Great info. One more question. I'm not selling these or running any type of business, but I might be giving them away to relatives for their flocks. Do you think I need to order higher quality birds for my little breeding program, or should I be fine just getting regular hatchery birds (from TSC)? If so, where would you suggest I buy from?
I'm sure you'll get varied opinions on this, and if you want to make sure that some hidden gene from somewhere in the bird's ancestry doesn't pop up and ruin the sex linking of a chick or two, and if you don't mind spending a lot more money, you should go with quality birds from a reputable breeder. However, I guarantee you that hatcheries don't use quality birds to breed their sex links and I've never gotten one from a hatchery yet that was sexed incorrectly (although I suppose it could happen). In addition, the sex links that I've bred myself were done using hatchery birds and I have yet to sex one of the offspring incorrectly. As far as which hatchery breeds to use in breeding your sex links, I've ordered Red Sex Links from hatcheries that have used Rhode Island Whites, silver factor White Rocks, Delawares, Silver Laced Wyandottes, and Light Sussex and have done meticulous egg counts on them, and I honestly have not been able to tell any significant difference in the lay rate. All of them have been egg laying machines, churning out more than 300 eggs per hen per year. If temperament is an issue, it seems to me that the RSLs bred with Light Sussex hens tend to have the best temperament. I would definitely avoid using White Rocks as you cannot be sure that they have the silver gene factor. Personally, my recommendation (unless you want to breed both varieties of sex links) is to breed Black Sex Links using hatchery RIR roosters and Barred Rocks. My Black Sex Links have laid just as well as any of my Reds, have typically been friendlier than my Reds, have been slightly better layers in really cold winter temperatures, and have tended to have longer laying lives and slightly larger eggs with double yolks not being uncommon. But either way, I don't think you can go wrong. Whatever ever type of sex links you end up breeding, good luck with your flock.
