RIR breeding question

[86rocco]

I have a heritage RIR rooster and 10 RIR production birds. What I want to do is breed them so I can get more RIR production offspring and hopefully some RIR roos.

I want the roos to cover some other breeds like SLW so I can get a sex link bird.

So I guess my question is this, would a rooster of the offspring of RIR heritage rooster + RIR production hen produce a rooster that would be good for this? Or am I just better off finding RIR heritage rooster and just let the RIR production be that?

Thanks in advance. Also, this is not for reselling the birds as anything I am simply trying to have my own flock be what I'd like it to be.

 

[HenniesInMyHeart]

For breeding, the better the quality, the better the birds. Since you have a Heritage roo, I would personally get heritage hen/s for breeding, but you certainly can breed to your production girls.

 

[sylviethecochin]

What are you crossing for? Productions lay more eggs than any heritage breed I've ever come across, excepting Leghorns, of course, so I understand why you want to include them, but Silver-laced Wyandottes, while very pretty, are not great egg producers. So what do you want? We can offer better advice based on your eventual goals. (For instance, I myself am breeding with an emphasis on pea-combed birds, good foragers, decently broody, good egg production, and some sex-linkage, if at all possible. I prefer to sell the cockerels, so size and meat is not really a priority.)

In response to your genetics question, yes. RIRs and New Hampshires (which are crossed to make Production Reds) are both gold-based red colombians, and your cockerel from the cross with the heritage boy would also be gold based red columbian. You could make silver/gold sex-linked chicks with this theoretical cockerel.

 

[86rocco]

Thanks for the great replies so far!!
Sylvie,
The cross is hopefully for a sex link chicken that will be a good layer. I may be incorrect in my thinking but I was thinking that crossing a RIR rooster with SLW would produce a sex-link chicken that would be a good layer? If this is incorrect. What is a better breed to cross?

My original concern is that if I bred the heritage RIR (roo) to production RIR (hen), will the rooster offspring be able to be crossed with another breed to produce a sex-link chicken or do I need to stick with a heritage RIR rooster to get the sex-link?

We have chickens for mostly egg production and some for egg color. With this post I am not concerned about egg color .

Thank you,


John

 

[av8torcrj]

Regarding raising your own sex links, this spring I crossed cackle RIR roo with cackle Delaware hens and am very (initially) pleased with the result. The hatch was straight 50/50 and clearly sex linked. The pullets have been fast growing and very chunky/healthy and best of all easily approached to almost friendly. The cackle Roos are beautiful birds and have never shown a moment of human aggression. The delawares are calm approachable birds that are laying medium sized pale brown eggs. Hopefully the cross will produce a slightly larger, slightly darker egg. These are some of my favorite birds of this season hatch.

 

[sylviethecochin]

Thanks for the great replies so far!!
Sylvie,
The cross is hopefully for a sex link chicken that will be a good layer. I may be incorrect in my thinking but I was thinking that crossing a RIR rooster with SLW would produce a sex-link chicken that would be a good layer? If this is incorrect. What is a better breed to cross?

My original concern is that if I bred the heritage RIR (roo) to production RIR (hen), will the rooster offspring be able to be crossed with another breed to produce a sex-link chicken or do I need to stick with a heritage RIR rooster to get the sex-link?

We have chickens for mostly egg production and some for egg color. With this post I am not concerned about egg color .

Thank you,


John

Sorry—was out rescuing a batch of bantam peeps from the rain

Silver-laced Wyandottes are decent layers (supposed to be about 200 eggs a year) but they're not excellent layers. If you're breeding primarily for sex-linked egg production, I wouldn't use them. Rhode Island whites, maybe, if you can get them (280 eggs/yr)—Hatchery cross is called an ISA brown, but you won't replicate what the hatchery gets, because they use different breeding lines to get their production birds. Delawares are good, too (280 eggs/yr)—cross is called Amberlinks

Barred rock hens are very good layers, and they are sexlinked when crossed with a non-barred rooster (though you want to have one dark enough so that you can tell whether the peeps are barred. Leghorns=not good for this). They lay about 280 a year. (Cross called black star) Dominiques also have the sex-linked barring gene and are supposed to lay a lot of eggs (these can go broody, though, if that's a concern) No idea if there is a cross, or what it's called.

Any gold-based rooster from gold-based stock will have sexlinked chicks when crossed with a silver hen. (Not a white hen. If you didn't know, the colors are different genes, though they look the same.)

 

[av8torcrj]

RE: Rhode Island whites, I've got some from cackle, nothing especially notable about them, neighbor has some from Ideal, this seasons eary hatch and they are stunningly beautiful. If I had room they'd be next on my list.