Sex Link question

[Sonoran Silkies]

I assume they also maintain flocks of the parent stock--each half of the cross also bred pure for maintaining the flock as well as crossed to sell.

 

[digitS']

I didn't know about different size spots on BR's! I've had BR's pullets a few years ago. And, when 2 chicks came complimentary with my Australorps last year, I assumed that they were Black Sex-link roos.

Then those 2 grew up and I was surprised that I had BR pullets again!

I bet the breeder farms maintain strains over several generations of the sex-link parents. That's what they do with every other commercial strain. It's like 4 or 6 lines separate that are brought together to produce the production flock hatching eggs.

I've wondered if this was more true with the red sex-links and maybe not true at all with the black sex-link. That the blacks would have just RIR x BR parents. But, I have been made aware that there are plenty of black sex-link commercial flocks kicking out eggs for the brown egg market.

These guys in the industry guard their genetic lines, jealously. It is really their stock-in-trade. I got a little bit of a look here, thru the Canadian Ag Ministry.

Steve

 

[digitS']

For a layman, this page on the Canadian Ag Ministry's website was quite an eye-opener:

http://www4.agr.gc.ca/AAFC-AAC/display-afficher.do?id=1184267856158&lang=eng

Scroll down to: Industry Structure

The production flock is the 6th generation in this example.

Steve

edited: Sorry, that's the 5th generation, can't count . . .

 

[Krys109uk]

I didn't know about different size spots on BR's!

The reason it works is bcause the sex linked barring gene is what is known as "dose dependent" which means that birds with two barring genes show the trait more than those with only one. You may have noticed that the adult plumage of the barred males usually has a lighter appearance with narrower barring than in the females. If you see a male with only one barring gene he will have the same the same appearace as the female. It is this the number of barring genes which affects the head spot. Two barring genes, which is only possible in males, gives a bigger, more noticeable head spot than one gene. But if a male just happens to have only one barring gene, it will look, as regards head spots or plumage colour, like a female.​

 

[cybercat]

Kim_NC I was planning on what you mentioned from the get go. I like the artistry of breeding animals. Been doing it for years with many different types. Chickens will just be something new to work with that way.

Steve interesting article to say the least. What caught my attention was one company had 50% of the breeding flock.

Thanks again all for the information. It is possible so I shall see if there is a market for it. They might not be hatchery stock but around here I do not think that matters as much. Either way it would be a year down the road before I started that project.

 

[Kim_NC]

Quote:
The reason it works is bcause the sex linked barring gene is what is known as "dose dependent" which means that birds with two barring genes show the trait more than those with only one. You may have noticed that the adult plumage of the barred males usually has a lighter appearance with narrower barring than in the females. If you see a male with only one barring gene he will have the same the same appearace as the female. It is this the number of barring genes which affects the head spot. Two barring genes, which is only possible in males, gives a bigger, more noticeable head spot than one gene. But if a male just happens to have only one barring gene, it will look, as regards head spots or plumage colour, like a female.

Great explanation!

Quote:
Cybercat -I like the artistry of breeding too. I grew up in a family of dairy cow farmers, rabbit hound and quarter horse breeders. My grandfather was a big time horse show judge in the Northeast, as well as a major rabbit hound breeder. He sold rabbit hounds to buyers in India for thousands of dollars in the mid-70s-80s.

LOL...but fowl (geese, chickens, ducks) were just "barnyard whatevers" on the family farm. But I always knew the same basic breeding principles applied to fowl.

Now a couple decades later, my husband and I do our own breeding with our poultry and our cattle on our small homestead. We turn out some very nice laying chickens, sexlinks included.

And you will too...just follow that selective breeding/culling plan !