Could someone tell me what I would get by crossing Silver Laced Wyandottes hens to RIR Males???

I truly don't know. However, I do know that most commercial crosses use a silver female (such as a light Sussex) and a gold male (such as a Rhode Island Red). The female offspring are gold and the males are silver. Color sexing is most commonly used commercially for hybrid brown-egg layers. A popular example is the Hubbard Golden Comet.

The mating that Josh mentions above will hold true. Males of this mating will be silver, probably with a few stray markings of red &/or a goldish tinge in the hackle and saddle. Females will be gold(red), probably with some white markings. Assuming your RIR is single comb & your wyandotte hen is homozygous for rose comb, then all of the offspring will have rose combs.

That is backwards. Rose comb is recessive. So all of the offspring will be single comb assuming that you RIR is homozygous for single comb. All of your broiler chicks are single comb and they are cornish (rose comb) and rock ( single comb) cross. That is why I know this. But I thinks the color gentics are correct.

The original post in this thread exemplifies what I have said in the past.... people really don't want to know any genetics...they want someone to TELL them what they will get if they breed bird X with bird Y...nothing more.

Rose comb is as dominant as any gene can get. All hybrids express it. It is expressed so well that the only way you can tell the homozygotes from the heterozygotes is in males homozygous RR males have sperm that die within 4 days and heterozygotes have sperm that live almost the normal length of time. If breeders could tell the non rose comb carriers in their stocks we wouldn't have the problem of single comb popping up in show stock so often.

To Pgncluck, cornish are pea combed birds, not rosecomb birds, and pea comb is also dominant to single comb. Cornish rocks are not 1st generation crosses between cornish and rocks, they have been selectively bred for generations until they have become the meat producing machines they are today. I am guessing that the pea comb was bred out of them for ease in dubbing them for commercial operations, as a dominant trait (pea comb) is much easier to breed out than a recessive. Not trying to argue here, just want to make sure that correct information is presented.
To Anonymous, not everyone desires to be a genetics expert, and I think that is ok. I am certainly no expert, but I do enjoy sharing my knowledge with others, and occasionally I seek the advice of experts when the genetics outreach by knowledge limitation. I do appreciate all of the advice I get, and I admire those that have the dedication to learn so much about poultry genetics. If I didn't ask questions, I would not learn nearly as much. It is by asking questions that I expand my knowledge and thereby increase my desire to learn more. If one quashes a newcomers initial curiousity, then that person is not likely to want to pursue studying genetics any further. Again, I have only the best intentions here...just some constructive comments.

To all I have misinformed, I appologize. If I'm wrong, please tell me. I don't see it as arguing. I would definately want correct information to the questions I asked. I was going on what the poultry professor I talked to told me when we were discussing Dominiques and rose combs. So I assume this means the 3 hens I was sent as rose combs that have single combs are definately single and not "carriers". And thanks for the pea comb info. As for anonymous, some of us may not have the time or facilities to run a bunch of genetic experiments.

To all the beginners out there...

"Genes" are the herditary units that transmit characteristics from parents to offspring. If a pair of genes are identical, they are homozygous (homo is greek for "same" and zygous is greek for "pair). Heterozygous are when the pair of genes differ from each other. The same word describes a bird with a large number of paired dissimilar genes. When heterozygous chickens are mated, or an outcross has been made, the genes in their offsping can pair off in many different combinations, making the results highly unpredictable.

Single combs are recessive, same as 4 toes, stubs, wry tail, and silkiness.

Where could I get a copy of "Poultry Breeding and Genetics"? I have looked at Amazon.com and Books-A-Million and neither site has it. Any help would be appreciated.

I was also wondering if White Leghorns can be used in a sex-linked cross. I am new to this so please excuse my ignorance.

There is a Red Sex Link, a cross between a white Leghorn hen and a Rhode Island Red. The Red Sex Link, developed commercially to produce brown eggs, lays 250-260 eggs per year (slightly more than the Black Sex Link).

Hey, how timely!
I just attempted my first sex link cross and the eggs are hatching as I type. I used SilverLace Wyandotte hens and a RIR rooster. All the chicks are chipmunk striped but half are silver based and half are golden. The golden ones are supposed to be the hens so it looks like I did it!

If you put a New Hampshire Red rooster on the SilverLace hens - the chicks should hatch out red pullets and almost white males.

Farm Mom