Opinions

[Redneck13]

Long story short.

Breed RIR MALE with following females

Buff
Barred rock
Australope
White Leghorn
Delaware
Red Sex link
Black Sex link

Many great hatches with a success rate 70 percent.
Problem is all the Black chicks with yellow beak and yellow feet were all small week and died after hatching.
Black chicks with black beak and black feet are healthy and growing.
Any ideas which hens chicks were the ones dead

 

[house1917]

So I've switched from Longhorn Cattle genetics to chicken genetics only recently, but here's my take.

Yellow legs are recessive so to get yellow legged chicks from a RIR X Anything- the hen would have to have yellow legs too.

I think the only cross from your list above that would produce black chicks with yellow legs would be RIR X Barred Rock. The cockerels would grow out to be barred, and the pullets would be solid black.

Black Sex Links can have yellow legs- but crossing RIR X BSL would product Quail colored chicks- so blackish with light heads is my understanding.

Short answer- my $$ is on your Barred Rock as the mother.

 

[Redneck13]

So I've switched from Longhorn Cattle genetics to chicken genetics only recently, but here's my take.

Yellow legs are recessive so to get yellow legged chicks from a RIR X Anything- the hen would have to have yellow legs too.

I think the only cross from your list above that would produce black chicks with yellow legs would be RIR X Barred Rock. The cockerels would grow out to be barred, and the pullets would be solid black.

Black Sex Links can have yellow legs- but crossing RIR X BSL would product Quail colored chicks- so blackish with light heads is my understanding.

Short answer- my $$ is on your Barred Rock as the mother.

Thank you so much for the informationSW

So I've switched from Longhorn Cattle genetics to chicken genetics only recently, but here's my take.

Yellow legs are recessive so to get yellow legged chicks from a RIR X Anything- the hen would have to have yellow legs too.

I think the only cross from your list above that would produce black chicks with yellow legs would be RIR X Barred Rock. The cockerels would grow out to be barred, and the pullets would be solid black.

Black Sex Links can have yellow legs- but crossing RIR X BSL would product Quail colored chicks- so blackish with light heads is my understanding.

Short answer- my $$ is on your Barred Rock as the mother.

Thank you for the information. We were stumped on which hens were old and not producing healthy eggs/chicks.

Makes sense the 2 Barred Rock were gifts from a previous chicken owner. They are roughly 6 years old so we thought they would still produce healthy babies.

Guess not