The Poultry Keeper

Timbo · Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 206 Location: Cranfield, Beds.

Hi there,

I'm a little confused about something. I understand the sex-linkage idea where you can breed two different breeds together from 'Gold' and 'Silver' lines (eg Buff Orp Cockerel x Light Sussex) to get sex linkage - i.e from the chicks you get Buf Orp pullets and Light Sussex cocks - easy to sex as chicks.... all very good so far.

What I'm wondering is what of the second generation - the buff pullets, if put to a buff cock, will they breed true? Not that I see any good in keeping the light sussex cockerels but would they also breed true? What traits will they pick up from the sussex?

Getting a little further into the plot - I'm trying to improve a utility strain of Buff Orps and I want to improve egg numbers. To do this I'm wondering if I can out-cross to a light sussex strain that has good egg numbers and whether I can get the egg numbers up this way...?

I'm probably way off track here but would appreciate any thoughts on this idea....

Regards,

Tim

Henwife · Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 3469 Location: Monmouthshire

Short answer is no. What you'd get from that cross is gold pullets and silver cockerels, not buff orp and light sussex. However, if you want dual purpose birds to sex at hatch, these are very useful, You can also use a barred hen to a non barred cock which is where you get black pullets and black cockerels with a white head spot. The head spot simply denotes they carry the barring gene and cannot be used to sex barred (or cuckoo) pure breeds.

Timbo · Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 206 Location: Cranfield, Beds.

Thanks Henwife.

So if I were to go about increasing egg numbers in a strain, the only real option is to look at trap nesting and recording egg numbers, selecting the better layers as potential parents?

Thanks, Tim.

Hen-Gen · Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 1:59 pm Post subject:

There is a utility Orpington. Its called an Australorp! Very Happy

Timbo · Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 206 Location: Cranfield, Beds.

Ah yes...the William Cook special...I do have some. Not in buff though Wink

Tim

Woodburner · Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:45 pm Post subject:

You will get red hens and white cocks from mating any red cock with white hens. The parents don't need to be different breeds, and the offspring will be a mix, not true to either parent breed.
I used to be quite interested in sex link crosses until I realised I would never be able to kill a healthy chick!

See the Breeds forum sticky for links for genetics info. Look at the section on inbreeding on the pekinbantams genetics pages for some particualrly pertinent info on breeding good layers.

You will find a lot of useful information here too.