sexlink?

i have a game rooster and what we thought was a dominique hen (we now think she may be a plymouth) and we decided to incubate a few eggs just to see what would happen and the morning of November 2 (also the birthday of the my best friend whom i got the hen from) this little guy/gal hatched! I know that RIR roo and a Plymouth hen will give you a Plymouth chick look-a-like sexlink but will a game rooster (the kind used for fighting) and a dominique (or plymouth)

the chick looks exactly like a plymouth chick (all black with white spot on head, white wing tips and white belly and chest)

the pic is a little fuzzy it wouldnt stay still
the rest are due any day now ( the eggs went in at different times)

how are the eggs going i hatched a little somthimg on the 7th it could be silky cross golden sexlink or black sex link cross golden sexlink

this little guy turned out to be a plymouth barred rock! and he is beautiful! he has the longest legs Ive ever seen on a chicken or rooster! he stands a little over 1 1/2 feet tall!!!
out of the 6 eggs that hatched 5 were roosters and only 1 hen... just my luck!

heres some pics of the babies all grown up
you can tell by the names we were hoping the hes were shes... :-/

this one is Dotty.. he is in love with me and my ankles...

This message was edited Aug 1, 2008 3:00 AM

here is Shirley (as in Temple) re-named Buddy by the new owners

Ethel (the hen is named Lucy... pic to come).. he now thinks hes a guinea...

this is the late Darling Boy

and last this is Erkel... notice his sweater vest lol

awwwwww they are so cute. cant wait till mine grow up so I know what they are. Then the fun will begin for me.

They're all adorable! I especially like "Buddy". Thanks for the pics!

I`m new at this,I have four black sexlinks and four golden comet hens and one black sexlink rooster.I was told that they will not go broody because that has been bred out of them is this true?They are three months old now.green

I think that it is true the tendency to go broody has been bred out of the egg-laying sex-linked. But individual birds may still do it--just not as likely.

my isa browns dont go but my black-sex links go once a year but they are not realy good at laying eggs anyway i think wat catscan is true

Hi josh!

hi catscan

Hi josh & Catscan! lol!

LOL
hey 1Anjl

Hey 1AnjL, Josh & Catscan! And Guineagirl!

I've got a question. My baby chicks look pretty much like the one in the first pic on this thread. The mom is an unknown black chicken. The dad is one of three roosters - barred rock, australorp or light brahma. I am just starting to see feathers coming in at the very outer-back edges of the wings. They are coming in different colours on different chicks. Some have a bit of white, some have black/brown. Are those going to be the final colours or do they change as they get older? When will I be able to tell if they are roosters?

It's neat how guineagirl's brood all came out different. Were they from the same clutch?

Claire

Claire,
Out of a black sex-link, black giant crossing we got 1 black roo with small gold ruff, 1 copper and black roo with white tips to his tailfeathers, 1 blond and black with green tips to his tailfeathers, and one all black, black-eyed hen. Then they grew up and we got some barred rock hens to add. Those 3 roos crossed with either black sex-link or barred rock and produced everything from black to brindle to golden brown w/ black flecks. Many chicks have had whitish blond wingtips at first, but the colors have really changed or rather they keep developing.

Interesting! Thanks grownut! I have some chicks with those whitish tips right now too. Some with what looks to be black and brown striping. It's so exciting to see them come into their real feathers and find out how they will look! I wish I knew what the mom was. She was a small stature black hen with a white spotch on one wing. Small comb. Very petite. I wish we could find her - she is the one that has escaped.
Claire

I'd love to hear (or see) how they grow out. Ours have all ended up beautiful, but they weren't always that way except maybe to me. Those white tips may be a barred rock trait. I don't have enough experience to know what else has 'em though.

Here's a few wing pics - not a LOT of difference in the pics, but you can see some.

wing 1

Wing1 is pretty much black.

Here is wing 2, with some white/cream edging.

Wing 3
Also has some lighter spots.

Wing 4 has slightly brownish striping. Hard to see in the photo. It's like black and chocolate.

Here's the group. I love 'em all!

the ones with the white spots on their heads look like my lil Barred Plymouth rocks... not sure if sexlinks have the same markings tho... I'm still learning!

Ahhhh! They do look sort of Australorp, Marans, Barred Rockish--Reseachers have already identified over thirty genes that contribute to chicken colors (plumage, skin, eyes etc). I found this article on the chicken genome project--beats arabidopsis! (I hate arabidopsis!)

http://www.nature.com/hdy/journal/v94/n6/full/6800665a.html

This message was edited Aug 6, 2008 11:10 PM

I hope the white spots on the heads don't = roosters.

Oh Catscan, you hit the nail on the head. I hate Arabidopsis too. And yet I have to write about them nearly every day. Beastly little plants. Really good for gene testing though, and they're full of useful promoters. Still, I thought I'd left them behind when I left the lab, but now that I'm in patent law, I write about them instead of growing them. They never go away....

hmmm, was about to say, i see three roos there. but it does depend on the size and shape of the spot. it indicates that those chicks will be barred. and the small more circular spot is a hen, the larger, more obtuse, the roo. os, like i said, it looks like three toos there.

even with purebred blacks, you will see brown and esp bronze come out from time to time...

warning, they double in size and replace their feathers every WEEK, so take LOTS of pictures. its as much fun as watching corn and sunflowers grow! [well, for me, anyhow!]

tf

do the spots on their heads change when they are fully fledged?

yes. no more spots.