sells, or what they tell their customers, but I do know that most White Leghorns have dominant white over extended black (+cuckoo barring and silver), and they therefore would make very unpredictable sex-links, which is why they're not usually used for a simple first-generation cross.

 

[Old Rando]

Birch Run Farm, I will call Murray McMurray after the first of January. I know from an e-mail I got from them recently they will be closed down untill about Jan. 5. I am curious as to what they tell me. I would have never thought they would use a white leghorn for the female side of a brown egg laying sex link. I would expect a tan egg and as seriousbill pointed out the genetics of most white leghorns wouldn't work as smoothly for sex-links as other breeds would.

When I get time I am going to look at some other commercial hatchery sites and see if any of them state using a leghorn female for their sex-lin hybrids. I certainly don't recall any but now I am curious.

 

[ghulst]

Red sex linked I would think are like Isa Browns. I work at Townline Hatchery and the the Isa Browm chicks are out of white hens and the cocks are red.All the breeding stock come from Canada. They lay very dark eggs.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

I knew I wasn't crazy! lol! But I've heard the same that the lines have Leghorn in them but the hens are not 100% leghorns.

I know that most hatcheries may say they have their own line of breeders for their sex-links that they advertise but in reality they don't. They don't have to tell you exactly where they get their chicks.

Like most broilers that hatcheries sell they hybrid layers come from a breeder farm that specializes in this. They are not just a simple cross between two chickens. I worked at a hatchery for a summer when I first started here in Ohio and noticed that they raised everything that they hatched except the "red sex-links" and the broilers. They sold too many to make it profitable to raise their own breeder flocks. When you can purchase 400 cases of "red sex link" eggs you can get them next to nothing.

So back to square one..... Which of the lines have the leghorn cross? The male, female, OR both???

I personaly think that somewhere in the line the females have the white leghorn as if you notice the legs in the picture of the link I provided had a whiter color to them then the "typical" white rocks. Normal purebred white rocks have a very dark yellow when they are pullets same with the Rhode Island Reds.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

But if you notice the eggs in the nest boxes in the pic are really dark brown? So if leghorn is in the blood of the hens how big of a role does genetics play in egg color? Because the hybrids that are produced (sex-links) also lay darker eggs than most hens?

Is egg color a trait that the female will only pass over too their pullets? Because if the grandparent stock is White Rock female and White Leghorn Male.... It wouldn't matter what color eggs the Sires breed lays.

This would give you a good White Rock cross that carries the "silver" gene to breed to your Rhode Island red male....


Are we getting somewhere? Or is this theory shot down with genetic proof?


This theory was shot down to genetic proof.......... http://www.utilitypoultry.co.uk/eggcolour.shtml

But what about a white leghorn pullet bred to a white rock male? Sounds better and so far I havn't found much info on how much genetics play in egg color.

 

[seriousbill]

Quote:
The reason you haven't found much is that egg color is not as well understood as other traits. One of the reasons for this is, as I mentioned earlier, there are several genes at play in determining egg color. Some are likely sex-linked (the father has more say than the mother with female offspring); others are NOT. So, you can't come up with a simple rule about egg color like you can with, say, feather color. It just doesn't work that way.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Yeah, I'm finding this out. It's time consuming, I can't wait until I get started breeding. I feel that there is going to take a few years to get what I'm looking for.