Sex-linked coloring & comb style on BYM chicks

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

In December I hatched my first ever BYM chicks. One chick was by my red Orp roo and out of a SLW hen. The chick was born with yellow down, which meant that it was a boy (which it is) and it has a Wyandotte comb.

Last week I hatched 2 eggs from a different SLW hen. Same roo. These 2 chicks are light brown/tan, which should mean they are female. However, they are presenting as more likely male than female (from my own personal “sexing experiment” which I know isn’t 100% accurate). But I also noticed they look to have straight combs (although it is very early). I was of the impression that the rose comb was dominant, and the offspring would definitely have a rose comb if the hen did. So I’m a little confused.

I’ve had this particular Wyandotte for 3 years and she lays really distinct eggs, so I’m pretty confident that they are in fact her eggs. Am I just jumping the gun on trying to determine sex, or does something seem amiss? I guess what I’m asking is… am I correct in that these chicks should be sex linked and tan = girl? Am I correct in expecting that they would have a rose comb if their mama did? Do you think they they have straight or rose combs?

The first 3 pics show Grenadine, the next 3 show Shirley Temple. Christmas pic shows my December-hatched chick who is clearly lighter and clearly has a rose comb and is a cockerel. Last pic shows my 2 SLW hens. The December chick is out of the younger hen on the right (Morticia) and both darker chicks are out of Maleficent on the left.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

What exactly did you do to sex them? You're 100% beyond a doubt sure that no other hens could be the mother? If you're confident that the eggs could only have been from that SLW hen, then I would assume whatever your sexing experiment is was wrong and these birds are female as they have not inherited silver from their mother.

As for the combs, the rose comb gene is completely dominant, yes. But what that means is that a bird with only one copy of the gene can look indistinguishable from a bird with two copies. Since you have hatched single combed chicks from this Wyandotte hen, she must only have one copy of the rose comb gene and thus can throw single combs as well. It's not unheard of in Wyandottes.

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

What exactly did you do to sex them? You're 100% beyond a doubt sure that no other hens could be the mother? If you're confident that the eggs could only have been from that SLW hen, then I would assume whatever your sexing experiment is was wrong and these birds are female as they have not inherited silver from their mother.

As for the combs, the rose comb gene is completely dominant, yes. But what that means is that a bird with only one copy of the gene can look indistinguishable from a bird with two copies. Since you have hatched single combed chicks from this Wyandotte hen, she must only have one copy of the rose comb gene and thus can throw single combs as well. It's not unheard of in Wyandottes.

I have more confidence in the fact that these hatched out of correct hen’s eggs than I do in my “sexing experiment.” So I think your assessment that my experiment is wrong is most likely correct.

Im doing something a little similar to what another BYC member started on here a few years ago, where I’m trying several different “theories.” I happen to have some pullets on hand, so I’m sort of comparing everything against those. So far, the strongest factor seems to be vocalizations. All 10 of my store purchased pullets make a similar “cooing/purring/chittering” sound when startled, picked up, or pet. Only 5 of my 10 straight run chicks make the same noise. The other 5 are either silent or give single chirps. These 2 were my true outliers in that I expected them to make “girl noises” but they don’t. Their wing feathers lead toward female, but their combs are slightly convex (which could indicate male). And I know none of this is certain by any means… but I think between them “scoring” as male on my experiment and then realizing their combs are not what I expected, I started to grow curious.

So it is possible for a rose combed Wyandotte to produce a straight comb chick. That is reassuring. My guess would be that they are straight combed females and that Wyandotte-mix chicks aren’t following my “sexing rules” which makes perfect sense because none of my adult Wyandottes follow ANY rules I attempt to lay down for them .

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Im doing something a little similar to what another BYC started on here a few years ago, where I’m trying several different “theories.”

Would that perhaps have been my experiment in chick sexing methods? Fun! I love seeing similar experiments done! I'd be interested in seeing your results, too!

I did find that, in some cases, either something that worked decently enough for everyone else just didn't work at all on a specific breed, or something that didn't work at all on most of the breeds I tested worked well on one specific breed. Nothing was 100% of course, except I believe wing sexing my Marans who were all related (barring the Wheaten hen) so I most likely just happened to make the right genetic cross to sex them by that method. So your Wyandottes may just be that oddball, too. I hear you on birds not following the rules, though--it's like they think they own the place!

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

Would that perhaps have been my experiment in chick sexing methods? Fun! I love seeing similar experiments done! I'd be interested in seeing your results, too!

Yes!! I really enjoyed reading your post and results!

Next up I’m doing the needle and thread trick. I tried that on my last batch and was highly skeptical as I’m more data/science minded and this felt very “old wives tale-ish.” But I have to admit that the needle certainly seemed to react to my chicks last time. And interestingly it was 100% wrong, so I’m going to swap my expectations. I had read that swinging back and forth meant male and circular motion meant female. But last time it swung back and forth for my ONLY female and circled for the others that ALL turned out to be male. So I’m going to try it with this batch and see how it goes. Just trying to come up with a way to do it blindly so I don’t know when I’m testing a known female vs unknown gender. Don’t want to subconsciously sway my results.

I did find that, in some cases, either something that worked decently enough for everyone else just didn't work at all on a specific breed, or something that didn't work at all on most of the breeds I tested worked well on one specific breed. Nothing was 100% of course, except I believe wing sexing my Marans who were all related (barring the Wheaten hen) so I most likely just happened to make the right genetic cross to sex them by that method. So your Wyandottes may just be that oddball, too. I hear you on birds not following the rules, though--it's like they think they own the place!

Wyandottes sure all oddballs! And yes, all of my chickens just think they are the rulers of this land, but my Wyandottes are the sassiest of the bunch and aren’t afraid to tell me off if I don’t follow THEIR rules, lol!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Needle and thread has been close to 50% accurate for me, right on some chicks but wrong on others. Interesting that it's given you 100% the opposite result so far! I've seen the occasional claim that it's something you have to get a 'feel' for. Some suggest using it on adult animals whose sex is known, or even on people, just to see how it reacts to them and what shape it makes for males vs for females. Perhaps I'll try that this year and see if that changes how the results go! As far as keeping it anonymous to prevent subconscious swaying of results, though, I don't know how you'd pull that off, honestly.

I had three Gold-laced Wyandottes years ago, they definitely were sassy queens of the flock. Beautiful birds, too!

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

Maybe I'll use some of sexed chicks to create a sort of baseline for the needle & thread test. I have a few pullets that are distinctly unique so I don't have a good way of "hiding" their sex, but some of them look very similiar to the unsexed chicks and are identified by their band. So maybe I can experiement on those and try not to notice the band. A friend of mine told me she's seen the needle & thread trick used on pregnent women with accurate results.