Breeding and Genetics: Black sex link rooster and rhode island red hen

[Leilukka]

I want to breed and hatch a black star and possibly sell black stars as well. I don't have a rhode island red rooster. I only have a Black Sex link (ameraucana dad and barred rock mom) and rhode island red hens. So, will a black sex link rooster and rhode island red hen produce a black star (sex link) just the same as a rhode island red rooster and barred rock hen?

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

No, they won’t

 

[NatJ]

I want to breed and hatch a black star and possibly sell black stars as well. I don't have a rhode island red rooster. I only have a Black Sex link (ameraucana dad and barred rock mom) and rhode island red hens. So, will a black sex link rooster and rhode island red hen produce a black star (sex link) just the same as a rhode island red rooster and barred rock hen?

Unless you have the exact right parent chickens, yours will not be Black Stars.

Black Stars are specific colors that can be sorted by sex at hatch, they lay brown eggs, and they have single combs.

Your chicks will not be color-sexable, some may have colors that Black Stars never do, some will probably grow up to lay green eggs, and some will have pea combs. Definitely not right for Black Stars.

will a black sex link rooster and rhode island red hen produce a black star (sex link) just the same as a rhode island red rooster and barred rock hen?

For the color sexing to work right, there must be a barred hen and a not-barred rooster. That is the only way to make that kind of color-sexing work.

The reason that works for sexing:
Barring is on the Z sex chromosome.
Roosters have two Z sex chromosome. Hens have ZW.

So a rooster gives one Z chromosome to each chick, male and female alike. A not-barred rooster gives that to each of his chicks.

A hen gives a Z chromosome to each son, and W to each daughter. So a barred hen gives barring to her sons, but not to her daughters (the daughters are getting W to make them female.)

If the sons inherit barring from their mother, and the daughters do not; and if none of them inherit barring from their father; then the sons will be barred and the daughters will not be barred, so they can be sexed by looking for the light dot on the head (caused by the barring gene.)

So color-sexable chicks could come from any not-barred rooster (Rhode Island Red, New Hampshire, Black Jersey Giant, Gold Laced Wyandotte, etc.) paired with any barred hen (Barred Rock, Dominique, Cuckoo Marans, etc.)

But a barred rooster can give barring to his sons and his daughters (because he gives a Z chromosome to each one of them), and that means you cannot sex them by looking for barring.