Will a welsummer X ISA brown chick be autosexing?

Kearaaaa23

Songster
May 18, 2023
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Hello, what will the chick be like if the rooster is a welsummer and the hen is an ISA brown? ISA is sex linked and welsummer is auto sexing.Does that mean the chicks will the auto sexing too or sex linked? If so how would I know which ones are Pullets and cockerels. Please help thanks! :)
 
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Because you're working with an F2 hybrid, it all gets more complicated.

You can get results slightly higher than a guess by assuming that the lightest chicks are female and the darkest male. These tells will no longer be visible when true feathers start coming in.

Female
20240124_091921.jpg


Male
20240124_091839.jpg


Boys may have a white or lighter "cap" at the shoulder.

20240206_075001.jpg


Girls tails often come in earlier and more precise. Boys tails can look messy and downy for the first few days. For most chicks, this is a few days to a week out.

In my experience (admittedly limited) boys seldom have head dots. Some breeds can be accurately sexed by the head dots alone.

This is the same boy as above. His sisters both had head dots.

20240213_070401.jpg


These are not absolutes. By studying these signs and others I was able to sex most of my cross-breed chicks by about two weeks, but I have been wrong (I was off on two of the last batch of 7, but one was a black chick). I am still learning.
 
You will get sex links by breeding a dark solid colored rooster to a barred hen.Barred hens only pass the barred gene down to their sons so all male chicks will be barred. You get autosexed chicks by breeding a barred rooster to a barred hen. Barred roosters have 2 copies of the barred gene and pass it down to all their chicks (the sons and daughters both) A flock of barred chickens will breed true but hybrids do not
 
You will get sex links by breeding a dark solid colored rooster to a barred hen.Barred hens only pass the barred gene down to their sons so all male chicks will be barred. You get autosexed chicks by breeding a barred rooster to a barred hen. Barred roosters have 2 copies of the barred gene and pass it down to all their chicks (the sons and daughters both) A flock of barred chickens will breed true but hybrids do not
so would the females be darker and males be lighter? I’m new to chicken breeding and find it confusing. Everyone seems to be saying different things and I don’t know how the chicks will turn out if it’s a welsummer rooster x ISA brown. What does a “barred” chick mean? what do I have to look out for when spotting a pullet from a cockerel if it’s this cross? From the link you attached below would it be that the males are lighter than females? Please help as I can’t keep more cockerels and I avoid culling.
 
Because you're working with an F2 hybrid, it all gets more complicated.

You can get results slightly higher than a guess by assuming that the lightest chicks are female and the darkest male. These tells will no longer be visible when true feathers start coming in.

Female
View attachment 3791199

Male
View attachment 3791200

Boys may have a white or lighter "cap" at the shoulder.

View attachment 3791176

Girls tails often come in earlier and more precise. Boys tails can look messy and downy for the first few days. For most chicks, this is a few days to a week out.

In my experience (admittedly limited) boys seldom have head dots. Some breeds can be accurately sexed by the head dots alone.

This is the same boy as above. His sisters both had head dots.

View attachment 3791189

These are not absolutes. By studying these signs and others I was able to sex most of my cross-breed chicks by about two weeks, but I have been wrong (I was off on two of the last batch of 7, but one was a black chick). I am still learning.
Would all of these work? it’s confusing since the link @McChooky put it seems that the females will be darker than the males. Would your tips for sex linked chicks work with a welsummer roo and ISA hen? I find this really confusing. Everyone’s saying different things. Please help!!
 
Neither the Welsummer nor the ISA Brown is barred, so basically anything about barring in the above is meaningless for this cross. Barring is the pattern of stripes on the feathers, such as a Barred Rock or Dominique.

The "tips" I gave you above are what I have observed. Because I primarily work with hybrids and multi-generational crosses, the sex-link rules do not apply. I have to go by visual markers as the chick develops. (Also, please note that the lighter/darker information is based on a single hatch. All my other groups have been black.)

Because the ISA brown is a multi-generational cross and not a standardized breed, it is impossible to know what genes she carries. Sex link relies on knowing some things you can't see just by looking at the bird. So the simple answer is no, there is no traditional way to sex-link the offspring of these two breeds.
 
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