Need basic advice on creating sex-links

[KHoward]

Hi all,

When creating sex-links, is the basic recipe any non-barred male over any barred female? Or is there more too it?
Thanks!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Assuming you're talking about a black barred hen like a Barred Rock or Cuckoo Marans, it is pretty straightforward as you say, and there are only a couple things to be careful of with that cross:

You'll want to avoid using a white rooster in such a cross. White could be hiding barring, which would ruin your cross for sexlinked chicks, or if it's dominant white like in White Leghorns then your chicks will all just hatch white and you won't be able to tell barred from non-barred at hatch. For this reason, you'd also want to avoid males with patterns based on dominant white, like Red Pyle or Buff Laced, for example.

Some other genes can make it harder to tell if there's a head spot or not by kind of muddying the expression of the head spot. I've heard that telling blue from blue barred in chick down can be pretty tricky because the head spot sort of blends into the blue coloring, for example, so a blue or splash rooster might work for making barred sexlinks, but might also make ambiguous chicks that are hard to tell apart.

Other than that, yes, any non-barred male to a black barred female will make sexlinks.

 

[Rock17]

Another example would be red rooster x white hen. Like RIR X light sussex

 

[Rock17]

Or there are sexlinks that you can get by buying like CCL or rhodebars

 

[AinaWGSD]

Another example would be red rooster x white hen. Like RIR X light sussex

I think technically it's gold over silver. The female chicks will be gold (darker chick down at hatch) and the males will be silver with gold leakage (lighter, yellow down at hatch). Here's a thread that thoroughly explains how gold over silver sexlink works.

 

[KHoward]

I have a Black Copper Maran (edited) rooster and some Barred Rock hens. So I thought it might work.

 

[NatJ]

I have a BCM rooster and some Barred Rock hens. So I thought it might work.

Assuming that "BCM" is Black Copper Marans, yes that pairing should work to produce sexlink chicks.

The hen has barring and the rooster does not, and they do not have any of the common colors or patterns that would make the barring hard to see on their chicks. So their sons should show white barring (light head spot at hatch, white lines in the feathers as they grow), and the daughters should not have the white barring.