Will I get sex-linked chicks if I cross any of these breeds?

[littlelemon]

I have a white plymouth rock rooster and fertile eggs from my white plymouth rock, barred plymouth rock, buff orphington and EE hens. Obviously I know that the white rock chicks will be just that, but what about the chicks from the white rock/barred rock cross? Or the white rock/buff orph cross?

Also, from reading here I gathered that egg color is determined by the rooster, is that correct? So my white rock/EE cross will probably lay brown eggs? My EE hens lay blue eggs.

This will be my first time incubating some eggs and I am really looking forward to seeing what hatches out!

Thanks for any help you can provide!

 

[kstaven]

With blue eggs you really need both parents to be carrying the gene to continue with blue eggs through your breedings. Breeding back to brown egg layers is where the green shells come into play.

 

[littlelemon]

I have been doing a little research on this, but my goodness, genetics is complicated!

I found this:
http://marsa_sellers.tripod.com/geneticspages/page1.html#t1

This suggests that my White Rock Roo bred with my Barred Rock hens will produce sexlinked offspring. The males will be barred and the females will be non-barred.

I coudn't find anything on crossing a White Rock Roo with a Buff Orph hen (is a Buff Orphington considered a "red"?). If you have done this could you please let me know how the chicks turned out and if they were sex-linked?
Thank you for any and all information!

 

[Kev]

As for white rock x BR, that's not automatic. White is not a color, it is a gene that simply prevents the bird from expressing whatever color or patterns it has. He could easily be a "BR" only you can't see it.

Also there's the problem of there being two main genes for white birds- Dominant White and Recessive White.

So.. if your WR is a black and barred and a recessive white.. then ALL of the babies out of him and the BR will be... BR. No sexlinking there..

If he's Dominant White then majority of the chicks will be either white or white-black or white-buff/red(that would be DW crossed with a Buff Orp). No sex linking there, unless he happens to be gold based and doesn't have the sex linked barring then you may be able to see some barring on the colored parts out of the BR hens.

Chicken color is basically divided between Gold and Silver. Gold is nearly everything that are mainly brown/red/buff.. so a Buff Orp is a gold base. Red is just gold with other genes that darken the gold to red(the Mahogany gene is one). Silver is nearly every chicken that are "black and white" such as Light Brahma(Buff brahma are exactly the same.. just on a wait for it.. gold base.). Silver also happens to be sex linked so, using this example, a Buff Brahma over a Light Brahma hen would give sex linked offspring. However, what isn't so well known is that very frequently both of the offspring will show "leakiness" or imperfect coloring such as the silver(light) cockerels very likely will show buff or red off coloring somewhere on their body.. not a good thing if breeding for show or trying to stay with a standard.

To use the barring for sex linking it is much simpler to use barred hens with colored roosters.. remember white is not a color. RIR or Buff or Black Leghorn etc.

The reason the major producers use "white hens" for sexlinked matings is because they bred those lines to be white AND also have the other sex linked genes(usually barring and silver). So it really is not "white is sex linked".. These hens mainly have Dominant white which just has the side effect of making the chicks easier to sex, as it affects mainly the black pigment.. the cockerels would be silver, barred with dominant white making them extremely light while the hens are gold, no barring so the only effect they get from DW are the white tails and wings with red bodies.

 

[littlelemon]

Ahhh, I see what you are saying about white not being a color. It takes awhile for me to wrap my brain around this stuff. All my white rocks are from a hatchery so I would hopefully assume that they would all be dominant white. We will have to see what comes out of those eggs. I would love a white/buff hen, hopefully I will get some of those.

Thanks so much Kev for taking the time to respond to my post!

What color offspring have others on here gotten with a White Rock roo crossed with another breed of hen?

 

[AtRendeAcres]

confusing to follow!

from what your saying Kev ((if I understood it correctly))

I have BO roo (I can use him as red)

so, if I put him with my barred girls I will get sexlinks (black girls & barred boys)

 

[fancyfowl4ever]

BO roo over Barred rock hens will indeed give you sexlinked chicks!

 

[Kev]

Yes BO over barred will give sex linked chicks.

BTW it's not red.. it's Gold. BO are gold base. RIR are gold base too.. just that RIR have other, extra genes that darken the gold to red.

Silver leghorn are Silver base.. Black breasted red AKA Light Brown leghorns are the gold base version of the same. (and a BBR legorn rooster over silver leghorn hens will give sex linked chicks too grin!)

 

[AtRendeAcres]

I am excited

 

[AtRendeAcres]

so females would be black write?