The production and longevity of Black Sex Links?

[arizona_chicken_noob]

I bought some Black Star / black sex link chicks by mistake last year and while a little dismayed initially to not have come home with what I thought I bought, I warmed to them when I read that they are an F1 cross of two heritage breeds (Barred Rock x RIR). My primary interest is in low-maintenance heritage birds who will have few health problems, and I really don't care about lay rate.

About 4mos old now, these little ladies are getting rather loud/chatty and I wanted to look more into this cross and what kind of reputation it had.

I'm seeing a couple of old threads on BYC where the BSL is grouped with or adjacent to the red sex linked production birds, who lay like crazy and have health problems at 2-3 years. Are they really in that group? Should I be prepared for these hens to die young? Do you consider the BSL to be a production layer?

Being an f1 sex linked cross is different from being bred for production, or so I thought. Tell me what you know about Black Stars, please!

 

[arizona_chicken_noob]

Giving a bump for this question.... BSL owners, I'm all ears!

 

[Ridgerunner]

The red sex link and black sex links are hugely misunderstood on this forum because there are basically two types of each we can get from the hatcheries.

Some red sex links and some black sex links are commercial hybrids, bred specifically to lay a lot of Grade A Large eggs. They are the ones that lay almost all of the brown eggs you can buy at the grocery store. They have relatively small bodies and are very efficient in converting feed to eggs. Because these are finely tuned to lay a lot of eggs kind of large for their body size they can have medical problems related to laying. That is not what you have.

The other type of red or black sex links we get from the hatcheries are made by crossing two dual purpose breeds to get chicks with the correct genetics so we can tell if they are male or female by down color at hatch. In your case a RIR rooster over a Barred Rock hen. The chicks are going to inherit traits from both parents which means they are going to have the traits of dual purpose chickens, not the traits of the commercial hybrids. They may or may not lay large eggs since all dual purpose breeds don't, but your cross probably does. But they have larger bodies so they can handle it. Yours are not in that group you are worried about.

The red sex links and black sex links refers to colors and patterns of the parents setting it up so you can tell the sex of the chicks at hatch if the parents are set up correctly. You could do that with Silkies, Polish, or any other chickens as long as the feather/patterns of the parents is correct. There is nothing magical about them being sex links that causes them to lay more eggs or develop medical problems.

 

[Rurumo]

The red sex link and black sex links are hugely misunderstood on this forum because there are basically two types of each we can get from the hatcheries.

Some red sex links and some black sex links are commercial hybrids, bred specifically to lay a lot of Grade A Large eggs. They are the ones that lay almost all of the brown eggs you can buy at the grocery store. They have relatively small bodies and are very efficient in converting feed to eggs. Because these are finely tuned to lay a lot of eggs kind of large for their body size they can have medical problems related to laying. That is not what you have.

The other type of red or black sex links we get from the hatcheries are made by crossing two dual purpose breeds to get chicks with the correct genetics so we can tell if they are male or female by down color at hatch. In your case a RIR rooster over a Barred Rock hen. The chicks are going to inherit traits from both parents which means they are going to have the traits of dual purpose chickens, not the traits of the commercial hybrids. They may or may not lay large eggs since all dual purpose breeds don't, but your cross probably does. But they have larger bodies so they can handle it. Yours are not in that group you are worried about.

The red sex links and black sex links refers to colors and patterns of the parents setting it up so you can tell the sex of the chicks at hatch if the parents are set up correctly. You could do that with Silkies, Polish, or any other chickens as long as the feather/patterns of the parents is correct. There is nothing magical about them being sex links that causes them to lay more eggs or develop medical problems.

I've seen you explain this before in another thread and you explained it very well then as now. I grew up with dual purpose hybrids and they were always long lived, very healthy birds that laid medium eggs, and quite a lot of them.

 

[21hens-incharge]

It's a good question to ask.

For me they have been hatchery birds that live long lives and are full of personality while producing well.

I currently have 2 that are 7 and going strong and 3 that are 5 and still doing very well.
I have not experienced the " lays for a year or two then dies from reproductive issues" we see posted often.

 

[arizona_chicken_noob]

Thanks all, exactly what I was looking for. 5-7 years or more would be fantastic

 

[arizona_chicken_noob]

That's a really good point as well, that not all red sex links are production hybrids. That fact did slip my mind, that there are red heritage crosses out there that will (as stated above) lay and live for many years. I assume the Red Star hybrid is one of those.

 

[Mrs. K]

I do see a lot of these posts where people are very worried about short lived birds. But really the age length of a bird is not real cut and dried. Everything does die eventually. Some individuals live longer than others.

I always rather worry about these kind of posts, as I think it sets people to feel like they failed if a bird dies earlier than 6-9 years. Some just do, in my experience a lot of them die well before that, and some die after that. So my point - is give them a good life ...

AND DON"T feel guilty.

Mrs K

 

[Ridgerunner]

I do see a lot of these posts where people are very worried about short lived birds. But really the age length of a bird is not real cut and dried. Everything does die eventually. Some individuals live longer than others.

I always rather worry about these kind of posts, as I think it sets people to feel like they failed if a bird dies earlier than 6-9 years. Some just do, in my experience a lot of them die well before that, and some die after that. So my point - is give them a good life ...

AND DON"T feel guilty.

Mrs K

I totally agree.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I do see a lot of these posts where people are very worried about short lived birds. But really the age length of a bird is not real cut and dried. Everything does die eventually. Some individuals live longer than others.

I always rather worry about these kind of posts, as I think it sets people to feel like they failed if a bird dies earlier than 6-9 years. Some just do, in my experience a lot of them die well before that, and some die after that. So my point - is give them a good life ...

AND DON"T feel guilty.

Mrs K

I agree as well.
Most of my "young deaths" have been in other breeds not the sex links. Birds pass away it's unavoidable.