Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

This summer I hatched out Black sexlinks using my black australorp rooster over barred rock hens, they seem to be turning into nice birds. Next summer I plan on trying gold sexlinks using new hampshires over Delaware hens. And may try using welsummer or partridge chantecler over either barred rock or delawares. What kind of sexlinks has everyone else made?

I was thinking of Buckeye over Delaware, myself, for eggs. Someone else tried it and they said they were an incredibly nasty bunch of chicks, the cockerels had to go at 16 weeks, so I've put that on hold. If I can source some nice Delawares that are good layers I might give it a try. True North Farms in BC has production Welsummer over production Light Sussex, they call them Caramel Queens. They are supposedly good egg layers, nice tempered, and they are a pretty columbian gold colour. I was thinking of ordering some hatching eggs next spring.

I have not made any in the past but if things go as planned (which they usually do not). I am thinking of trying a couple of the following sex-link crosses...

RED (GOLD) SEX LINKED

Delaware hen (silver) x Bielefelder rooster (gold) to make brown egg layers
Delaware hen (silver) x Cream Legbar rooster (gold) to make green egg layers.


BLACK-SEX LINKED

Cream Legbar hen x Black Copper Marans rooster to hopefully make Olive egg layers
Barred Rock hens x BC Marans rooster to make brown egg layers.

We will see what happens.

JimW

Welsummer rooster over Delaware hens should be close to those Caramel Queens

The first generation of rhodebar and welbar lines are sexlinks-rhode island red or welsummer boy over barred rock girls. Only you keep the boys to continue with the lines....the girls from those breeding are all still laying-i think they are my only birds laying right now really-and are really sweet. If i didnt have to keep all my cull girls on lines i would only do these as sex links. Theyre good foragers and even better layers. And they lay at least 3 years consistently.

I'm playing with the chocolate gene right now. Only problem is, that I've only got them in bantam. Working to get it into standard sized birds, then cross into production leghorn, just for fun.

Arbor wrote:I'm playing with the chocolate gene right now. Only problem is, that I've only got them in bantam. Working to get it into standard sized birds, then cross into production leghorn, just for fun.

Arbor

I have just started to read up on the chocolate gene, but in turkeys. In turkeys a chocolate bird is basically a black bird which has been diluted to the chocolate coloration by the presence of the sexlinked brown gene. Is it the same in chickens?

I am hoping to obtain some chocolate turkeys this year, with future plans to breed a Chocolate tom with a black hen to produce sex-linked turkeys (All the chocolate poults will be hens and all the Black poults will be toms).

JimW

from what I understood, a chocolate roo on any hen should produce chocolate hens, with Roos not being chocolate (unless you use a chocolate hen of course). Ie, choc roo on barred hen would be choc hens and barred roo (according to chicken calculator). I'm actually hoping to play with turkey genetics too, but might try for calico or blue sweetgrass as it shouldn't require too many crossings.

I mentioned this on the other site but I bred my Barred Rock hens to a show quality Rhode island red rooster, my Barred hens were not show quality but probably close. The results were beautiful shiny black hens, when they stepped out into the sun, they would have that green or purple sheen to them, also some would come out a dark brownish red. I gave up too soon as people didn't want the cross breeds, but afterwards people came back the following years to buy more, they told me the hens were excellent winter layers. All the parent stock is gone now so I don't have the time to start over.

SR I have excellant heritage RIRs I just need some heritage barred rock hens. i was lying in bed thinking about incorporating this into my breeding plans for 2016 last night. haha ya I know im a weird one lol. I think I need 6 barred rock hens and thats all im adding to the flock this year. what did the roosters look like? perfect for the freezer I bet!