Is this a black sex link?????

[mom28chicks]

I wonder if y'all can help identify my girl. She is a mixed breed. I wonder if she is a type of black sex link. She was hatched black with a little yellow on the tips of her wings. She had a black beak, black comb, black ears, black face, yellow skin like where feathers are, and dark slate legs. Her comb and waddles have turned red (still some black specks but losing that daily), her face and ears are still black. She has a couple long (but not too long) tail feathers and her black feathers are really the green shinny feathers. She is 19 weeks. She is on the smaller side for a chicken, not tiny, but a normal small hen.

Any guesses on the breeds of the parents? I'm so anxious for !!!! She talks to me quite a bit and is very friendly. Also, I thought the leg color determined egg colors.... such as slate would be the blue or green type..... however I read that is not true. Do ears play a roll on color of shell?

Thanks

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Very pretty girl.

As you stated, she is a mixed breed, and it will be hard to know what the breeds are behind her just by looking.

All you can say is that at least one parent was black based and the other was likely a red based. Both had some partridging of some kind as a pure black parent typically creates solid black offspring as solid black tends to blot out all other patterns. And the father was not barred as that creates all barred chicks, for both genders.

No doubt the parents were not pure breeds either, so she is likely a mix of mixes.

As to black sex linking, you would have had to seen the other chicks in the hatch to know if they were sex linked by coloring. Just looking at her is not enough to know. She is not typical of the commercially bred Black Sex Links (in America) as she has other patterning other than red-gold bleed through color at the hackles and chest on a black base....which indicates she is more of a mix.

She possibly could be a sex linked chicken if the parentage coloring was right... a red based rooster with a barred mother.

Black Sex Links are not a breed but the practice of using a barred hen and a non-barred rooster to get color coded chicks. The males will have a white head dot (and later full barring) while the females will be black based with dad's color and pattern. A red based rooster is generally used as it prevents other color dominant issues and that will produce a daughter that has red bleed through...typically black with red-gold patterning. This has to do with how the alleles that carry dominant color line up in the genders.

The commercial industry (in America) usually uses a RIR or NH father with a Barred Rock hen to produce what is known as a Black Sex Link chicken...the hybrid for color coded chicks.

As to egg color, no, shank color has no indication of egg color. Yes, ear lobe usually indicates egg color. White ear lobes usually indicate white shells, red ear lobes usually indicate brown shells; however, blue shell layers can have either red or white ear lobes. The blue shell genes are not linked to ear lobe coloring. Only a few breeds will lay blue shelled eggs. (Interestingly, Silkies, which have blue ears, lay cream to light brown eggs.)

One of the common blue layers, the Ameraucana, have pea combs, which are dominant, and are often bred to other breeds to create Easter Eggers. Offspring which gain the pea comb almost always gain the blue shell gene as well and will be blue layers. However Araucana are not pea combed, nor are the English created breed of Cream Legbars (which imported South American blue layers to add the blue genes). Araucana have red earlobes (I believe), while CL's have white-ish ear lobes. The blue shell gene is more complicated, and it is often not apparent if you have it or not until you hatch offspring and they begin to lay. (Which is why blue layers are coveted).

Since you are in Chile, the location of the blue laying heritage birds used to produce the Ameraucanas, Araucanas, and Cream Legbars, you may see even more breed types that lay blue shelled eggs....and to what ear lobe color they may have you will likely gain better knowledge from chicken breeders in your area.

HTH
LofMc

 

[mom28chicks]

Thank you so much for your detailed reply. What wonderful information. I always like to know the how and why behind things. I know a little... but not enough beyond the basics. The next time I visit the states I want to bring a few eggs down with me to put into the incubator Just so I KNOW what I have and go from there. I highly doubt I can find anyone who "breeds" true breed chickens here. Maybe if I spoke spanish.... but it is difficult learning spanish much less "Chilean" spanish. One day.... one day (hopefully).

So I guess I just have to wait to see what color egg she shall lay for me OH I CAN'T WAIT Her sister (incubator sister not true sister) is a big bird with feathers on her feet... not a lot... just a few.

Thank you again it is much appreciated

 

[drumstick diva]

She is a beautiful hen regardless.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Thank you so much for your detailed reply. What wonderful information. I always like to know the how and why behind things. I know a little... but not enough beyond the basics. The next time I visit the states I want to bring a few eggs down with me to put into the incubator Just so I KNOW what I have and go from there. I highly doubt I can find anyone who "breeds" true breed chickens here. Maybe if I spoke spanish.... but it is difficult learning spanish much less "Chilean" spanish. One day.... one day (hopefully).

So I guess I just have to wait to see what color egg she shall lay for me OH I CAN'T WAIT Her sister (incubator sister not true sister) is a big bird with feathers on her feet... not a lot... just a few.

Thank you again it is much appreciated

You are very welcome.

What I gave you was a simplified explanation. For fuller understanding of chicken genetics, and still an accessible read, go to the genetics mini-series by Scratch Cradle at: https://scratchcradle.wordpress.com/genetics-mini-series/

Start with the egg shell genetics and work your way through the series. Eventually you will get to color pattern and sex linking (pretty sure the series covers sex linking too). Sex linking has to do with the hen having the long and short chromosome strands ZW and the male having the 2 long chromosome strands ZZ.

Each offspring gets one strand from mom and one from dad. Dominate color follows the Z strand, so when the mother has the dominate color on her Z strand, she passes that to the ZZ males. Mom's dominate color on her Z strand trumps dad's coloring on his Z strand. But her daughters get only the short W strand and no dominant color from mom...they get only dad's Z strand and coloring. It's more complicated than that too, but that is the basic idea.

A fun calculator to use when trying to determine the feather coloring of offspring is the simplified genetic calculator here: https://www.breedbook.org/?action=geneticscalculator&tab=CHICKEN

Choose the general color type of each parent from the drop down list and coloring results in offspring will appear below.

Have fun
LofMc

 

[HaappyHenhouse]

I wonder if y'all can help identify my girl. She is a mixed breed. I wonder if she is a type of black sex link. She was hatched black with a little yellow on the tips of her wings. She had a black beak, black comb, black ears, black face, yellow skin like where feathers are, and dark slate legs. Her comb and waddles have turned red (still some black specks but losing that daily), her face and ears are still black. She has a couple long (but not too long) tail feathers and her black feathers are really the green shinny feathers. She is 19 weeks. She is on the smaller side for a chicken, not tiny, but a normal small hen.

Any guesses on the breeds of the parents? I'm so anxious for !!!! She talks to me quite a bit and is very friendly. Also, I thought the leg color determined egg colors.... such as slate would be the blue or green type..... however I read that is not true. Do ears play a roll on color of shell?

Thanks

This looks like my Sasha! Beautiful girl you have!