A Black Sex Link chicken
Photo: Nature Whisperer · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Black Sex Link

Egg layer · United States · 🌱 Beginner friendly

A Black Sex Link is a purpose-built hybrid, usually a Rhode Island Red rooster crossed with a Barred Rock hen, and it inherits the best of both: heavy brown-egg production on a friendly, cold-tough frame. Hens are black with warm copper feathering across the chest.

Eggs per year

250–300

Egg color

Brown

Egg size

Large

Hen weight

5–7 lbs

Temperament

Friendly and hardy

Broodiness

Rarely goes broody

❄️ Cold hardy☀️ Heat tolerant

Did you know?

The "sex link" name is literal — female chicks hatch solid black while males show a white head spot, so anyone can sex them the day they hatch.

Is the Black Sex Link right for your flock?

Expect roughly 250300 brown eggs a year from a healthy hen in her prime — production dips during molt and the short days of winter, and eases off as she ages. Planning space? A Black Sex Link hen runs 57 lbs, so size the coop with our coop size calculator and estimate the feed bill with the feed cost calculator.

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Keeping Black Sex Links?

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