Mixed flock - all sex link chicks

[puddleglumWI]

Hi all,

If I had a New Hampshire rooster with the following hens:
4 Salmon Faverolle
4 Cuckoo Marans
4 Plymouth Barred Rock
4 Cream Legbar

I believe all of the chicks would be sex link. the Faverolles would have silver males and red females, and the Marans, Rocks, and Legbars would have black sex link chicks distinguishable by head spot. Am I correct about this?

Is this mix OK as far as numbers of each breed, so a breed doesn't get picked on for being the "weird" ones?

Thank you,
-pg

 

[NatJ]

I believe all of the chicks would be sex link. the Faverolles would have silver males and red females, and the Marans, Rocks, and Legbars would have black sex link chicks distinguishable by head spot. Am I correct about this?

Almost correct.

Chicks from the Legbars will not be "black" sexlinks, because they will not be black. They will be some shade of red or brown, probably with chipmunk stripes. But if you mean that males will have barring and females will not, yes that will be result from Legbar hens and New Hampshire rooster.

With the Legbar-mix chicks, the males will have the barring gene (inherited from their Legbar mothers), but I do not think they will be sexable by looking for head spots. After all, Cream Legbar pullets usually don't show headspots, even though they have the barring gene too. It seems to be an effect of the down color, that headspots don't show up unless the chick has two barring genes (Legbar males). Your sexlinks will have only one barring gene.

For the Legbar-mix chicks, you may be able to sex them by looking for barring in the feathers when they start to come in. But depending on how soon the males grow their wattles, this may not save you much time.

Is this mix OK as far as numbers of each breed, so a breed doesn't get picked on for being the "weird" ones?

Probably yes, they will be okay.