Interested in breeding sex links, would like to do one for Easter Eggers...

[BreanneRN]

I have a question regarding sex link chickens which all here might find easy to answer (me, not so much). I have a beautiful, barred EE hen, but she is yellow, not black. Would it be possible to get a sex-linked cross using a barred yellow hen? Or does it have to be black based? Could the rooster be black based instead? (Yes, I'm ignorant, but help me out here, please). I really love the color of my yellow EE hen, she is a beautiful lemony color. None of my other EE's are barred and I am not sure why this one is, but I love her, and want more. I know it is possible that EE's just don't have consistent enough genes to create a consistent sex-link... But let me know what you all think!

 

[Frazzemrat1]

Pictures!!!!!!!!!!


@The Moonshiner @JedJackson

 

[sylviethecochin]

If she's barred, and you breed her to a solid-colored roo then the chicks will be sexlinks. Barring is barring, no matter the base color.

My concern would be the chick down, if you want to be able to sex chicks at hatch. The "Barred" head spot will not show up very well against a yellow background. You'll probably have to breed her to a dark-colored (I'd use red wheaten, BBR or black) rooster if you wish to be able to reliably sex the chicks.

 

[BreanneRN]

Pictures!!!!!!!!!!


@The Moonshiner @JedJackson

Sorry this took so long... I'm not really very good at posting pictures, so it takes awhile...

 

[BreanneRN]

If she's barred, and you breed her to a solid-colored roo then the chicks will be sexlinks. Barring is barring, no matter the base color.

My concern would be the chick down, if you want to be able to sex chicks at hatch. The "Barred" head spot will not show up very well against a yellow background. You'll probably have to breed her to a dark-colored (I'd use red wheaten, BBR or black) rooster if you wish to be able to reliably sex the chicks.

Yes, unfortunately, neither one of the EE roosters I have is probably going to work. One of them is mostly white with black hackle and tail feathers and the other has a blue head and tail with big brown spot on the wings. Oh well, someone is always trying to rehome a rooster... Or maybe I will splurge and order a real Ameraucana... since they come in solid colors... Hmmm, I wonder which one that I already have would be more likely to have a yellow chick? (I guess I really have 2 questions going on here, how to get a sex-link EE, which you answered, and how to get another yellow hen like her?).

 

[sylviethecochin]

I'm pretty sure that hen is pencilled, rather than barred. Very nice coloring, but I'm not at all familiar with it.

If I'm right, and if you want to keep the pattern, you'll have to breed her with a pencilled (partridge in the US) bird. She's definitely gold based, and carries dominant white, if that helps you select a rooster.

 

[CannedMonster]

X2 on the pencilling.

I love that color though!
I don’t blame you for wanting to get more like her!

 

[BreanneRN]

Well, that would nip my sex-linked EE plan in the bud, I guess... I got 2 yellow EE's this year in the batch of 10 I ordered, they are both a little different, but unique in there way. I recently lost one of my EE's (a blue,accidental) and I have gotten afraid I might lose more before I can replicate them. You never know what might happen, what with accidents, predators etc. I don't know much about penciling except it is dominant gene in turkeys. But it may not be the same pattern in turkeys even, as this doesn't look like turkey "penciling". Anyway, these girls have a definite drive to be "free-range", I have noticed.

 

[BreanneRN]

@sylviethecochin , I have plucked a feather, so we can be sure...

 

[sylviethecochin]

I'm not a color expert. But that still looks like pencilled to me. I found a picture of a Lemon cuckoo hen online--

And as you can see, the patterns look rather different.
As mentioned above, @JedJackson, @Gray Farms , or @The Moonshiner might be able to better identify the color for you.