Barred Rock Rooster crossed with white rock hens (and other barred rock hens)

[Henraiser]

I have a flock with a Barred Rock rooster, 5 Barred Rock Hens and 4 White rock hens.

I just incubated eggs from this mix without having any idea which eggs belonged to the white rock hens and which ones belonged to the barred rock hens. I have 19 chicks hatched and have some questions I hope this forum can answer.

I have several chicks that are mostly yellow with a few black specks here and there on them. Obviously, I know these were chicks with a white rock mom.

I have other chicks that are black on their backs and heads with the blonde spot on the top of the head. Some of them are darker black than others and some have larger spots on the heads than others. A couple have almost no spot on the head at all.

Are all the ones that are black going to be from barred rock moms or might some of the lighter shaded ones be also from white rock moms? Stated differently, will a barred rock rooster and white rock hen produce blonde chicks only or will they also produce some chicks that look more like typical barred rock chicks? Can I deduce anything about the sex of the blonde chicks?

Thoughts and comments appreciated.

 

[enola]

The black chicks with the bigger dot on their heads are roosters. The ones eith the small dots are hens. Barred rocks are an auto sexing breed.

The yellow chicks are from the white rocks.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Hmmmm....my genetics are not the strongest, but I would not classify Barred Rocks as auto-sexing...they are definitely not considered an auto-sexing breed. While carefully managed Barred Rock flocks from quality breeders produce certain traits that can be fairly, even highly, reliable (larger, more diffuse head dot for males), so many hatchery quality Barred Rocks and hybrids do not follow those rules.

Any barred rooster will produce barred offspring of both sexes if bred to a non-barred bird...but you've got a White Rock, and she may have a dominant white gene (I know White Leghorns have a dominant white gene)...hard to know...so she could give only yellow chicks (with black flecks) if she is dominant white as that would hide the barring from the rooster. My genetics gets fuzzy here but I THINK if she is not dominant white, all the chicks would be barred...not some yellow and some barred, 50% mix...so I think you are right to think the yellow chicks are from the White Rock.

However because I'm not sensing you are working with closely controlled, breeder quality Barred Rocks, the head dot sizes might prove something, but I would not take it with certainty. And some of the funkier, lighter barred birds might be from the White Rock if she doesn't have dominant white as you could have 50% white and 50% of a lighter barred...I don't know what those percentages might be as genetics get more complicated than barred and not barred.

There are genetics calculators that will help with the color that you should get. This is a really easy one, but doesn't take into the more complex issues: http://www.breedbook.org/?action=geneticscalculator&tab=CHICKEN

and a more complicated one that does...and which often confuses me: http://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html

My 2 cents.

Lady of McCamley

 

[keesmom]

White can hide a lot of genes. The white rocks can be carrying barring, partridge, buff, the kitchen sink. So unexpected colors may pop up.