Sex- linked Information

[ChickaLong]

Will a black sex link bred back to a barred rock have the correct barring gene? And if bred to a Rhode island red rooster give a black sex link chick? I think the answers are yes but this is confusing to me. Thank You

 

[Ridgerunner]

Sex of the parents is important. If you breed a black sex link hen with a barred rock rooster, any pullets produced will be barred. So you have that half correct. If you then breed that pullet to a RIR rooster, all males will have one copy of the barring gene and show barring, no pullets will be barred. If instead you breed a black sex link rooster to a barred rock hen, only some pullets will be barred. You could still use the barred pullets but not all pullets will be barred.

But there is a possible complication. How was that original black sex link hen made? Who was her father? For a chick to be a bsl you have to be able to see the spot in the down. To keep it simple, I’m going to use red and black. I could make it more complicated but I see no need.

If the father of the original BSL hen was black, you are probably good to go. If instead he was red then that original BSL has split genetics for both red and black. She got the black from her mother. When you cross that pullet to a BR rooster, any offspring will get black from the BR father but has a 50-50 chance of getting a red from the mother. When you then cross that offspring pullet to a RIR rooster, you have a chance of getting a red chick, not black. If you get a red chick you probably won’t be able to see the spot. If you get a black chick you probably will see the spot. When you use chickens with mixed genetics like you original BSL hen there is always a chance something weird can happen but if the chick is black you’ll probably be OK.

Once the chicks start to feather out you’ll be able to see the barring in the feathers even if they are red so you can sex them at that time. But that is a bit down the road, not at hatch.

You can avoid that uncertainty by using a black rooster instead of a red rooster for that final mating. There are different ways to make black so a problem is possible even with this, but the vast majority of the time you will see the spot whether that offspring pullet has pure black or is split for black and red.

Bottom line. A lot of the times it will work but there are times it will not.

 

[ChickaLong]

Sex of the parents is important. If you breed a black sex link hen with a barred rock rooster, any pullets produced will be barred. So you have that half correct. If you then breed that pullet to a RIR rooster, all males will have one copy of the barring gene and show barring, no pullets will be barred. If instead you breed a black sex link rooster to a barred rock hen, only some pullets will be barred. You could still use the barred pullets but not all pullets will be barred.

But there is a possible complication. How was that original black sex link hen made? Who was her father? For a chick to be a bsl you have to be able to see the spot in the down. To keep it simple, I’m going to use red and black. I could make it more complicated but I see no need.

If the father of the original BSL hen was black, you are probably good to go. If instead he was red then that original BSL has split genetics for both red and black. She got the black from her mother. When you cross that pullet to a BR rooster, any offspring will get black from the BR father but has a 50-50 chance of getting a red from the mother. When you then cross that offspring pullet to a RIR rooster, you have a chance of getting a red chick, not black. If you get a red chick you probably won’t be able to see the spot. If you get a black chick you probably will see the spot. When you use chickens with mixed genetics like you original BSL hen there is always a chance something weird can happen but if the chick is black you’ll probably be OK.

Once the chicks start to feather out you’ll be able to see the barring in the feathers even if they are red so you can sex them at that time. But that is a bit down the road, not at hatch.

You can avoid that uncertainty by using a black rooster instead of a red rooster for that final mating. There are different ways to make black so a problem is possible even with this, but the vast majority of the time you will see the spot whether that offspring pullet has pure black or is split for black and red.

Bottom line. A lot of the times it will work but there are times it will not.

OK, Here is what I am looking at. RIR rooster X BR hen =BSL. Then a BR rooster X previous BSL hen.
I have one of these mixed in with BR hens and she does look different from the BR but is barred. I now have a RIR rooster with these and looking to hatch BSL in the spring. OK, yes, Thank You

 

[cmom]

Quote:
Often times when you breed a Sex-Link back with a Red Male you may not get a Sex-Link. Good luck and have fun.

 

[ChickaLong]

Often times when you breed a Sex-Link back with a Red Male you may not get a Sex-Link. Good luck and have fun.

Thank You.

 

[donrae]

OK, Here is what I am looking at. RIR rooster X BR hen =BSL. Then a BR rooster X previous BSL hen.
I have one of these mixed in with BR hens and she does look different from the BR but is barred. I now have a RIR rooster with these and looking to hatch BSL in the spring. OK, yes, Thank You

If you cross a Red rooster over a barred Rock hen, none of the female offspring will be barred. If you have a barred hen, those aren't the parents.

But, if your hen is black with barring, you should be able to get sex links off her using a solid Red rooster. Do you have a picture of her?

 

[ChickaLong]

If you cross a Red rooster over a barred Rock hen, none of the female offspring will be barred. If you have a barred hen, those aren't the parents.

But, if your hen is black with barring, you should be able to get sex links off her using a solid Red rooster. Do you have a picture of her?

I will try to get a picture. I understand sentence one, she is a BSL. However the BSL hen was bred to a barred rock rooster and this offspring chick grew up barred which is now with the pure barred flock of hens with a RIR rooster. Thank You

 

[Ridgerunner]

When you breed crosses you often don’t know what genes are hiding under there. Sometimes even with “purebreds” you don’t know. I said I was going to stick with red and black, that was for simplification. But I’m going to complicate your hatch a bit more. You could wind up with red sex links from that cross.

If is a big word in the human language. It doesn’t mean it absolutely will happen but under certain conditions it could.

If that barred rock rooster you crossed over the BLS hen had silver (a lot do but all BR don’t’) then your final barred pullet will have silver, not gold. If it is silver, any red chicks would be female and any yellow chicks would be male.

Let’s look at the “if’s”.

Your original BSL hen is split for red and black. When you cross her with a BR rooster, half her offspring will be pure for black and half will be split for red and black. There are other genes involved too so even if she got both blacks she could and probably would look different than your BR hens so you don’t know for sure by looking. If your BR/BSL pullet got both blacks, end of story. You’ll wind up with BSL chicks. But “if” that offspring got a red and a black, this line is still alive.

The second “if”. Gold/Silver is a sex linked gene. If the BR rooster has silver, then your pullet will too. If he has gold, then this line of thought dies and some of the chicks will be black and some red. You’ll probably be able to see the spot on the black but any red chick could be either male or female.

But if you have a pullet split for red/black and with silver and you cross her with a RIR rooster, some of the chicks will be black (and you’ll probably be able to see the spot, That’s not a given with the genes mixed up but probably), and some of the chicks will be either red or yellow. The red will be pullets, the yellow males. If you get all reds, you just don’t know. But if you get even one yellow chick from that cross, the yellows are male and the reds are female.

Isn’t chicken genetics fun? You often have to hatch to see what you get. Enjoy the adventure.

 

[ChickaLong]

When you breed crosses you often don’t know what genes are hiding under there. Sometimes even with “purebreds” you don’t know. I said I was going to stick with red and black, that was for simplification. But I’m going to complicate your hatch a bit more. You could wind up with red sex links from that cross.

If is a big word in the human language. It doesn’t mean it absolutely will happen but under certain conditions it could.

If that barred rock rooster you crossed over the BLS hen had silver (a lot do but all BR don’t’) then your final barred pullet will have silver, not gold. If it is silver, any red chicks would be female and any yellow chicks would be male.

Let’s look at the “if’s”.

Your original BSL hen is split for red and black. When you cross her with a BR rooster, half her offspring will be pure for black and half will be split for red and black. There are other genes involved too so even if she got both blacks she could and probably would look different than your BR hens so you don’t know for sure by looking. If your BR/BSL pullet got both blacks, end of story. You’ll wind up with BSL chicks. But “if” that offspring got a red and a black, this line is still alive.

The second “if”. Gold/Silver is a sex linked gene. If the BR rooster has silver, then your pullet will too. If he has gold, then this line of thought dies and some of the chicks will be black and some red. You’ll probably be able to see the spot on the black but any red chick could be either male or female.

But if you have a pullet split for red/black and with silver and you cross her with a RIR rooster, some of the chicks will be black (and you’ll probably be able to see the spot, That’s not a given with the genes mixed up but probably), and some of the chicks will be either red or yellow. The red will be pullets, the yellow males. If you get all reds, you just don’t know. But if you get even one yellow chick from that cross, the yellows are male and the reds are female.

Isn’t chicken genetics fun? You often have to hatch to see what you get. Enjoy the adventure.

I follow you. Complicated but you simplify it. When I bought the BSL eggs for the 2013 Easter hatch a long I ended up hatching a white chick. I was not sure of the sex even at about 6 weeks when I got rid of it.

 

[dheltzel]

Looking to confirm my understanding before committing to this pairing . .

I am making blue egg laying black sexlinks using California Grey pullets and Ameraucana roos. I was planning to use Black roos, but I have Wheaten Am roos from a line known for very blue eggs. I believe the EB in the pullets will express over the wheaten chick down. Can anyone think of any reason that wheaten would be a problem, or that the blacks would be better?

RIR roos have wheaten genes, right? They are used a lot with BR's for "regular" BSL's.

Last year I used Barred Hollands and Black Ams and the head spots were unreliable, I had to wait about 5 days to examine the primaries. I would love to be able to sex by the head spots at hatch, but think that is hard to predict ahead of time, so I might have to experiment with both roo colors to see if that makes any difference.