Sex- linked Information

[piglett]

it's looking like my red sexlink project is a bust

all of the eggs from my white hens are clear

i already did a trim job on their butts

i figured my roo was a dud so i removed him & put a pair of 20 week old red cockerels in the coop

3 weeks later i still get clear eggs

the boys are crowing

nice red combs

 

[farmhand]

Quote: Separate question but relating; my project for year one, Black Ark Blue over CA Gray for sex-links. My question is year two. If I keep a Barred sex-linked Ro and breed back to Ark Blue, what % will be barred?
And then year 3 I do the same thing ???

 

[dheltzel]

Separate question but relating; my project for year one, Black Ark Blue over CA Gray for sex-links. My question is year two. If I keep a Barred sex-linked Ro and breed back to Ark Blue, what % will be barred?
And then year 3 I do the same thing ???

If the roo is single barred (it's father was not barred, only the mother), then it will contribute a barring gene to only half it's offspring. If bred to a non-barred female, then half of both sexes will be barred.

 

[farmhand]

Quote: So the roo contributes a single barred gene going to half it's offspring, and I cull non barred chicks and breed back again. What % barred will I get?

 

[dheltzel]

As long as you are breeding with only 1 of the parents barred, you will always get single barred offspring (of those that are barred, some may be non-barred of course). To get a true breeding barred strain, you must use double barred roos, those are obtained by crossing 2 single barred birds (females are always single barred) and half the roos will be double barred, those are generally lighter in color.

A double barred roo can be used to establish a strain with barring by crossing to a non-barred female and using any of the resulting females (all will be barred) to breed back to their father to establish the true-breeding (WRT barring) strain.

 

[farmhand]

As long as you are breeding with only 1 of the parents barred, you will always get single barred offspring (of those that are barred, some may be non-barred of course). To get a true breeding barred strain, you must use double barred roos, those are obtained by crossing 2 single barred birds (females are always single barred) and half the roos will be double barred, those are generally lighter in color.

A double barred roo can be used to establish a strain with barring by crossing to a non-barred female and using any of the resulting females (all will be barred) to breed back to their father to establish the true-breeding (WRT barring) strain.

So by starting with a barred hen and non barred Roo, I'll get sex-links, but never in the future be able to achieve birds with double barred genes without breeding back to a barred roo?

 

[ronott1]

So by starting with a barred hen and non barred Roo, I'll get sex-links, but never in the future be able to achieve birds with double barred genes without breeding back to a barred roo?

Sex link is one way.

Look into what you need to do to create auto sexing--of course Cream legbars are already auto sexing.

 

[dheltzel]

So by starting with a barred hen and non barred Roo, I'll get sex-links, but never in the future be able to achieve birds with double barred genes without breeding back to a barred roo?

True, but you don't need a double barred roo to get sex links in the future, you only need to get back to a (single barred) hen. So, keep a single barred roo, breed it to a non-barred hen, and half the resulting females will be barred, they make black sex links when bred to a non-barred roo.

Sex linkage is "one way" in the the first generation, but you can perpetuate sex-linkage by breeding a barred F1 roo back to it's sisters to get barred hens again. Of course this is not done commercially because it's easier to keep 2 lines of pure barred and non-barred birds to hybridize for 100% sex linkage in every generation. I mention it in case someone is breeding for some other trait (like egg color for ex) and wants to have a single pen that produce both barred and non-barred for future sex links. In that case, you don't want to keep double barred roos, breeding single barred roos to any hens will produce a mix of barred traits, allowing you to pursue other genetic goals and only discard any double barred roos as you go.

Easier to develop autosexing? Maybe, but what if you want a black bird with a certain other trait and want to make sexlinks within the strain in the future? Pure black pullets are never true autosexing, because it requires full barring in both parents.

 

[Ridgerunner]

So by starting with a barred hen and non barred Roo,  I'll get sex-links, but never in the future be able to achieve birds with double barred genes without breeding back to a barred roo?

I’m getting lost here. What are you trying to achieve? What is your goal? Maybe Dheltzel can tell where you are headed but I can’t. Maybe I missed that, but if I knew your goal I may or may not be able to help.

Do you actually want a double barred rooster in the future from the offspring of that cross?

 

[englishcockers]

So by starting with a barred hen and non barred Roo, I'll get sex-links, but never in the future be able to achieve birds with double barred genes without breeding back to a barred roo?

I too am not sure of your goals,But if you are asking if you can get to double barring without bringing in more California grey blood the answer is Yes!. half of the barred rooster chicks from a single barred rooster over barred hens will be double barred. They'll probably be lighter. Test breeding will show for sure which are double barred.