Sex- linked Information

[cmom]

Quote: For more information in post #1

There are several sex-linked hybrid types, but these two are the most common.
Red Sex-Links
What is known as the "silver trait" is found in hens of many but not all white-feathered varieties or breeds and some with silver lacing. When crossed with a male without that trait, the male chicks will be white and the female chicks will be the color of the rooster. Rhode Island Reds and New Hampshires, being very productive breeds, are the males most often used. For the silver-factor in the mother, several different breeds and varieties have been experimented with. Among those used commercially have been Rhode Island Whites, White Plymouth Rocks, Delawares, and Silver-Laced Wyandottes. I believe that Golden Comets are produced by crossing a White Plymouth Rock females with a New Hampshire male. In addition to Golden Comets, among the red sex-linked chickens that are most widely available from hatcheries are Red Stars, Cherry Eggers, Cinnamon Queens, Golden Buffs and others such as ISA Browns.
Males hatch out white and, depending on the cross, feather out to pure white or with some black feathering.
Females hatch out buff or red also depending on cross, and they feather out in one of three ways.
Buff with white or tinted undercolor (such as Golden Comet, Rhode Island Red x Rhode Island White)
Red with White or tinted undercolor (Cinnamon Queen)
Red with Red undercolor (Delaware x Production Red) (In this color pattern it is almost impossible to distinguish daughters' color from father's color.)

Black Sex-Links
Black Sex-Links are bred by crossing females that carry a sex-linked barring trait with males do not carry the sex-linked barring trait. Unlike the Red Sex-Links, there is a more subtle difference between the sexes at hatching. Both are mostly black, but males will have a white spot on the head. Rhode Island Reds and New Hampshires males are the most commonly used since they are productive breeds that possess the non-barring trait. Barred Plymouth Rocks are by far the most commonly used females, but any variety with barred or cuckoo feather patterns could also be used. Commercial strains of black sex-links include Black Sex-Links, Black Stars, Rock Reds, etc. What works for the industrial giants, may not work if you try to do your own cross breeding -- or at least not as well as you might hope. Also consider, the commercial strains have been developed using decades of selective breeding for highly productive hens, and the breeding occurs under very highly controlled conditions, so your attempts may not produce the same results.

 

[Tman992]

when my 2 blacksex link breed what coler would they
be.

 

[junebuggena]

No way to know for sure. But the chicks won't be sexlinked, that much is certain.

 

[Kev]

If both of the black sexlinks were out of RIR and barred rock, the chicks will come in Black tail whites, black tail browns/reds, lots more like the sex links with varying amounts of white or brown patterning(this will be the majority), maybe a very few solid blacks or nearly so. On top of that, they will all come in barred and non barred versions.

 

[cmom]

when my 2 blacksex link breed what coler would they
be.

They could be any color and pattern. They are hybrids and don't breed true. You will get chicks but they will be mutts. They may lay well, but from my experience they are not commercial layers. Good luck and have fun...

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yes, you have to know the parentage before you can even make a guess. As you can see from the chart in the first post in this thread there are a lot of different breeds and mixes that can be used. That chart doesn’t include all that can be used to make black sex links.

It gets even more confusing. There are two different kinds of sex links sold by hatcheries, both black and red. One kind is the commercial egg layers. These are normally about the size and conformation of a leghorn. They are small and with not much meat on their bones. They ae bred to produce a lot of large eggs efficiently. With their small bodies they don’t use much feed on body maintenance, a lot more of what they eat goes to egg production.

Then you have the sex links created by crossing two different breeds of dual purpose chickens. These are not commercial layers. Since hatcheries tend to use chickens that lay well to make their dual purpose sex linked crosses these chickens normally lay really well, but they are not the commercial layers. They take on the characteristics of their dual purpose parents.

Ideal’s and Cackle’s black sex links are made using RIR roosters over Barred Rock hens. Those BSL’s are obviously dual purpose type chickens. If you cross these black sex link chicks you will get about ¾ mostly black chicks and ¼ mostly red chicks, though if the BR hens have silver, you can get about 1/8 red and 1/8 mostly white. About half will be barred, male and female. Since they are crosses you will probably get variation between the black, red, and white offspring.

McMurray’s Black Stars appear to be based on the commercial hybrids. Not knowing the parentage mix I have no idea what the offspring from breeding these would look like, but they would make real good laying hens. They probably will not lay as well as their mothers though.

 

[BaileyMChicks]

Can a chick be sex-linked if the dad is a RIR and the mom is a California white? And if so, what down color would the females have?

 

[Kev]

No sex linking from RIR and CW hen, sorry.

Half of the chicks will come out with white down, the rest probably all black It would be tempting to think that's sex linkage but CW are a cross between California gray leghorn(barred) and a white leghorn, making CW to be birds with only one dose of dominant white. Cross this with a colored bird, only half of the chicks will get the dominant white gene(the white chicks).

 

[BaileyMChicks]

Thanks. Is it possible to get sex linked chicks from a RIR roo and a white cochin banty hen?

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you read the very first post in this thread, Tadkerson says that white hens are not very reliable. You don’t know what the white is hiding underneath. They may or may not have the genetics to make sex links. Even if they do you may not be able to see the effect in the down. I can’t tell you that your white won’t work, just that I would not expect it to work. You can try it and see what happens but don’t get your hopes up.