Sexlink Chicken Egg Offspring

[knute_m]

A friend got her husband and daughter an egg incubator for Christmas. They've asked me for fertilized eggs.

Our current small flock of egg producers includes nine red sexlink hens and one red sexlink rooster (a culling error). These aren't true hybrids -- at least I don't think so -- so I'm assuming they will hatch.

Does anyone know what kind of offspring they will create, if any? (I will be the recipient of the offspring after they are a few weeks old -- oh, whoopie!)

 

[randy41]

I'm pretty sure they will produce offspring but they will not be sexlinked. Sexlinks are when you mate a purebred male of one type with a purebred female of another type and the resultant chick's sex is easy to identify because of the color. An example of this is mating a rhode island red rooster with a bared rock hen. the resultant pullets are red and the cockerals are striped.

 

[Tororider]

Randy is correct, they will not breed pure. You will end up with "mutts". They could be really cool looking but they won't be purebreds. Post some pics when you get them back.

 

[knute_m]

Thanks guys. I figured they'd probably hatch. "Mutts" is a good description of what I'll probably get.

These sexlinks have really spoiled us though. It's the first experience with crossbred layers. They've been laying since mid-August, and we've consistently gotten more than five dozen eggs per week from nine hens. I figured they would have slowed down by now with the short days, but they are still going strong.

I've never had chickens that laid this consistently -- plus they are darn friendly, including the rooster. Almost too friendly. They are almost as curious as cats, sometimes making it difficult to do outdoor work.