Sex Link Chickens

[FarmGirl21]

How do you sex the new chicks from these crosses? Will they all be sex-linked? which sex has the 'dot' and which sex has the color for each?

RIR roo x WLH hen
RIR x BR hen

BR roox RIR hen
BR roo x WLH hen

BO roo x RIR hen
BO roo X BR hen
BO roo x WLH hen

 

[crperdue]

Let me take a stab at that:

RIR roo x WLH hen = Red Sex Link (white cockrels, red pullets)
RIR x BR hen = Black Sex Link (Black chicks, cockrels have white dot on head)
BR roox RIR hen This pairing does not produce sex linked chicks.
BR roo x WLH hen This pairing does not produce sex linked chicks.
BO roo x RIR hen This pairing does not produce sex linked chicks.
BO roo X BR hen = Black Sex Link
BO roo x WLH hen = Red Sex Link (well, maybe Buff sex link is more like it..)

For sex link chicks you need a red male (RIR, New Hampshire, Production Red, Buckeye, etc. Buffs will work too) and you need a female with either the SILVER gene or the BARRED gene.

Silver gene = White leghorns, Delewares, etc.
Barred gene= Barred Rock, Barred Holland, etc.

You can't lump all sex link chicks into one catergory. I've often heard that red sex links are some of the best layers. But look at this example. A Production Red rooster and white leghorn hens will create some great layers, but a New Hampshire rooster and Deleware hens would make chicks that would be more meaty and not as good at laying eggs!

 

[AngieChick]

Quote:
Wow, thank you for clarifying the differences in types of sex links. I have golden comets and assumed they were the same as a cinnamon queen, just a different name.

Ditto on what was stated in another post, my RSLs are the sweetest of my birds. Also, one started laying a couple of weeks ago and has only missed one day. This with no supplemental lights and in a northerly winter light pattern (dark by 4 and not light again until after 7:15).

 

[Lee]

Quote:
Yes, I appreciate that good info, too.

 

[ella]

A White Leghorn doesn't necessarily carry the silver gene, it can, but not all do. If your particular Leghorn doesn't, the chicks won't be sex linked. I don't know if there is any way to tell if a particular hen does have the gene. The same goes for other white birds like White Rocks.

Sex links you buy from a hatchery are from highly specialized strains. The parent lines have been perfected to make for very productive offspring. That's why they're consistently good layers. Crossing your average backyard Reds and Rocks won't be quite as effective.

Farm Girl, if you have a hatch with some chicks from each of those crosses you might have a tough time telling who's who.

For instance both male and female offspring from the barred male over any female will be a black chick with a white spot on the head. So NOT a sex link.

But, the offspring from the red or buff male over the barred female WILL be sex linked- only the males will have the head spot.

But you won't be able to tell which is which if you didn't keep track of who bred with whom. Does that make sense?

You might also have trouble telling the buff over red babies (both genders) from the (female only) red over silver chicks.

 

[Peet Robberts]

can someone tell me if you would get a red sex link if you cross white leghorn rooster withe rhode island red hen. I had a brown leghorn rooster with the hen that give me a pure wite chick, now from what i understude that chick a male.chick 1 1/2 week old

 

[()relics]

This whole sex link idea fascinates me, as you can read in post of mine in another thread. It seems no one has the exact "recipe" for any of the above listed hybrid birds....don't ask a hatchery they guard their hybrid secrets with coded passwords and secret handshakes...they may tell you something but don't bank on it being exact....like leaving out the baking powder in a cake recipe.
To make matters worse along come the amateurs with their special recipes... some work some don't......and no one can prove anything until the hatch and the following laying session have taken place, again see other post/thread. Search Ebay for sex link chickens...right now and you will find a current auction....I have asked this seller 3 different times to clarify his listing and all I got was "they were bred by red sex link chickens"????? I think the eggs in question were actually laid by sex links probably with a sex link rooster but again who would know...except to wait 21 days then 19+ weeks.....

 

[gapeachy]

I have one sexlink and I think she is the most beautiful chicken I have ever seen....

 

[mjdtexan]

Here is a brief overview from Ideal Poultry's WEBSITE <----Klick

Just click on the sex-link you are curious about and it will give details.

Mike D

 

[digitS']

Quote:
I'm a little fascinated with this whole color sexing thing, too.

Your Brown Leghorn sire crossed with a White Leghorn dam may produce sex-linked chicks. It depends on whether that White LH hen is hiding a silver gene as Ella says. Neither a White LH roo nor a Rhode Island Red hen would figure into any sex-link breeding.

If I've got it right, solid-colored sires and "silver" dams produce sex-linked colors in the offspring. The silver may be hidden in a white hen. Or, the silver is not hidden as in a Barred Rock hen - she's showing her silver.

Using hens that are Barred Rock or Silver Laced Wyandotte, or Delawares with a red rooster looks like an easy cross for most backyard chicken-keepers. The rooster can be a RIR, New Hampshire, or a Production Red. The chicks will be cockerels with barring like the dams and the pullets with the solid coloring of the sires.

It was a little surprising to me to learn that "buffs" are the same as "reds." So, the sires can be Buff Orpingtons instead of a RIR, for example.

Even more surprising when I asked on the breeds forum was to learn that "blacks" are solid-colors and fill the requirements for the sires, also! So, the sires can be Black Australorps. A BA sire and a BR dam would produce black chicks without any red (or buff) feathers. However, the cockerels will have barring and the pullets will not.

Things might get a little complicated with variety choices within the same breed but I don't really see why. The Leghorns come in the familiar White (whether hiding silver, or not) and Silver. One of those White (silver) or Silver dams with a Brown, Red, Buff, or Black Leghorn sire should produce offspring with sex-linked colors.

Please understand that I don't really know chicken genetics and I still, still, still don't know how Rhode Island Red sires and Rhode Island White dams produce sex-links! Perhaps there's a "Rhode Island Silver" that I don't know anything about. Maybe the "Rhodebar" that lives in the UK plays a part in this. And, perhaps this is one of those guarded secrets to which Relics refers.

Steve