Grrrr.... Confuzzlement

[ChickenPeep]

Hey guys!
I recently hatched a few eggs. 2 out of 11 are from our chickens. Ther rest were given to us.
One of our chicks that hatched is a bright yellow with black spots. It's mother is belived to be one of our Red-sex links. The father is believed to be some kind of mix. I was wondering, is it considered a sex link? If it is, that would make it a boy.
I will post pics soon!

 

[donrae]

Nope, sex-links are a one time cross, they don't breed true.

 

[ChickenPeep]

Quote:
Woah, that made my day!!!! Are you sure?

 

[donrae]

Absolutely positive, 100% certain. Course, little chickie still has a 50/50 chance of being a roo..........

 

[annageckos]

Quote:
x2

 

[Happy Chooks]

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Yup - Breeding a sex link will not give you more sex links. Sex linking only applies to the first generation.

 

[Pele]

Nobody's messing with your head, it's true

. Sex-links are NOT a breed. You can't create a line, or keep breeding them and get the same thing.

They are a manipulation of a one time genetic phenomenon when you cross two purebred birds of specific breeds (kind of like a Labradoodle). If you want more SLs, you have to perform the purebred cross again, every time. If you tried to just breed SLs to SLs, you'd get a whooooole lot of random genes coming into play in an uncontrolled and unpredictable pattern.

I can't count how many people I've seen on the forums who had some local yokel 'breeder' try to sell them SLs that they've 'kept in the same pen, so they're all purebred SLs'. It's frustrating because it puts people off of an otherwise wonderful hobby. Nobody likes to think they're getting guarenteed hens, then end up with 20 roos because another person was too lazy to do any research.

 

[rbaker0345]

You're forgetting the Cream Legbar. Its a cross between a brown leghorn, barred rock and araucana. It has developed into a true breeding autosexing breed.