Are my crosses autosexing?

[Koggecritters]

I crossed a Cackle Hatchery olive egger (advertised as Welsummer x Cream Legbar and looks as such) with a BCM (hatchery stock as well) and sold them as straight run. I usually hatch Wyandottes so it never occurred to me that the white dot on their heads meant anything, but the ones with big white dots turned in to males and are barred. The pullets are black with copper highlights. Is this a coincidence? What does that mean for the ones with barely a streak? I'm going to grow some out, but thoughts welcomed!

 

[AinaWGSD]

Was the olive egger the hen? If your olive egger was the hen, and she was barred and the rooster wasn't, then these chicks are black sexlinks.

Barring is carried on the Z sex chromosome. In chickens, males are ZZ and females are ZW. If a hen is barred, she can only pass barring on to chicks that inherit a Z chromosome from her. Only male chicks will be able to inherit a Z chromosome from the mother, so only male chicks will be barred (as long as the rooster has no copies of the barring gene, ie is non-barred).

 

[Koggecritters]

Was the olive egger the hen? If your olive egger was the hen, and she was barred and the rooster wasn't, then these chicks are black sexlinks.

Barring is carried on the Z sex chromosome. In chickens, males are ZZ and females are ZW. If a hen is barred, she can only pass barring on to chicks that inherit a Z chromosome from her. Only male chicks will be able to inherit a Z chromosome from the mother, so only male chicks will be barred (as long as the rooster has no copies of the barring gene, ie is non-barred).

I knew someone here would know the answer! Ok that makes sense, is the barring related to the spots? Can I definitively tell on the ones that seem in between? One with no white spot has a white feather coming in on her? wing so I'm so confused. I figured I need to grow these out for it to completely make sense to me.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Ok that makes sense, is the barring related to the spots? Can I definitively tell on the ones that seem in between? One with no white spot has a white feather coming in on her? wing so I'm so confused. I figured I need to grow these out for it to completely make sense to me.

Yes! I was trying to give the cliffs notes version of barred sex linking and I forgot that detail. The ones with white spots on their heads will be barred, no white spot means non-barred and, in this case, female. A few white feathers on a solid colored bird is normal, especially in the juvenile feathers.

At least some (probably all) of your hens are barred. It's just harder to see on this base color than it is on black.

 

[Koggecritters]

Yes, all are so identical that I can't identify my egg eater to get her out of there and free ranging . So even the light streaks most likely mean male? Sorry if I seem dense, I just don't want to mislead anyone who will be getting these birds. And if that's an unknown, that's fine! I've never had anything autosexing so I'm not well versed on it in the slightest.

 

[AinaWGSD]

They should. The third picture is so light I would probably also question if it was male in your shoes, but it should be barred (thus, male). Once tew wing feathers start coming in during that first week it will be obvious if the chick is barred or not.

 

[Koggecritters]

Thank you so much for your help! I was going to do a back cross to the BCM, but I may not because it sounds like I may lose that autosexing ability.