Sex linked Wyandottes?

[Harvest Mint]

I have read a few articles about gold laced Roos pass colors when bred to silver laced hens. Then I just seen someone asking about their sex-linked chickens and that got me thinking, a dangerous past time I know. I was wondering if a variety of Wyandottes could be bred to be sex linked? I am not even sure where you would start to do that but biology is fascinating so I had to ask.

 

[Pyxis]

Do you mean sex linked or autosexing? Because sex linking is very possible and easy, just put a gold male over a silver female, for example a gold laced male over a columbian female would do the trick, and there are plenty of other combos too within this breed. Autosexing is a whole other ball game and would be more difficult to do.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’m not sure I understand your question. No, that’s wrong. I’m sure I don’t understand your question.

There are several recognized color/patterns of Wyandottes. Different combinations of those will give you red sex links, Gold Laced or Partridge rooster over a Silver Laced hen for example, but there are others. The offspring will not be a recognized color/pattern but with proper breeding they can have the other characteristics of Wyandottes. There are a lot of things that makes a Wyandotte a Wyandotte other than color/pattern. Body conformation, size, eye color, comb, skin color, number of toes, feathered or clean legs, the list goes on and on.

Some people only consider a chicken that has one of the recognized colors/patterns and all this other stuff as a Wyandotte. But there are a surprising number of people out there trying to breed new colors/patterns for a lot of different breeds, hoping eventually to get a new color/pattern recognized. If someone has a chicken that has every characteristic of a Wyandotte except a recognized color/pattern is that considered a Wyandotte? For example you often see people talking about Blue Copper Marans on this forum. Black Copper Marans are a recognized color, Blue is not, at least in the US. I can’t speak for all countries.

To further complicate it different countries have different standards. For example, in the UK Araucanas are allowed to have tails, in the US they are not. Different colors/patterns are recognized in different countries. It can be challenging to talk about breed standards on an international forum.

But there is another core issue. When you cross two different colors/patterns you can get predictable results if the parents are pure for certain genes. But once you mix colors/patterns you cannot breed those birds with any consistency. There is a rule of thumb that for a bird to be considered purebred it has to breed true for five generations. When you breed crosses that will not hold true for one generation. To get sex links you have to breed different colors/patterns.

There is yet another issue. To make sex links the parents have to be set up right genetically. The mother has to have the dominant sex linked gene. The hen only has one gene at this “gene pair” location. The father has to have two copies of the recessive sex linked gene. That’s what makes sex links. The mother only gives the dominant gene to her boys. The father gives a recessive to all his offspring. So the dominant gene shows up in the cockerels but not in the pullets. After you make that cross the genetics are no longer set up right. You cannot use sex links to make more sex links of the same type. You cannot use red sex links to make more red sex links. You cannot use black sex links to make more black sex links. Feather sexing is only good for one generation. After that the genetics are messed up.

There are autosexing breeds out there. To make an autosexing Wyandotte of an unrecognized color/pattern you would need to introduce the right genetics from a different breed, then go through many generations getting consistently back to what makes a Wyandotte; body conformation, shape of the tail, or whatever variant genes you introduced, while also breeding for the autosexing genetics. You are talking about many generations of expert breeding. It’s not a chore to be taken lightly.

I don’t know of this has answered your question or not.

 

[donrae]

From Tim's wonderful Sex linked information thread....

5. The following crosses produce a black back phenotype (See Illustration 3) with the gold or silver being expressed on the face and fore head of the chick.

Cross a Group 2 A male with a Group 2 A or 2B female. (per the chart, gold laced Wyandotte Rooster is group 2A and silver laced Wyandotte female is group 2B)

So yes, a gold laced male over a silver laced female should give sex linked chicks. But, the down color is only expressed on the face due to the amount of black on the chick.

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

 

[Harvest Mint]

Thank you everyone for your response. I think I have a better idea of how some of the genetics work. I had no idea how sex linked individuals were created. It would make sense for the hatcheries to want to create a mix breed that could reliably produce easily identifiable chicks. They don't care if the chick passes on said genes as long as they can guarantee their customers females. Now that I have this information I think I can better explain my thought. Wyandottes are a dual purpose breed so it would be helpful to more easily separate males in the event that I would like to have some to eat and hens to lay. People are usually more interested in purchasing hens should I have to many. I just feel the hens have more to offer than to just be eaten. I love all the wyandotte and I am not against having some cool color combinations. Since I wouldn't be showing most of them then I don't exactly care if they don't have recognized colors. The way I understand it, Blue laced red wyandottes are hard to get as some of the chick end up being splashed which still look cute. So I guess if they meet all the other qualifications to be wyandottes than I am ok with that.

Combinations to get me sex linked chicks
GLW x SLW
GLW x Columbian

What other combinations would get me sex linked chicks?

 

[junebuggena]

Combinations to get me sex linked chicks
GLW x SLW
GLW x Columbian

What other combinations would get me sex linked chicks?

A Partridge Wyandotte rooster would also work with those hens. Silver Penciled hens will also work.

 

[Harvest Mint]

A Partridge Wyandotte rooster would also work with those hens. Silver Penciled hens will also work.

Penciled and Partridge don't seem to be as popular or easy to get

 

[Alo]

Does a Blue Laced Red Wynadotte have enough red to sex link it?