Golden comet sex links?

[Ridgerunner]

If you want a good explanation of how to make a sex link, read the first post on this thread. The feather-sexing you are talking about is at the bottom of the first post.

Tadkerson’s Sex Link Thread
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=261208

A shorter version is that the rooster passes genes to all his offspring while the hen passes all her genes to her sons but does not give a few to her daughters. That's why it is the hen that determines the sex of the chick, not the rooster. If the genes the hen gives to her sons are dominant over the genes the rooster gives to both, and you can see the difference at hatch, you can tell the sex of the chick. But this only works if the rooster is pure for that trait. This means both copies of the genes he has are the same. And the hen has to have th opposite dominant gene.

For example, if the rooster is pure for fast feather growth and the hen is pure for slow feather growth, you can sex the chicks by the length of the wing feathers at hatch. The slow feather growth is dominant. The rooster gives a fast feather growth gene to his sons and daughters, but the hen only gives the slow feather growth gene to her sons. So the female offspring get only a fast feather growth from their father and the wing feathers are longer. But the males get one fast and one slow. Since slow is dominant, the males feathers are shorter.

This does not work in the next generation because the hen has the not-dominant fast feather gene and the rooster has one fast and one slow. Not only does the hen have the not-dominant gene, the rooster is split. He has one dominant and one not dominant. He randomly gives one of these to his offspring. Which on gets the fast or slow from him is purely randon and not restricted by sex.

The Red Sex Links work the same way with the Silver/Gold gene, the Silver being dominant. The Black Sex Links work the same way with the barred gene, with barred dominant over not barred.

Draye, I don't know if you have ever played with Henk's cross calculator. It's amazing what colors and patterns you can come up with when you cross crosses. With a red rooster over a black barred hen, if you cross that offspring you can possibly get white, black, and many shades of red. Then you have the many different possible patterns. It is amazing how the different genes go together and how much difference in appearance one gene being different can make.

 

[sjcshawna]

I have a bunch of whites could they be white rocks that they used to get the golden comets? Any clue as to what breed the black one with the red could be? Would the dark re/blacks maybe be the new hampshire reds i hear they use them and cross them on the white rocks to get the sex links? Just wondering im learning as i go. Thank you everyone for keeping up with me and helping me learn. I love it!!! Thank you so much don't know what i would do without you!!

 

[sjcshawna]

The darker chicks that i had hatch have really dark red beaks on them do you have any idea what this could be from

 

[halo]

Your chicks are simply crosses, they arent rocks or new hampshires or anything else. Just barnyard crosses. Some people call them mutts, I cant stand that term for chickens.

 

[sjcshawna]

Are the dark ones partridge rocks maybe, the more they dry the black is looking more like a really dark red?

 

[Chris09]

Are the dark ones partridge rocks maybe, the more they dry the black is looking more like a really dark red?

As halo said there just crosses,
You cant breed 2 cross breed fowl and get a breed out of them, you just more cross bred fowl.


Chris

 

[sjcshawna]

i thought one of the links that i read said that when you breed these then some of the chicks would revert back to the breeds they used to create the comets?

 

[draye]

i thought one of the links that i read said that when you breed these then some of the chicks would revert back to the breeds they used to create the comets?

Simply referring to the fact that they go back to the coloring and such from the original crosses in the sexlink. I.E.: Red from the Rhode Island Red or New Hampshire, Barred from the Barred Plymouth Rock and so on. They will inheirit from the parents and grandparents.

 

[Fred's Hens]

A sex link is a mix, a mutt, a hybrid and will neither produce itself as another sex link, nor "revert back" to being a breed. A sex link isn't a breed and it's offspring isn't a breed. A mix it is and a mix it produces. It's just that simple.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If there were only one or two genes involved they could revert. But that is not the case. There are a huge amount of genes that go into making a breed purebred. I've read they have identified 13 different genes that influence what shade of brown goes into the actual color of brown eggs. If it takes than many to determine the shade of brown on an egg shell, just imagine how many genes actually goes into making a breed, just with all the different genes that influence color, pattern, comb, number of toes, skin color, and all the things that just influence appearance. Then there are a lot of other things that influence things that make it a breed, like size, configuration, egg laying ability, and many more.

If you cross two breeds then cross the offspring, you usually have to hatch a lot of chicks to get any that look that much like their grandparents, though some are easier than others. It depends on what their grandparents look like and what breeds you cross. But even if they looked like their grandparents, they would not have all the genes of that breed. There would be a tremendously high chance that they would not breed true. I mean an astronomically high chance they would not breed true. It just won't happen.

Chicken genetics are frustrating but fascinating to me. Everyt time I think I learn something, somebody comes up with an exception. And it is amazing what effect a gene can have depending on what other genes are present.