Sex linked chicks

[greathorse]

I have a nice group of barred rocks and a Welsummer rooster. He has a lot of red. Will I be able to color sex the chics as if he was a RIR?

 

[ella]

Good question!

I'm not sure... a Welsummer x silver cross will work. I would guess that a Welsummer x barred could too. Unless the Welsummer pattern interferes weirdly with the barring?

Hopefully one of the gentics guys will see this and respond.

 

[skeeter]

you might get a a black sexlink,im not sure what a welsummer looks like though,but a rir or a NH red roo and a barred rock hen will get you a black sexlink

 

[Kev]

Yep, skeeter got it.

Ella & greathorse, any gold base rooster bred with silver base hens will be a sex linked mating. However that is true that in some cases, the sex linking may not be immediately apparent at hatching due to patterning on the down. Silver and barring(that's sex linked too) shows up the most clearest on a black chick.

Black is dominant(but not sex linked) so a cross using barred rock hens is a pretty good cross(in most cases) for this reason as BR are black chickens with the sex linked barring and probably have silver also. The dominant black will make all chicks have black down.. which in turn will show more clearly the white spot on back of head marking the sons in this cross.