Sex- linked Information

[donrae]

Wow, this is all starting to actually make sense, now I am really scared.

Welcome to the dark side

Next you'll be researching incubators, plans for large volume brooders, breeding pens for multiple breeding projects, etc.

 

[cmom]

Someone here correct me if I'm wrong, but as i understand it there are two kinds of white birds. Dominant white and recessive whites. The recessive whites take a white gene from both parents to display white coloring. The dominant whites only take a single gene.
Your chick with the white spot on its head is likely a cockerel since daddy is barred and momma is not. Other than that the rest are a crap shoot. Sex link to sex link will not give you sex linked chicks. Feather sexing only works on some breeds.

This is true. Several years ago I experimented with Red Sex-Links. I originally mated a Single Comb Rhode Island Red male to some Single Comb Rhode Island White females and got the Red Sex-Links. I tried breeding a male RSL to female RSL's from prior breedings and the dominant gene was the white. Sex-Links do not breed true. I also did an experiment with breeding a SC RIR male with Delaware females.

These were the RSL birds I started with.

These are the chicks from the breeding of RSL to RSL.

The chicks that have the coloring of the females, turned out to be males.

 

[cmom]

Sexlinks are cross breeds and do not breed true. You can not make more sexlinks by crossing two sexlinked birds. You need very specific genes, either barring or silver, from the hen in order to make sexlinks.

True. The female chicks were very good layers from my experimental RSL to RSL breeding.

 

[desertrocks]

Welcome to the dark side

Next you'll be researching incubators, plans for large volume brooders, breeding pens for multiple breeding projects, etc.

We entered the dark side when our daughter brought us our first 3 1week old chicks in May. We now have 12 layers, 23 pullets who should start laying within the next 4 weeks or so and 2 cockerels.
We have a fairly decent size customer base available where eggs are concerned as the lady up the street had 30 layers and could not keep eggs in stock just from selling in the neighborhod. In addition, I already have standing orders for between 6-8 dozen a week when the bulk of the girls come online.
There is plan evolving to pick a couple of the more endangered Heritage Breeds to purebreed to do our part to keep them going and also produce hybrids from the selected Heritage breeds to maintain our laying flock and I am sure stock the freezer.
Winter is mild and short-lived here but we pay for that during the summer. This makes outdoor brooding a viable option for much of the year which we hope to use to our advantage. A couple of broodys will be our preferred method of incubation and hatching if we can make that work. We have no plans to do any artificial incubation and instead use the natural instincts of the chickens as much as possible.
Time will tell if it comes to fruition or not, but our grandson will be a year old next April and by his 3rd birthday, we want him to take a basket and collect eggs, hear the roosters crow in the morning, watch the flocks free range the field, see a big, broody hen with a cluster of fuzzy little peepers tucked all around her. All those things that are such a part of Americana that are slowly fading away.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Wow, this is all starting to actually make sense, now I am really scared.

The more I learn about this stuff I find the less I know. You have a right to be scared.

The basics aren’t really that hard. The hen has a dominant gene that she only gives to her sons. Her daughters get nothing from her. The rooster has two recessive genes and he gives a recessive gene to all his offspring. If you can see the difference in the down or some other way at hatch you have a sex link.

Some chicks may be set up right with the gold and silver to make red sex links but you can’t see any yellow or red in the down. A black chick is a good example but there are many more. Some down colors/patterns do not show the head spot on a male black sex link chick, even if the barring is there. An easy example is a solid yellow chick that will be an all-white adult so the barring is hidden at hatch and later. Again there are many examples. So whether or not you can see the effect of that dominant gene at hatch is critical.

Another big problem is that there is hardly ever a way to know the genetic background of a specific chicken unless you really do know it. It’s often very difficult to look at a chicken and really know what the genetics are. Some genes are dominant, some recessive, and some partially or incompletely dominant. The blue feather gene is a good example of how messed up it can be. If you have two copies of the blue gene you get Splash, one copy you get Blue, and no copies you get Black. But that only applies to feathers or parts of feathers that would normally be black. Blue won’t have any effect on feathers that would normally be red or white.

A lot of times things are hiding under other colors. Black is a pretty dominant gene. If the chicken has one black gene and one of something else the Extended Black gene will probably outrank the other gene depending on what else is present. It should always outrank the others but there are always exceptions to anything. White is notorious for hiding other things.

Junebug is basically right that a Barred Rock is just a black bird with barring. The general assumption (one that I usually make) is that it is Extended Black but there are different ways to make black. One forum genetics expert said that you can make a solid black chicken with any of the genes at that locus with the proper modifiers, generally melanizers that turn different feathers black.

There are usually no genetic requirements when you describe a chicken breed. They describe the results, not how you get there. If the SOP (Standard Of Perfection that describes the breed) calls for a black chicken you can use Extended Black or you can use Birchen with Melanizers or something else that turn the chicken solid black. The judge at a show can’t tell the difference genetically, they just see a black chicken.

A few years back I got some black chickens from a breeder, hatching eggs actually. She told me they were Extended Black but there could be some Birchen hiding under there. There was Birchen plus Melanizers in the mix. A few generations later I’m still getting chicks with reddish down at hatch that feather out mostly black when the Melanizers kick in. I can’t think of anything else that could be causing that. Hatchery chicks often get run down because they can have some stuff hiding under their genetics (and they can) but just because they come from a breeder doesn’t mean there are no surprises lurking.

This stuff often makes my head spin. It’s aggravating, frustrating, and at times fascinating. So learn the basics and wrap your head around that, but get ready for the exceptions. They will getcha.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
You would be surprised at how many people are getting into chickens and backyard flocks. I sell my eggs and every once in awhile people will come up and want to see birds or some of my egg customers have family or friends visiting who want to see the chickens. It is fun to take them out and show them the flocks. Sometimes I will let broody's hatch eggs but most of the time I put the eggs I want to hatch in an incubator. I started with a Little Giant styrofoam. I really enjoyed incubating and hatching. In the beginning my hatches weren't great but I kept experimenting until I got very good hatch rates. I think your grandchildren will love it. I do raise pure Heritage Rhode Island Reds and Rhode Island Whites. Here are some chicks of various breeds I hatched out for a friend. Good luck and have fun...

 

[Mutt Farm]

You would be surprised at how many people are getting into chickens and backyard flocks. I sell my eggs and every once in awhile people will come up and want to see birds or some of my egg customers have family or friends visiting who want to see the chickens. It is fun to take them out and show them the flocks. Sometimes I will let broody's hatch eggs but most of the time I put the eggs I want to hatch in an incubator. I started with a Little Giant styrofoam. I really enjoyed incubating and hatching. In the beginning my hatches weren't great but I kept experimenting until I got very good hatch rates. I think your grandchildren will love it. I do raise pure Heritage Rhode Island Reds and Rhode Island Whites. Here are some chicks of various breeds I hatched out for a friend. Good luck and have fun...

Hi! Just a fun fact reply from So Cal. Here at the local feed stores, BYC's and supplies are outselling ALL other supplies! Dog/cat/horse etc! For the first time ever! It's the new suburban craze here and folks don't want eggs from caged hens. A law passed Jan 1 that all Ca egg producers had to be cage free AND Ca apparently will only allow eggs from cage free farms to be sold in the state. We had an egg shortage. Plain eggs are $4.69/dz at the grocery. I've always given away eggs to F&F, now people are begging to buy them. Cities and counties are changing laws to allow BYF,s. It's awesome.
Your chicks are adorable!

 

[cmom]

Quote:
I sell mine for $4.00/doz on my property. It's the same price here in the stores ($3.99, $4.29 range). It pretty much pays for the feed. This time of year I have a lot of non producers from molting, too young to start laying yet and a lot of males.

 

[Mutt Farm]

I sell mine for $4.00/doz on my property. It's the same price here in the stores ($3.99, $4.29 range). It pretty much pays for the feed. This time of year I have a lot of non producers from molting, too young to start laying yet and a lot of males.

I'll pm you, don't want to hi-jack a thread

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Okay, looking to pick some brains here, have read the chart, thread, etc and do have an understanding of it all, but am looking to confirm my thinking on a plan/look for suggestions.
I am looking to add a flock rooster to our setup and think I have settled on a welsummer. My thought process is that in addition to my production hens I will have a few for hatching eggs in the flock.
If i have thought this out correctly, using the welsummer roo I could theoretically hatch red and black sex links as well as having him over a couple of nice welsummer hens for pure chicks. My production breeds for eating eggs would all be brown or blue/green layers, so selecting white layers for the sex linking would make sorting for hatching easy (the welsummers would be apparent as well as my intent is to be selective as to which hems I keep/use). So silver leghorn hens would be a good choice for the rsl and barred Holland for the bsl. Holland are somewhat rare finds, though, so thoughts on another suitable barred hen choice which would produce easily discernable eggs in a flock of mixed standard brown layers?