sex link chickens. HELP!!

[Weldon farms]

ive finally made up my mind about the breeding of chickens. ive sold my extra hes and roosters. i have several grown blue orpingtons, so im going to breed those. i recently got 5 barred rock pullets. ive heard that the blue rooster x barred hen creates blue/ black sex links. ive looked up pics, and theres only a few that are supposed to be a sex link. i also have a new hampshire red rooster for another cage. NH red x barred is supposed to make black sex links. ive also heard that i can cross a Nh red rooster with a white leghorn to get red sex links. does anyone have any help or info and pics of these chickens???

 

[Michael OShay]

You've heard correctly about the Black Sex Links. Any solid colored rooster (except white) crossed with a barred hen will give you Black Sex Links. The male chicks will hatch with a white spot on top of their heads, the female chicks will lack the white spot. However White Leghorn hens are unreliable for breeding Red Sex Links as they frequently lack the silver factor gene necessary for Red Sex Links. Instead of crossing your NH rooster with a White Leghorn, you need to go with a silver gene hen such as a Rhode Island White, Silver Laced Wyandotte, Delaware, Light Sussex, etc. Male chicks will be whitish when they hatch, female chicks will be reddish/gold. I don't have a photo of the first Black Sex Link cross you mentioned but I have a photo of the red gene rooster X Barred Rock hen cross below.

 

[Weldon farms]

thanks for your quick reply. i think that ill stay away from the white leghorns then. im hoping to find some pics of the blue sex links. almost all of my birds are blue

 

[donrae]

Just a word of caution on your blue sex links....a few of us here have tried breeding them and the chicks are often ambiguous as to sexing. The blue somehow interferes with giving a head spot that's easy to see. Some may be easy to tell male and female, some will be "Huh. I'm just not sure". the black birds should be easy to visualize, but the blue chicks you'll probably need to grow out some to tell male from female.

Here's pics of a blue pair that were easy to tell....



pullet on the left, cockerel on the right.

sorry for the bad pics, but these were chicks that weren't so cooperative with the color at hatch...





It was very frustrating because I really wanted blue sex links and had worked on the project for a while to get the breeding stock I wanted. I finally decided they're just not reliable enough to sell as sexed day old chicks. I may continue the project and just grow them out longer and sell them as older chicks or point of lay birds.

 

[Michael OShay]

thanks for your quick reply. i think that ill stay away from the white leghorns then. im hoping to find some pics of the blue sex links. almost all of my birds are blue

You're welcome.