Sex links

I'm good to you jonny

I've had to delve to the back of beyond to find this little piece of mine.

Sex Linkage.

What this refers to is the fact that if you cross certain breeds of chickens, the resulting chicks can be sexed by the colour as they come out of the egg. In other words, all the females will be one colour and the males a diferent one. Day old chicks are tricky to sex and this trait can be very useful.
You may remember that a few weeks ago, I purchased a set of old farming books that were written in the 1940s. The books are very outdated but are making interesting reading. The poultry book, talks of what are now rare breeds as everyday poultry on the farms of the UK.




I saw them and couldn't resist them, they are first editions written in 1944 and I paid £10 for the seven. I havent seen these before, has anyone else ?
One or two of them, could prove to be very useful, they were originally priced at 4/6d each :thumbup:


To give you an idea of just how much things have changed, heres a list of sex linked pairings that they suggest.

Rhode Island Red X Light Sussex
Rhode Island Red X White Sussex ( I've never heard of White Sussex)
Buff Rock X White Wyandotte
Brown Leghorn X Light Sussex
Brown Leghorn X White Wyandotte
Buff Leghorn X Light Sussex
Buff Leghorn X White Wyandotte

Has anyone ever seen a Buff Leghorn ?

Wellsummer X White Wyandotte
Black Leghorn X Barred Rock
Indian Game X Light Sussex
Indian Game X Faverolle.

Would love to read those books! What a find!!!

I believe that you cross a "gold" cock ie RIR with a "silver" hen to get the sex linkage.So RIR X Light or Silver sussex, I think it has to be a red cock over the light sussex hen though not the other way round. Then you can sex then due to the colour of the chick down.

The manager of the hatchery we use told me that the hens take their colouring from the cockerel, so a Bovans Goldline hen is a cross between a RIR cockerel and a light sussex hen

whereas a white Amberlink hen is the other way round!

also he told us that our Babcock chicks will all be hens as they are sexed by their colours, but with the amberlinks we had 2 cockerals in the batch as they are feather sexed and mistakes are sometimes made!

I think that's the basics, but all this crossing about is VERY scientific nowadays, so don't sue me if it don't work out right!!!!

I think you also have to take into consideration that some characteristics skip a generation like they do with humans, when they may say oh he's got his granddad's nose!!!!!  So you may have a RIR who isn't pure rhodey and goodness knows what you'll end up with, but with the commercial hatcheries, they have all the parent stock and grandparent stock records, so they know what will come out of that egg!