Are these all Barred Roos??

[speckledhen]

It only works one way because the barring gene is a sex linked gene.

Mothers pass the gene ONLY to their sons, not their daughters, while sires pass the barring gene to both sexes of chicks. Why they do it, I can't tell you, but I do know that's the way it is.

 

[aoxa]

It only works one way because the barring gene is a sex linked gene.

Mothers pass the gene ONLY to their sons, not their daughters, while sires pass the barring gene to both sexes of chicks. Why they do it, I can't tell you, but I do know that's the way it is.

There are some cases where a barred male will have an unbarred offspring, but that is way off topic here lol

Agree with you 100% Speckledhen!

 

[dretd]

It only works one way because the barring gene is a sex linked gene.

Mothers pass the gene ONLY to their sons, not their daughters, while sires pass the barring gene to both sexes of chicks. Why they do it, I can't tell you, but I do know that's the way it is.

To elaborate (I hope you are familiar with human XX/XY genetics for girls/boys cuz that helps):
Chickens, like people have sex chromosomes, but it is opposite in chickens from humans. In Humans Girls are XX and Boys and XY. In chickens. Hens are ZW and Roos are ZZ.

The barring gene is sex-linked, meaning it is on the Z chromosome.

When a hen and roo mate each chick will inherit one copy from each parent, so half the hen's baby's will get her Z and half will get her W. If the female is barred then you know her Z has the copy of the barring gene as it is dominant.

The roo will do the same. If he has one copy of the barring gene than half will get that Z and if he has two copies, then all chicks will be barred.

If a chick inherits two copies of the barring, the effect is amplified and in general they appear to the eye a lighter more distinctly barred color. In the case of the OP, everyone was thinking the darker one must be a girl because it only has one copy of the barring gene, but if it came from a sexlink (that only has one copy to begin with) it got none from mom on the Z and one from dad so the barring looks like what a female BR would look like.

Here is a Punnett Square ( a grid that shows out of 4 babies, who inherits which genes) that may help:

P Male Z / Z
Z Z
___________________

female: Z / W Z| ZZ ZZ (males)
|
W| ZW ZW (females)

In this example, only the red Z has the barring gene and the black Z does not (sexlink male, BR female). So 25% of the time a chick (male only) inherits 2 copies of the barring gene and will be lighter, 25% of the time the chick (female) will get zero copies of the barring and will be black, and 50% of the time (half male and half female) the chicks will get one copy of the barring gene and will have the appearance of having darker barring--something we associate with female Barred Rocks since all Z chromosomes are supposed to have the barring gene.

Not sure if this clears it up or is more confusing!
|

 

[speckledhen]

I just say it the simplest way possible. Gene designations confuse the heck out of me so I know they confuse lots of folks. All most want to know is if the barred parent must be the mom or the dad for sex linking or if it matters. It does matter and it must be the mother to get a sex linked chick.

I've never had any chick sired by a Barred Rock male that didn't have some degree of barring, some more, some less, but always barred in some way. Not doubting you at all, aoxa, just hasn't been in my personal experience. As I've always said, I'm not a genetics guru, but sex linking, I know pretty well.

My Barred Rock flock once produced a male who was so dark, it was pullet colored, even as an adult-could have been confused for a Black Sex Link, but definitely was not. lockedhearts owned him, named him Ru Paul. Strangest rooster to ever come out of my BRs, except for one with more white than I'd ever seen in a pure BR mating. Genes are funny little gremlins sometimes, LOL.

 

[questions543]

okay thanks for the info. Ive been wondering for awhile now.,.

 

[aoxa]

I just say it the simplest way possible. Gene designations confuse the heck out of me so I know they confuse lots of folks. All most want to know is if the barred parent must be the mom or the dad for sex linking or if it matters. It does matter and it must be the mother to get a sex linked chick. I've never had any chick sired by a Barred Rock male that didn't have some degree of barring, some more, some less, but always barred in some way. Not doubting you at all, aoxa, just hasn't been in my personal experience. As I've always said, I'm not a genetics guru, but sex linking, I know pretty well. My Barred Rock flock once produced a male who was so dark, it was pullet colored, even as an adult-could have been confused for a Black Sex Link, but definitely was not. lockedhearts owned him, named him Ru Paul. Strangest rooster to ever come out of my BRs, except for one with more white than I'd ever seen in a pure BR mating. Genes are funny little gremlins sometimes, LOL.

I was hoping you would say that so I could show you my unbarred chick sired by my barred rock. I thought for sure every chick would be barred in some manner, but so far she is just an off white (looks like a white chick that took a dirt bath). She has a few flicks of grey in her. Oh and I am keeping her for my laying flock. I bet she will be a good one! Thing is, her mom was a RSL and so far I've got two chicks with zero barring from her and my barred rooster.

Father

Mother I hatched 40+ chicks with the same father. Only her chicks were white. Her eggs are very easy to distinguish from the others, so I know they belong to her.

 

[aoxa]

I just say it the simplest way possible. Gene designations confuse the heck out of me so I know they confuse lots of folks. All most want to know is if the barred parent must be the mom or the dad for sex linking or if it matters. It does matter and it must be the mother to get a sex linked chick. I've never had any chick sired by a Barred Rock male that didn't have some degree of barring, some more, some less, but always barred in some way. Not doubting you at all, aoxa, just hasn't been in my personal experience. As I've always said, I'm not a genetics guru, but sex linking, I know pretty well. My Barred Rock flock once produced a male who was so dark, it was pullet colored, even as an adult-could have been confused for a Black Sex Link, but definitely was not. lockedhearts owned him, named him Ru Paul. Strangest rooster to ever come out of my BRs, except for one with more white than I'd ever seen in a pure BR mating. Genes are funny little gremlins sometimes, LOL.

I've heard that the males should not be so light when used for exhibition. Not as dark as a pullet, but not as light as some commercial strains.

The male behind the female is the best I have for males. Should I keep him? Yes. Please tell me yes lol.

13 weeks old. Here he is again. The sun was very bright, so he is darker. This one confused me for a while. He was darker than his brothers.

 

[speckledhen]

Show strains are quite different, aren't they? The males are overall darker than utility strains, it seems. Let me see if I can find a photo on BYC of Ru Paul for you. Weirdest thing to come out of my utility Rock flock ever!


*Aoxa, I can see the barring on that white bird in your picture, especially in the hackles around the back of the head. It's a different shade of white, very subtle. It's just hidden, "over-washed", if you will. It doesn't look like a plain white bird, at least to me.

Your BR male looks pretty good. Extra comb point, but that's nothing terrible.


Here you go, borrowing lockedhearts' photos on the site here. As a chick, Ru Paul is on the right next to his brother. You can see why we were confused-so dark, but pink comb at a very young age. Same sire on both chicks, different mothers:



Later on.

 

[aoxa]

Show strains are quite different, aren't they? The males are overall darker than utility strains, it seems. Let me see if I can find a photo on BYC of Ru Paul for you. Weirdest thing to come out of my utility Rock flock ever! Here you go, borrowing lockedhearts' photos on the site here. As a chick, Ru Paul is on the right next to his brother. You can see why we were confused-so dark, but pink comb at a very young age. Same sire on both chicks, different mothers: Later on.

Could his mother not be a barred rock? All of my barred mixes who were sired by a barred rock, but who's parents were either cochin (buff), Delaware or Wyandotte (Silver Laced) were really dark in barring. Even the boys.

For example: Cochin x barred rock. - this is a boy. Only 6 weeks old. and

Wyandotte mother - barred rock father. I am guessing male on this one as well. It has some red wattles going on. oh and it likes to drop kick the silkies

 

[speckledhen]

No, I know exactly who his mother was and I still own his grandmother, my Amanda. His mother was her daughter, Zoe, who was very finely barred, very dark and huge like her mama. lockedhearts took Zoe later on and she always threw hard-to-sex chicks. Let me see if I can find a picture of Zoe in my files.


ETA: The hen on the right is Zoe, the mother of Ru Paul. I'm trying to find a better picture of her. (((Nope, can't find one)))



Sorry to the OP! Don't want to hijack your thread.

This does show that genetics can throw you for a loop sometimes and as I always say, they can be like gremlins, playing tricks on you.