Sex- linked Information

[birdbrain79]

Kev,
In post #1707 you say white legs are autosomal. But its not. I've been breeding chickens for over 20 years using leg color to sex link my hybrids.
I have two families of chickens, one with white legs and the other with yellow legs. When I breed a yellow leg cock to a white leg hen I get white leg stags and yellow leg pullets 100% of the time without exception.

 

[windyridgefarm]

Ok So I have studied all the information on sex links trying to get my own answers to the point I am getting dizzy. The things that stick in my head.
black sex link 1.Any non barred non white rooster will work 2, wheaten chick down is not affected by barring. My question is If I have blue, blue wheaten, and wheaten ameraucana roosters will a black sex link work? I know the blue will but wanted to list them all in case anyone comes up with other ideas for any other sex links.
Red sex link 1 Wheaten, blue wheaten crossed with silver duck wing ameraucana will work.(also rhode island white, salmon faverolle light sussex, columbian leghorn, delaware) are there any other hens that will work and would this work with the blue roo as well?

I have the blue, blue wheaten, wheaten ameraucana roosters. Cream legbar and BCM roosters are also a possibility, hens include wheaten, blue wheaten ameraucana, cuckoo marans, crested cream legbars, BCM among others but sadly no blue ameraucana hens just EEs. Blue, green and or olive eggs are all good in order of preference.. Thanks for all of your help I need to stop thinking about this for awhile at least til the room stops spinning. Randy

 

[Kev]

Kev,
In post #1707 you say white legs are autosomal. But its not. I've been breeding chickens for over 20 years using leg color to sex link my hybrids.
I have two families of chickens, one with white legs and the other with yellow legs. When I breed a yellow leg cock to a white leg hen I get white leg stags and yellow leg pullets 100% of the time without exception.

Poultry genetics experts have done many studies on chicken skin color from the early days, they confirm white skin is autosomal dominant.

See:

http://www.edelras.nl/chickengenetics/mutations2.html

Quote:
This confirms white legs being white skin with Id gene, yellow legs- yellow skin with Id- with some caveats(barred, sometimes dominant white etc).

That also confirms white skin being autosomal dominant, and Id is sex linked.

There is also sex linked recessive white skin, however it is uncommon and comes with health problems:

Quote:
Recent genetic study on yellow skin(discovered to be introduced via grey junglefowl):

http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1000010

Quote:
There are countless other studies all confirming white skin is dominant over yellow skin.

 

[QueenMisha]

Hey there everybody. After staring down at a crop of mysterious 4 week old mutts and fruitlessly playing "Spot the Rooster" for half an hour today, I got a wild hare to research sex-linkage, because there really must be a easier way. I was aware of it's use but never bothered to check on the genetics until now.

So as far as I can tell, a Buff Male crossed with a Silver female will produce easily sexable chicks? This year's MMH free rare is turning out to be a fine, heavy-bodied Buff Cochin boy. Up at the coop I have 4 breeder stock Silver Penciled Rock hens. As far as I could tell from the table on page 1, this will produce an effective cross, but I wanted to make sure, because if it doesn't I'll probably be caponizing the Cochin roo instead.

 

[junebuggena]

Buff roosters don't work very well if you need to know at hatch if it's male or female. The difference between the down colors will be very subtle. It should work if you don't mind waiting a few weeks for them to feather in. And they might not look like the typical hatchery red sexlinks. But once you figure out what the males and females of that particular cross look like, you'll be able to spot them earlier on the next time around.

 

[lazy gardener]

All of the youngsters from this year's hatch have now been definitely sexed. (All are sired by my avatar roo)

Black sex links are obvious: EE x SLW and DOM: females black with slate legs. Males bear feather pattern of Mom's w/red bleed

However, there are some nice surprises. Leg colors seem to be a definite gender ID:

EE (male w/slate legs):

x RCBL (female w/yellow legs) produced: pullets with same feather patterns as female, but with slate legs.
cockrels with black splashes on breast and shoulders with yellow legs.
all of these chicks are sporting white ear lobes as they reach sexual maturity.

x Pioneer (female with light green legs) produced: pullets with light red feathers (similar to feather pattern of mom) and light green legs.
cockrels all have a bit of barring, similar to the "full blooded male", and yellow legs.

x BSL (EE x PBR with dark slate legs) produced: pullets with black feathers, black combs, slate legs.
cockrels with predominantly red feathers, with black tail, yellow legs.

Also, all chicks born with black combs were female. (some of the crosses had female chicks with the more normal colored comb pigment, but black was a guarantee that the chick was not male. This has proved true with me for 3 generations with 3 different roosters.)

So, at least for this generation, any chick with yellow legs was male, while all chicks with slate or green legs were female. Any suggestions what the next generation will look like in terms of leg color determining gender if I use the same roo over his daughters?

 

[Kev]

You're seeing side effects of the barring gene. It does not just put bars on the feathers.. it also dilutes pigments in the skin- including the dermal layer in the legs.

It is possible for barred parents to also have Id gene, explained previously.

IF you had happened to use yellow or white legged non-barred roo then all chicks would have shown effects of the Id gene from him- light colored legs in both sexes.. except for the black feathered ones because the genes that make black chickens also has a side effect of putting black pigment in the legs and Id normally has no effect on those.

Edited to add, you are seeing the effects of Id in the EE x RCBL if that is rose comb black leghorn.

 

[lazy gardener]

So, if I understand what you are saying, the black pigment in legs and combs is a result of the barring gene which does not show up in the feathers because the feathers are all black? My RCBL is brown, not black. Thanks for the explanation, Kev. So, with the genetic throw of the dice, using the same roo over his daughters, will the leg /feather patterns that I saw this year likely follow through next year for gender ID? I did look up a pic of the male RCBL, and these male chicks from the EE x RCBL match very closely resembled the RCBL male. I read back a few posts and found the Id explanation. Thanks so very much.

 

[windyridgefarm]

Thank you for spelling it out. I was trying to figure out what RCBL was. Then to realize the B could be black or Brown. That is why it is good to type it out the first time it is used in the conversation. Otherwise the abbreviations can cause confusion. Many of them can overlap and it can sometimes be difficult to be sure you have it right. Now I just have to work out SLW. What can I say havent had my coffee yet lol. . .

You're seeing side effects of the barring gene. It does not just put bars on the feathers.. it also dilutes pigments in the skin- including the dermal layer in the legs.

It is possible for barred parents to also have Id gene, explained previously.

IF you had happened to use yellow or white legged non-barred roo then all chicks would have shown effects of the Id gene from him- light colored legs in both sexes.. except for the black feathered ones because the genes that make black chickens also has a side effect of putting black pigment in the legs and Id normally has no effect on those.

Edited to add, you are seeing the effects of Id in the EE x RCBL if that is rose comb black leghorn.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Silver Laced Wyandotte.