Sex- linked Information

[lauranickerson]

Black Sex Links and Golden Comets are just marketing names. They really don’t tell you much about the parents so you don’t know what genetics are involved. If you look at the very first post in this thread, you can see a chart that shows which breeds could be crossed to make red sex links. Any of those could be in your Golden Comets, though most hatchery chicks will be from a fairly limited number of those. Or your Golden Comets could be commercial red sex links. Who knows what color and pattern genetics are in those?

Same with your Black Sex Links. There is another chart in that post that shows what breeds could be in the Black Sex links. Or again, they could be based on the commercial egg layers. There is no telling what color and pattern genetics are hiding under that black barring.

The only thing I’m sure of is that your Golden Comet hens will be contributing a gold gene to her sons. But that could be pretty irrelevant. Gold is easily dominated by silver or black. Your GC rooster will be split for gold and silver. That means he will give about half his offspring a gold gene and half a silver. Silver can make a version of white depending on what else it is mixed with. Or it may just disappear, like the gold (red) may disappear.

The BSL rooster will be split for barred. That means half his offspring will be barred and half won’t be. It’s purely random which of how offspring get that. As far as color, there is a real good chance he will have at least one extended black gene. No guarantees but a real good chance. Who knows what that other gene might be? Then there are a whole lot of other pattern genes that could be hiding in there. Other than half being barred and half not barred, there is no telling what you will get with the BSL rooster, though there is a real good chance black will be pretty prevalent in some.

Both these are hybrids. When you mix crosses, there are a lot of possible combinations you could get.

If the parents are good egg layers, the offspring will almost certainly be good egg layers. These apparently came from a hatchery. They are practically guaranteed to be good egg layers. Their offspring should be really good too.

“Pretty” is in the eye of the beholder. Even if I knew what color and pattern the chicks would be, I would have no idea what you consider pretty.

Thank you so much for the explanation. I'm not sure why, but I thought for some dumb reason that they would make babies that are good for nothing. Haha. Not really sure why I thought that. But yeah, they should be really good layers - that's why I got the ones I did. The Buff Orpingtons were labeled simply "High production pullet," and found out later what they really were. I kind of wish I would have ended up with some BSL pullets, but I guess that's just how it goes. My fault for just jumping into it without researching BSL, because I could have easily had all girls if I knew what to look for. I'll know next time how to pick out the ladies in a BSL mix.

SOOO excited to see some cute little mutts, err, double mutts. Haha. If everything pans out correctly, I'll be picking up a few more chicks tomorrow: Golden/Silver Laced Wyandotte, Ameraucanas, and some Amber links.

I'm super excited!

 

[1Chick Magnet]

Can you use a blue copper maran rooster to get sex-linked chicks? if yes, what should I breed him to?

Would a cuckoo maran hen work?

 

[tadkerson]

blue copper male x cuckoo female = black sex linked offspring

 

[Kansaseq]

I have a question. I bred my Delaware rooster to a lavender Ameraucana and got a barred chick which had a white spot on it's head. Is it a cockerel?

 

[draye]

Quote:
You'll have to wait and see. Delware over LAvender is not a sex linked cross. Sorry.

 

[1Chick Magnet]

blue copper male x cuckoo female = black sex linked offspring

thankyou. would any barred hen get the same result?

 

[Arielle]

Quote: For what it's worth---I use three different barred hens: one with EE breeding, one with marans breeding and one with hamburg breeding. Each have barring and at least one black gene, so I use a black( double black) rooster on the girls to be sure to get a black downed chick.

Hen can only carry ONE barring gene-- what you see is what you get.

 

[el pollo rey]

?

 

[1Chick Magnet]

For what it's worth---I use three different barred hens: one with EE breeding, one with marans breeding and one with hamburg breeding. Each have barring and at least one black gene, so I use a black( double black) rooster on the girls to be sure to get a black downed chick.

Hen can only carry ONE barring gene-- what you see is what you get.

that is good to know. I have some chicks growing out that are half legbar. they are barred. I was wondering if the barred hens would work for sex linked crosses. they are pretty and I am trying to justify keeping them. I was also wondering if double laced hens can be used to sex link. any info would be helpful.

 

[tadkerson]

Read the very first post in this string.

Tim