Silver Laced Wyandotte Roo over a Barred Plymouth Rock Hen = Sexlink Chick?

[jlwquilter]

What I did last night is put the 3 more white breasted hens in with my laying flock and left the 3 more regular looking barred hens in with the RIR rooster. I plan on hatching their eggs along with the for sure barred rock eggs I’m buying from the woman I sold 2 of my for sure barred rock hens to (she bought them to go with her barred rock rooster) a few months ago. I hope to set the eggs mid next week.
Since I didn’t get sexlinked chicks I feather sexed them. I’m new at that so we’ll see how good I did as the chicks grow. About a third we’re blacked with the white head spot. All sexed as male except for one. The 2 red chicks sexed as males and most but not all of the blondes sexed as females. So color was not a reliable sex indicator.

 

[jlwquilter]

Some of the chicks.

 

[FuzzyCritters]

Some of the chicks.

Those all came from the Barred Rocks? That is quite the assortment!

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

View attachment 2586511

Yeah, those are barred rock mixes. However, as you can see from the chicks, some are going to be mostly silver, meaning they can’t be sexed at hatch. However, any chick with a white head spot will still be a cockerel, as the mothers have the barring gene.

 

[jlwquilter]

That’s what I thought about the white head spot. The one’s feather do look female though. I was wondering if that one could have got barred rock genes as a throwback - barred from the grandpa and barred from the mom...? Barred rock female can have a weak head spot I thought. Or would the RIR dad totally override the barred rock grandpa? I mean the red male chicks got the red from grandma and dad right? As you can tell I’m just starting to learn about breeding genetics I wasn’t even meaning to get into it and just stick with known sexlinked pairings. Haha. So much for that! But this is a good learning experience.

 

[jlwquilter]

Those all came from the Barred Rocks? That is quite the assortment!

Yep! The mom’s pictures I posted - and I’ve been told their parents were a barred rock roo over a RIR hen. But I do not know for certain if they have the exact same parents or if this is the breeder best guess. I bought the moms when they were 8 weeks old from a friend who bought them as chicks from his friend. So basically, who knows!
Customer desires being what they are it’s better for me to know the girls for sure than the boys for sure and then have to guess on the rest.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

That’s what I thought about the white head spot. The one’s feather do look female though. I was wondering if that one could have got barred rock genes as a throwback - barred from the grandpa and barred from the mom...? Barred rock female can have a weak head spot I thought. Or would the RIR dad totally override the barred rock grandpa? I mean the red male chicks got the red from grandma and dad right? As you can tell I’m just starting to learn about breeding genetics I wasn’t even meaning to get into it and just stick with known sexlinked pairings. Haha. So much for that! But this is a good learning experience.

The feathers look female because the chicks have one copy of the barring gene. Hens always have one copy of the barring gene, but roosters can either have one or two barring genes.

 

[jlwquilter]

The feathers look female because the chicks have one copy of the barring gene. Hens always have one copy of the barring gene, but roosters can either have one or two barring genes.

So... the head spot is a better indicator than the wing feathers? The male can have wing feathers that look female?

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

So... the head spot is a better indicator than the wing feathers? The male can have wing feathers that look female?

Any chicks with barring will be males. Even ones with female-looking wing feathers.

 

[jlwquilter]

Thanks for clarifying that for me
Of course that means one of the chicks I sold as a probable female isn’t one after all. I hope the new hatch batch with the more definitive barred hens as moms gives me more of the black girls. If I get a rainbow again it’ll tell me a lot too. In any case it’ll be a month before they hatch. Just have to be patient. Not my strong suit - lol!