Giant Daisies?

[wyomingmaryland]

Hello,

New to BYC but reading for awhile, usually when in crisis over past year with new endeavor of having chickens. One of my 5 Marsh Daisy hens ended up going broody about 5 weeks ago right when my Black Jersey Giant roo got eaten by something (free range all day). Three weeks later, I awoke to 8 chicks, one eventually died. Im happy to have the heir to my roo, but Im now curious about what kind of crossbread this gonna be. Heres a pic of some of the hens and the giant.


I understand its a black sex link but not much more than that. Only one has a spot on top of its head, but others have some yellow/white markings on head around eyes, while others are have all black heads. Im assuming those are the hens, and the marked head are the roosters. Is this right? ...adding pictures...

What would happen if I bred the roosters back into my other Marsh Daisys? Would they be beefier hybrids? Mostly black? Hard to breed the black out? I understand there may be tons of variation in the characteristics of the progeny but would it be probable to get some good free range beasts? Is this heresy to breeders? Im suddenly interested in making my own breed that would be good for my predator pressured free range situation.

Thanks for letting me voice some of these thoughts. Now I will continue to read up on breeding. I would appreciate any good books on breeding genetics of chickens.

 

[donrae]

You have sex linked females. They have only one sex chromosome that they received from poor old pappy.
The females will all look like characteristic black females.
The males will have one sex linked chromosome and one non sex linked. If there were no other genes participating in the dosage based trait, the males would look just like the females. This is what people mean when they say "you dont have a sex linked cross". HOWEVER, since other allelez for color exist the gene product " bleeds through". So the chick, just like the adult will have some minor colors that appear in an otherwise dominant trait.
You see, in this case, dominant means most abundant gene product.
So, once again, if it looks like a characteristic female, it probably is. If it has abnormal color(s) this is a male with one sex linked chromosome and one "other".

In other words, the female cant look like anything other than a female (as much as always), the male can vary from female looking to anything abnormal for females (which you describe correctly).

The shanks could be a clue but i dont know if you can determine color difference between the two breeds at this age?

What sex linked cross is the OP getting from a solid black male and gold females? It's not black sex linkage, there's no barring present in the females. It's not red sex linkage, that requires a silver female.

If you believe these are all females, I'm curious what you think a male chick from this cross would look like?

 

[donrae]

And again I ask, in very simple terms, what sex linked characteristic are you seeing in this cross? You type a lot but I don't see a simple answer to my question. You also state these birds are all female. What would a male from this cross look like? How can you tell, in simple terms, that these are all female from the pictures?

 

[Sunshine0235]

In other words, the female cant look like anything other than a female (as much as always), the male can vary from female looking to anything abnormal for females (which you describe correctly).

So even if all this other stuff you're saying is true. You are saying males can look like females. How then in the same breath can you say that they are all females, when you just said males can look like females?

 

[Sunshine0235]

You have sex linked females.

I can read. If that's not what you meant, try writing clearer, especially the post on the top of this page.

 

[Sunshine0235]

The chicken color calculator has the cross coming out as 50% black males and 50% black females. They might have some leakage from being colors crossed, but would both look similar, until the roosters get their sex feathers in, which might include red-gold patches on the wings, and some redness to the saddle feathers and hackle feathers, otherwise both are black.

The OP just wanted to know if the chicks are male vs female thinking they were black sex links, which they arent, so you cant tell chick gender. That's all they wanted to know, and with breeding back to the hens, what color the offspring would be.

 

[junebuggena]

All females WILL be sex linked, so she will have sex linked females... It was also in reply to others who said they were NOT sex linked. I was saying, the females FROM HER CROSS would be sex linked.
"Context" extends to preceding posts. If you dont read through you cam get confused.

Red/gold base color hens, without barring will not produce sexlinks. In chickens, silver-base coloring and barring are 'sexlinked' genes. A hen with either trait can only pass those genes to their male chicks. When bred to a rooster without those traits, the chicks are then termed 'sexlinks.' Red-base colors are not sexlinked, ever.
They aren't fast/slow feathering sexlinks either. That requires a fast feathering male crossed with a slow feathering hen. Giants are slow maturing/feathering breed, not a fast feathering breed. The rooster is lacking the right gene for feathering sexlinks.
The rooster does have dark legs, which means he might have the male sexlinked Id gene. But the hens also have a dark 'wash' on their legs, so they may also have Id. Leg color will not help sex these chicks either.
The chicks from these breedings can not be sexed visually at hatching, therefore, they are not sexlinks.

 

[Sunshine0235]

I've read it more than a couple of times now. And it just doesn't fit in with black sex linkage and red sex linkage. I'm sorry I don't understand, is there another way you can word it like,

Cuckoo Hen x Solid male= Is 100%cuckoo males and 100% solid females

I thought you said they were sex links let me reread again

Or can you define some of the stuff you say we're not interpreting right, to try to clear it up better

 

[keesmom]

In your case:
Female will pass her "sex" chromosome to All males. Your roo will pass one copy of his chromosome (he has two). Male offspring will be a mix: dominant barred/whatever. Dominant will win out and makes will show mostly the characteristic "female" sexlinked trait, since they only have one "dominant" chromosome. However, unlike the situation with females (one chromosome = 100%), males have two chromosomes (one dominant or 50%), so genes from the other chromosome bleed through and show up in the color trait. BUT male chicks should also carry the dominant "yellow" shank gene, which females WILL NOT.
So, you can look at leg color. Females should have much darker feet, in your cross, they have no "yellow" gene on their sex chromosome.

As ive explained before:
This cross should produce offspring easily identifiable by shank/foot color, males being lighter(more yellow) than females.
In addition, female offspring will have only the sex chromosome from the male and will show whatever coloring he brings to the table. THAT is why you see the color variation in female chicks...but again, the females

If this is too much information, and you want a single sentence answer, you are out of luck.

Junebuggena doesn't need to sex her chicks by leg color. They are sexable by down color. Cockerel chicks will have a white head spot, pullet chicks will not.

For anyone interested in creating sex linked crosses the first post in this thread is a must read.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/261208/sex-linked-information

To the OP, sorry your thread got so far off track!

 

[Sunshine0235]

The chicks shouldn't be black sex link. I just looked up marsh daisies and they aren't barred. Do you have pictures of the chicks, especially the one with the dot.