Sex-links.... Need some picture of your experiments... and input...

[Brunty_Farms]

SO I have 25 Rhode Island Whites and some New Hamp males. I would like to try to raise my own sex links. From my experience the Golden Sex links from the Hatcheries are great but don't believe that I have to keep buying good laying hens yearly. Some of the success with the hatchery stock is genetics but the biggest breeding tool that they have is the hybrid vigor. It is used commercially in both laying and meat flocks. Bottom line the birds just preform better when they are mutts... better genes.

I'm curious to know how peoples projects went with these birds? Any Pics? Crosses Used? I'm looking forward to dealing with this in the future but would love to have some input on others plans or current projects.

 

[RAREROO]

My Rhode Island White hens are almost 6 mos old and when they start laying this spring I will be trying them with a Speckled Sussex, Buff Orp, and maybe a RIR rooster, I will post the results on here once I hatch some and I will contact you personally when I do, I remember you asking about this when you got your RIWs.

I have also bred Sexlinks from a Buff Orp X Barred Rock cross.

And then I have a Spalsh laced Red Wyandotte rooster that is with some Barred Rock hens now, this would produce blue and blue barred Sexlinks,I may hatch a few from them when they start laying, but when my Silver laced Wyandotte hens start laying, he will be going with them to produce BLR and Violet laced sexlinks.

I'll let you all know how it goes.

Here are pics from my Buff Orp roo X Barred Rock hens sexlink

Dayold pullets

Dayold roos

5wk old pullet

5wk old roo

5 month old pullets

5 month old roos

I just sold all the pullets a week or two ago and they weren't laying yet, so I can't tell you anything about their production ability, I wish I had gotten better pics of them right before I sold them.

 

[Mahonri]

I have some GC Marans X Black Sex link... we'll see how they do.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Do you have any pics of your whites for comparison? Min are about 8-10 weeks I believe... I would have to check the calendar. I'm going to be moving them out of the brooder tomorrow so I will take plenty of pics. Right now they are with my EE layers but they look great. I was lucky to get a RIW rooster with them so I can reproduce my own GP stock too. I need to get some New Hamp hens though.

I think I can really do good if I select my grand parent stock for good egg laying traits... then go from their. Do you think if I cross my New Hampshire roos over Rhode Island Red hens (or even the production reds) the roos rom this cross will still work in the sex linkage if I breed them over a RIW hens?

I think the key here is the Hybrid vigor. Keeping the genes fresh all the time by crossing them two generations is what creates that end product that I have to buy year after year.

I'm going to take some pics when I move them out to the big house... Glad you chimed in because I knew somebody was working on a similar project.

 

[TimG]

Quote:
New Hampshires were reportedly developed solely from Rhode Island Reds; though Rhode Island Reds may be a bit darker in general, they have the same coloring genetics as far as the sex-linkage goes. So would the offspring of a cross between New Hampshires and Rhode Island Reds.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Ok that's what I thought. That's good.... that way I can have a hybrid parent stock on the male line. What about the female line? Can I just keep them pure or would it be wise to breed them with a delaware or another hen that carries the silver gene?

My RIW's have single combs. Would breeding those hens to a RIW rosecomb offer enough new genetics to get the hybrid vigor I'm looking for?

 

[Brunty_Farms]

bump

 

[TimG]

Quote:
My guess is no. Wouldn't this be similar to "crossing" two chickens of the same breed that are from lines that were separated many generations ago?

 

[RAREROO]

I don't think I have any pics of mine as they were growing up, I need to get some updated pics of everything but I was going to wait until I start breeding and selling again this year, every one still has to fill out a litte, the the RIW are beautiful, they are one of my favorites.

As for crossing the two red breeds to use their male offspring, I don't see whay that wouldn't work but with the silver hens, I believe if you cross a RIR on the RIWs, you will get resulting females that are red and white(which is the color I would want, and I think when useing a Delaware hen the resulting hens will be red and black, like pro. reds. So I personally wouldn't cross them for the because I would want to make sure I get only red and white females, but if you are not concerned with the color and jsut want great layers with hybrid vigor, then I don't see why that wouldn't work either.

As far as crossing hatchery SC RIWs with true RC RIWs, I don't think they would really be considered the same breed, since the RC RIWs are the only true RIW. The standard does not recognize them as a single combed breed, so hatchery SC RIWs are most likely a cross from years ago with White Rocks or something and as been bred to keep a single comb. So I really don't know if you would get the genetic diversity you are looking for, I think I would personally just keep them like they are but it shouldn't matter if you did cross them.

Be sure to get some pics when you move them and I'll get some soon so you can see what they will look like when they are grown. What hatchery did you get yours from? Mine came from Privett.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Mine did too... do the Hatchery stock even carry the silver gene? I will be so mad if they don't... LOL....