Sorry to change the subject butTHANK YOU JAMES!
I have 16 new, Beautiful chicks from Skyline. It amazes me how 'muscled' feeling they are compared to other day old babies. I know....I'm still working on the pic thing. Not because I am a proud Chicken dad...but I'm nearly sure that they are prettier than anyone elses!!!!!
...........Mike
There is Only one gene separating this breed from being an Autosexing breed...Week old chicks.
here is what i mean...
i believe this is a male
and this is a female.
you see, Basque are based on the Wheaten "e" allele, wheaten chicks cant be sexed at hatch, if only they were based on the "eb"(Brown) allele like the Crele Penedesenca, or of they were based on the wildtype "e+" allele the cream legbar...
well thats the only way to do it(outcross), but if you do the outcross your birds wont be pure EO´s and you would need to do a sibling crossing(F1xF1 brother to sister) and out of that crossing(hatch at least 50 eggs) you will end up with a few autosexing EO´s looking birdsCongrats Aspen....when you asked about a different line, I didn't know if you meant EO's or a different breed. NP...you probably already know this but I don't so here goes.....NICA.... Could you somehow outcross or whatever it is called...... to a Crele Penedesenca or Cream Legbar and get that Auto-sexing gene in EO's?...I have wondered that before all this came up...just have never asked. About half my babies do have a little darker coloring to them...I am going to use rubber legbands to keep-up with my inital thoughts about the sex to see if I am right about any of this....
I guess if you retain that Autosexing gene from several generations of sibling crossing and ocassionally breed back to the pure EO's you maybe could establish a line of autosexing EOs. But that sounds like it would take Lots of Birds and Lots of generations...maybe even come up with a Blue egg laying EO!! That sounds like a project for someone young and energetic. Rhodebars should also work?? Then if they (EOs) were autosexed...it would take away all the fun we have of trying to figure out what we have!Thanks for the info, I appreciate the help. Maybe someday I won't have to ask silly questions.
...................Mike
