Possible sex links?

[TinyLittleFarm]

I'm getting six chicks today from a teacher at my kids' school after a class hatching project. They will be either BO or BO crossed with Dominique. I read in a different thread that the BO/Dom might be sex links? Anyone know if that is true? And if so, how do I tell?

Also, I know what the BO chicks will look like. Will the crosses look the same as chicks? Or would there be different coloring? I can post pics this evening when they arrive.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If the BO is the rooster and the Dominique are the hens, then the offspring will be sex links. The male offspring will be barred and the female offspring will not be barred. But that is after the feathers come in. When they hatch they have down, not feathers. It's not always easy to tell. Technically, these are called black sex links.

The way you can tell at hatch with black sex links is the males have a light spot on their heads and the females do not. So with some crosses it is pretty easy to tell. But when the cross produces chicks that have other light colored down, usually yellowish, it can be hard to tell which is from that spot and which is just from the natural yellow down. I think you might have that problem with this cross. The ones with the larger light spots on their heads are probably the roosters, but it may be hard to tell for sure.

One of our forum members, I think Rareroo but I'm not sure, has some beautiful pictures of chicks at hatch and pullets from a BO rooster over Barred Rock hens. I'd expect yours to look a lot like those. I don't remember how hard it was to sex the chicks at hatch, but those pullets were striking in their plumage.

 

[TinyLittleFarm]

Thanks for the info. These chicks will all have BO moms. The only Dom is a roo. I'm assuming they won't be sex linked then.

Chicken genetics is soooo not my forte.

 

[Ridgerunner]

No, they won't be sex linked. They will all show barring. But I suspect you will really like how the adults look.

 

[donrae]

No sex-linkage, but as stated I'll bet they'll be pretty, and nice layers.