recreating the silver welbar autosexing breed

[flyingmonkeypoop]

I know this is an old post but going to try my chances

Have started breeding Welbars and have my first cross from Welsummer rooster and Plymouth hen. This lot are around 7 months of age.  Just looking at this table - is that correct all the black chicks will be pullets and the bars will be cockerels. Knowing the answer to this will allow me to start culling from an earlier age.

I am not large scale so having the room is why I need to cull early.  Thanks heaps for any light you can shed on the breeding table.

Yep, it is the basic sexlinked cross. All pullets will be solid black at hatch and the males will be barred/have a white spot at hatching. That is for the welsummer cock on barred rock hens. Keep a cockerel from that mating and breed him to welsummer hens. That will give you some chicks that when bred together will produce welbars. I did a couple breedings from scratch using other breeds and found that most barred rocks are silver which would be good for you in this case. I have a silver ambar hen left from one project, I love the color/pattern.

 

[McSmurfy]

Thanks so much for that FlyingMonkeyPoop.......have already selected my cockerel to continue the programme - guess I can cull the other dozen barred chickens I've been waiting to see who is pullets n who is cockerels!!! Gonna save a bundle in feed costs and reckon I might hang onto my 3 Plymouth girls after all n keep on incubating - just cause everyone wants sexed chicks around these ridges. Better still - they won't be sex linked hybrids.....just your common old heritage chickens!!!!!

**running** to have a look at your FB page and rose comb legbars. Thanks again.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

**running** to have a look at your FB page and rose comb legbars.  Thanks again.

Not sure if I have any pics of the legbars on my page yet but feel free to send a friend request. I have a thread about them somewhere here on BYC. The birds this year are 7/8 legbar, 1/8 leghorn.

Sorry for hijacking the thread..

 

[Rancher3535]

Like you I am building Welbars. I have my F1 done and now on my F2.

F1 - all chicks that are solid black will be females. all chicks that have a white spot on top will be males. Cool that they were sex-linked. I kept 5 males until they reached 7 months old then I culled them down to two. Because this is an experiment I have only kept a couple of males. The two commercial males are now gone. I am working with two different lines. Welsummer on commercial Barred Rocks and Welsummer on Heritage Barred Rocks. The commercial cross was good but the boys did have a little attitude. The females are laying now a nice terracatta brown egg not as dark as the Welsummer but close. The cross with the Heritage barred rocks are just now growing up. I had to get my show birds out before the experiment ones. So far I like the temperament of the Heritage over the commercial. I have one that is really wide all the way through so I probably will use him on the Welsummer females for my F2's.

F2 - Now this is where the fun starts. I thought that putting the F1 male on the Welsummer females would give me either brown or brown barred and that I would be on my way. NOT! You get a wide variety of chick colors. I have been talking to some of the breeders in England about how to build them. Well they are helpful but they have the breed and have not had to go through building the line. They told me, you pretty much have to grow out F2 and F3 in order to cull out. I started to cull out some of the really young birds of the F2 and glad I waited and only culled a couple of them. Some of them that I wanted to cull out are turning colors. This is really interesting but going to be expensive breed to get going because you have to hatch out a lot to get a few good ones. If I am lucky I will get 1 or 2 out of 25 chicks. After letting them grow for a while it looks like I might have 2 males and 3 females the rest will have to go.



Far upper left is at this point looking like a really dark brown barred but as he grew he turned out black...same for the lower right chick. The lighter colored one I thought was going to be a brown barred but ended up coming out white with some black flakes here and there. The two that look like Welsummers I thought for sure would be brown barred but the jury is still out on them.


These three turned out more black than barred.

I need to take some pictures of them now that they are a month plus old. I am really trying to document them as they hatch and grow.

Not sure if you are on face book but here is a link to an auto sexing breed group. Only frustration with group is that 99% of them seem to be in England/Europe etc.

My face book page is: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rockin-R-Ranch/539810502704477?ref=hl

I do have some Welbar pictures or video clips on there of my F1 males and some chicks on the face book page.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/373811136039232/

Hope that helps you out a little.

Rob

 

[McSmurfy]

Thanks heaps for all the info Rob - certainly appreciated and will make my programme a lil easier to understand

 

[gogetter]

Like you I am building Welbars. I have my F1 done and now on my F2. F1 - all chicks that are solid black will be females. all chicks that have a white spot on top will be males. Cool that they were sex-linked. I kept 5 males until they reached 7 months old then I culled them down to two. Because this is an experiment I have only kept a couple of males. The two commercial males are now gone. I am working with two different lines. Welsummer on commercial Barred Rocks and Welsummer on Heritage Barred Rocks. The commercial cross was good but the boys did have a little attitude. The females are laying now a nice terracatta brown egg not as dark as the Welsummer but close. The cross with the Heritage barred rocks are just now growing up. I had to get my show birds out before the experiment ones. So far I like the temperament of the Heritage over the commercial. I have one that is really wide all the way through so I probably will use him on the Welsummer females for my F2's. F2 - Now this is where the fun starts. I thought that putting the F1 male on the Welsummer females would give me either brown or brown barred and that I would be on my way. NOT! You get a wide variety of chick colors. I have been talking to some of the breeders in England about how to build them. Well they are helpful but they have the breed and have not had to go through building the line. They told me, you pretty much have to grow out F2 and F3 in order to cull out. I started to cull out some of the really young birds of the F2 and glad I waited and only culled a couple of them. Some of them that I wanted to cull out are turning colors. This is really interesting but going to be expensive breed to get going because you have to hatch out a lot to get a few good ones. If I am lucky I will get 1 or 2 out of 25 chicks. After letting them grow for a while it looks like I might have 2 males and 3 females the rest will have to go. Far upper left is at this point looking like a really dark brown barred but as he grew he turned out black...same for the lower right chick. The lighter colored one I thought was going to be a brown barred but ended up coming out white with some black flakes here and there. The two that look like Welsummers I thought for sure would be brown barred but the jury is still out on them. These three turned out more black than barred. I need to take some pictures of them now that they are a month plus old. I am really trying to document them as they hatch and grow. Not sure if you are on face book but here is a link to an auto sexing breed group. Only frustration with group is that 99% of them seem to be in England/Europe etc. My face book page is: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rockin-R-Ranch/539810502704477?ref=hl I do have some Welbar pictures or video clips on there of my F1 males and some chicks on the face book page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/373811136039232/ Hope that helps you out a little. Rob

Hi Rob! I've liked your Facebook page and am commenting here so I can follow you. I'm so interested in welbars, mainly because I love my welsummer, but would love to have an autosexing breed. Do the welbars lay a similar color to welsummers?

 

[Rancher3535]

Hi Rob! I've liked your Facebook page and am commenting here so I can follow you. I'm so interested in welbars, mainly because I love my welsummer, but would love to have an autosexing breed. Do the welbars lay a similar color to welsummers?

Thanks for following my progress.

My F1 girls most of them lay a fairly dark egg like the Welsummers. My F2 girls are still way to young to know anything. I would think they would be darker than the F1's. Not sure if you know it or not but Welsummers are sexable at hatch.

 

[gogetter]

Thanks for following my progress. 

My F1 girls most of them lay a fairly dark egg like the Welsummers.  My F2 girls are still way to young to know anything.  I would think they would be darker than the F1's.  Not sure if you know it or not but Welsummers are sexable at hatch.

I absolutely did not know that. I'll have to look up what they look like. I love their egg color!

 

[stryker]

I am doing this a little different but if I am on the wrong page please let me know. I am using a rhodebar roo over welsummer hens to do this..
This is a picture of the welsummerxrhodebar F1 at a week old. Yet again I am not sure I am on the right path but it is worth a shot.

Just wanted to show the patterns. I am new at this but this is week 1.


Showing the whole body. Dont mind the F1 buckbar left of the F1 buckbar.

 

[Frankie Ruiz]

Like you I am building Welbars. I have my F1 done and now on my F2. F1 - all chicks that are solid black will be females. all chicks that have a white spot on top will be males. Cool that they were sex-linked. I kept 5 males until they reached 7 months old then I culled them down to two. Because this is an experiment I have only kept a couple of males. The two commercial males are now gone. I am working with two different lines. Welsummer on commercial Barred Rocks and Welsummer on Heritage Barred Rocks. The commercial cross was good but the boys did have a little attitude. The females are laying now a nice terracatta brown egg not as dark as the Welsummer but close. The cross with the Heritage barred rocks are just now growing up. I had to get my show birds out before the experiment ones. So far I like the temperament of the Heritage over the commercial. I have one that is really wide all the way through so I probably will use him on the Welsummer females for my F2's. F2 - Now this is where the fun starts. I thought that putting the F1 male on the Welsummer females would give me either brown or brown barred and that I would be on my way. NOT! You get a wide variety of chick colors. I have been talking to some of the breeders in England about how to build them. Well they are helpful but they have the breed and have not had to go through building the line. They told me, you pretty much have to grow out F2 and F3 in order to cull out. I started to cull out some of the really young birds of the F2 and glad I waited and only culled a couple of them. Some of them that I wanted to cull out are turning colors. This is really interesting but going to be expensive breed to get going because you have to hatch out a lot to get a few good ones. If I am lucky I will get 1 or 2 out of 25 chicks. After letting them grow for a while it looks like I might have 2 males and 3 females the rest will have to go. Far upper left is at this point looking like a really dark brown barred but as he grew he turned out black...same for the lower right chick. The lighter colored one I thought was going to be a brown barred but ended up coming out white with some black flakes here and there. The two that look like Welsummers I thought for sure would be brown barred but the jury is still out on them. These three turned out more black than barred. I need to take some pictures of them now that they are a month plus old. I am really trying to document them as they hatch and grow. Not sure if you are on face book but here is a link to an auto sexing breed group. Only frustration with group is that 99% of them seem to be in England/Europe etc. My face book page is: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rockin-R-Ranch/539810502704477?ref=hl I do have some Welbar pictures or video clips on there of my F1 males and some chicks on the face book page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/373811136039232/ Hope that helps you out a little. Rob

any new updates? very interested in the progress