Breed and Gender Please (Priscilla) - Possibly RIR, Red Sex Link, or Plymouth Barred Rock Hen with a RIR or Blue Barred Rock Rooster

[valesmichelle]

This chick hatched Valentine's Day, 2/14/2023, so it's not quite 4 weeks old.
Not quite sure what hen's egg it hatched from. The only breed of hens on the property are RIR, Red Sex Link, Plymouth Barred Rock, and Black Australorp.
At the time the eggs were incubated, there were two roosters on the farm. One was a RIR and the other was a Blue Plymouth Rock. The Blue Plymouth Rock was young, approximately 4-5 months old and was only there for approximately one month.
Best guess to the breed and gender of this chick?
If more pics are needed, please let me know what would be the best angle.

 

[NatJ]

The mother was not a Barred Rock or a Black Australorp.
I think the chick looks female.

But there is a problem: that chick has dark colored feet, which should not be possible from any combination of the breeds on your list. If the chick is a female, she must have inherited the dark-foot gene from her father (because it's on the Z sex chromsome.)

Can you post photos of the roosters, including their feet? (I think I see the same problem with some of the chicks you posted in other threads, too.)

 

[valesmichelle]

The mother was not a Barred Rock or a Black Australorp.
I think the chick looks female.

But there is a problem: that chick has dark colored feet, which should not be possible from any combination of the breeds on your list. If the chick is a female, she must have inherited the dark-foot gene from her father (because it's on the Z sex chromsome.)

Can you post photos of the roosters, including their feet? (I think I see the same problem with some of the chicks you posted in other threads, too.)

The first picture is Hank, the Plymouth Rock, which is now with me as of a week ago. The 2nd picture was taken when he was on the farm that hatched the chicks. The 3rd picture is of the hens and one Roo (in the back with the Australorp) on the farm where this chick hatched. It's the only one have. I'll see if I can get a close up, but Lee John’s (RIR) feet are yellow, I do believe.

 

[NatJ]

The first picture is Hank, the Plymouth Rock, which is now with me as of a week ago. The 2nd picture was taken when he was on the farm that hatched the chicks. The 3rd picture is of the hens and one Roo (in the back with the Australorp) on the farm where this chick hatched. It's the only one have. I'll see if I can get a close up, but Lee John’s (RIR) feet are yellow, I do believe.

If you're sure those are the only possible roosters, then one of them must be carrying the gene for dark feet. (A rooster can show light feet while carrying the gene for dark, but a female cannot.)

If every laying hen in the flock has light feet, then every dark-foot chick must be a pullet. Light-footed chicks could be either gender.

Genetic explanation, if you care:
Roosters have sex chromosomes ZZ.
The gene that allows dark skin can be on one or both of those Z chromosomes.
Light skin is dominant over dark, so if he has both, he will show light feet.
He gives one Z chromosome to every chick he sires.

Hens have sex chromosomes ZW. Each hen inherits W from her mother, and passes it to her daughters. She inherits Z from her father, and passes it to her sons. With only one Z chromosome, a hen either has the gene for light skin or for dark skin, but never both. Whichever skin-color gene she has, it came from her father, and goes to her sons.

So a hen with light skin will always give her sons a Z chromosome with the light skin gene. Because it's dominant, all her sons will have light skin.

A rooster with one gene for dark skin and one for light can give either one to his daughters. Each daughter will show that skin color. He can also give either one to his sons, but the sons will show light skin if they inherited it from the mother or the father or both, and will only show dark skin if they inherit it from both parents.

 

[valesmichelle]

If you're sure those are the only possible roosters, then one of them must be carrying the gene for dark feet. (A rooster can show light feet while carrying the gene for dark, but a female cannot.)

If every laying hen in the flock has light feet, then every dark-foot chick must be a pullet. Light-footed chicks could be either gender.

Genetic explanation, if you care:
Roosters have sex chromosomes ZZ.
The gene that allows dark skin can be on one or both of those Z chromosomes.
Light skin is dominant over dark, so if he has both, he will show light feet.
He gives one Z chromosome to every chick he sires.

Hens have sex chromosomes ZW. Each hen inherits W from her mother, and passes it to her daughters. She inherits Z from her father, and passes it to her sons. With only one Z chromosome, a hen either has the gene for light skin or for dark skin, but never both. Whichever skin-color gene she has, it came from her father, and goes to her sons.

So a hen with light skin will always give her sons a Z chromosome with the light skin gene. Because it's dominant, all her sons will have light skin.

A rooster with one gene for dark skin and one for light can give either one to his daughters. Each daughter will show that skin color. He can also give either one to his sons, but the sons will show light skin if they inherited it from the mother or the father or both, and will only show dark skin if they inherit it from both parents.

Yes, I am positive those are the only roosters that got to the hens as I know the farmer and she only has the one RIR rooster (approximately 1 year of age) and only had the Blue Plymouth Rock for a couple of months at the time she was incubating these eggs.

I will have to ask her if all her hens have light feet. I will get back to you on that.

Thank you, I appreciate your explanation of genetics. It's a little confusing for a eLearning Developer, but I will do my best to make sense of it. I do appreciate you for taking the time to type the explanation. Thank you!

 

[NatJ]

Thank you, I appreciate your explanation of genetics. It's a little confusing for a eLearning Developer, but I will do my best to make sense of it. I do appreciate you for taking the time to type the explanation. Thank you!

Some people find genetics great fun (better than crossword puzzles!), while other people find it confusing and frustrating. I'm one of those who usually finds it fun

 

[valesmichelle]

Some people find genetics great fun (better than crossword puzzles!), while other people find it confusing and frustrating. I'm one of those who usually finds it fun

I find it interesting.

 

[Shipgirl]

If you're sure those are the only possible roosters, then one of them must be carrying the gene for dark feet. (A rooster can show light feet while carrying the gene for dark, but a female cannot.)

If every laying hen in the flock has light feet, then every dark-foot chick must be a pullet. Light-footed chicks could be either gender.

Genetic explanation, if you care:
Roosters have sex chromosomes ZZ.
The gene that allows dark skin can be on one or both of those Z chromosomes.
Light skin is dominant over dark, so if he has both, he will show light feet.
He gives one Z chromosome to every chick he sires.

Hens have sex chromosomes ZW. Each hen inherits W from her mother, and passes it to her daughters. She inherits Z from her father, and passes it to her sons. With only one Z chromosome, a hen either has the gene for light skin or for dark skin, but never both. Whichever skin-color gene she has, it came from her father, and goes to her sons.

So a hen with light skin will always give her sons a Z chromosome with the light skin gene. Because it's dominant, all her sons will have light skin.

A rooster with one gene for dark skin and one for light can give either one to his daughters. Each daughter will show that skin color. He can also give either one to his sons, but the sons will show light skin if they inherited it from the mother or the father or both, and will only show dark skin if they inherit it from both parents.

Is there a good reference book you recommend I can look at to learn more about genetics related to chickens?

 

[Shipgirl]

Some people find genetics great fun (better than crossword puzzles!), while other people find it confusing and frustrating. I'm one of those who usually finds it fun

I find myself wanting to experiment and see what happens

 

[NatJ]

Is there a good reference book you recommend I can look at to learn more about genetics related to chickens?

There don't seem to be many books.

There is one called "Genetics of the Fowl," by F. B. Hutt, that was published back in 1949. Obviously, that's not very recent.
It's available online here:
https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/chla2837819

There exist a few newer books that I haven't read.

I have found some useful pages online:
http://www.kippenjungle.nl/chickengenetics/pdf/Poultry_Genetics_for_Exhibition_Breeders.pdf
(Lots of material here)

http://kippenjungle.nl/sellers/page0.html
(Has links to a page on basic genetics information, one with some chicken-specific genetics, and the third page has a table listing many genes with a little info about each one.)

The chicken gentics calculator is also fun to play with. You can change the genes in the dropdown boxes, and see the little images of chickens change. It does also calculate offspring from various crosses, although I haven't played with that aspect nearly as much.
http://kippenjungle.nl/chickencalculator.html

If you know about genetics of anything else, you have a head start. The biggest difference I found is that sex chromosomes of chickens and other birds are backwards of the ones in humans and many mammals. ZZ is a male bird and ZW is a female bird, and the female determines the gender of offspring by which one she gives them.