Red Sex Links

[TheJohnsonAcre]

Not sure if this is the best section to ask this in so my apologies if it isn’t. Anyway, I bought 4 red sex link hens early this past spring and they’ve been amazing!! Anyway I’ve been looking into breeding my own and from what I’ve read New Hampshire Rooster and a White Rock female will give me what I’m looking for. But, now for my question. Anyone ever kept any males from a batch of these sex links, if so about how long is it before they were fully matured? There is very little information on a timeline for these chickens and I’m just looking for someone with experience.

 

[Lizzy733]

Not sure if this is the best section to ask this in so my apologies if it isn’t. Anyway, I bought 4 red sex link hens early this past spring and they’ve been amazing!! Anyway I’ve been looking into breeding my own and from what I’ve read New Hampshire Rooster and a White Rock female will give me what I’m looking for. But, now for my question. Anyone ever kept any males from a batch of these sex links, if so about how long is it before they were fully matured? There is very little information on a timeline for these chickens and I’m just looking for someone with experience.

There are several different formulas for the red sexlink - essentially, it's a red purebred male crossed with a white female which carries the 'silver' gene. This is what makes them sexlinks, as the female passes the silver gene to their male offspring, making 'silver' chicks which grow into white cocks, while the girls are yellow\brown and grow up red. If you breed a sexlink to a sexlink, the chick color will be random as the sexlink characteristics will have been lost. They also won't have the hybrid vigor of their parents.
Most commercial hatcheries have fine-tuned their purebred parent stock to exhibit ideal traits for passing on to their offspring - so essentially, if you were looking to do this commercially, you'd be linebreeding both breeds of parent stock, being selective for traits, and then pair a red roo to a silver girl to get true sexlinks.
Oh, also, in regards to maturing... sexlinks mature faster than most standard breeds due to that hybrid vigor, so they would be expected to mature a few weeks faster than their purebred counterparts. That's why sexlink hens come into lay so early.

 

[Compost King]

I have made Red Sex Links with the Silver Duckwing Patterned hens. I wouldn't use a White Bird (unless you absolutely understand the bird and the genetics involved) but you can use a Delaware patterned bird or a Columbian Patterned bird as well as silver Duckwing.. I suspect there are other types of silver patterns which I will not suggest unless I have done the crossing myself. The Red doesn't have to be a Pure Bred but it can not have any other patterns under the Red.

Great Thread that explains sex links so well https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/sex-linked-information.261208/