Black Australorp x RIR or GSL

[Dani13563]

Hello everyone! We just had three chicks hatch in our broody-hen pen, and I was wondering if anyone knew what these little guys are! (I know NOTHING of chicken genetics.)

We have one lone rooster so it’s no question who the father is, but we have three different mother possibilities. We have some RIR hens, some gold sexlinks, and one RIRxEE hen (we have another but she is not laying due to ascites .) The hatching mother is a GSLxEE but I know none of the chicks are hers since her eggs are green and the chicks came from brown eggs. I do not think these chicks have any Easter egger since all our EE mixed hens lay either green or pink eggs and, again, these chicks came from brown eggs. So the possibilities are:

1.) Black Australorp x RIR
2.) Black Australorp x GSL

One chick looks like a pure BA, the other is yellow with a black spot, and the newest one (not pictured) is 100% yellow that I can see (he’s still a little wet haha)

Is there any way to determine the gender due to the potential sexlinked lineage, or any way to determine the mother from the chick color? Thanks for reading!!

 

[labelo]

On sex links, no, those would require either a red/gold rooster x silver hen OR a non-barred rooster x barred hen (red/gold vs. silver and barring being the two sex linked color traits).

On the different chick down colors.. this is interesting, because I would have expected your Australorp rooster to be E/E - extended black, and your RIR/GSL to be E^Wh/E^Wh, so chicks to all be E/E^Wh.
What's really interesting is that you've got some completely different down color going on between these chicks, even though they're all E/E^Wh.

What I *think* is happening is that the yellow chicks inherited a single dominant white gene from their GSL mom. GSLs get one dominant white gene (I) from their mother, but one black gene (i) from their father.
Dominant white turns black on a chicken into white, think the parts of your RIR that are black that are white on your GSL. Since they inherited the dominant E extended black gene from dad, they would normally be all black, except dominant white is turning that black white (or on chick down, light yellow).
If I'm right, those chicks should grow up to be (mostly) white. As they get older they might have a bit of red/gold that leaks through, especially around their wings, and especially if they are roosters.

The black chick could be either the RIR's chick or the GSL's chick, but who did not get her dominant white gene. So you can't be certain on the mom on that one.

 

[Dani13563]

On sex links, no, those would require either a red/gold rooster x silver hen OR a non-barred rooster x barred hen (red/gold vs. silver and barring being the two sex linked color traits).

On the different chick down colors.. this is interesting, because I would have expected your Australorp rooster to be E/E - extended black, and your RIR/GSL to be E^Wh/E^Wh, so chicks to all be E/E^Wh.
What's really interesting is that you've got some completely different down color going on between these chicks, even though they're all E/E^Wh.

What I *think* is happening is that the yellow chicks inherited a single dominant white gene from their GSL mom. GSLs get one dominant white gene (I) from their mother, but one black gene (i) from their father.
Dominant white turns black on a chicken into white, think the parts of your RIR that are black that are white on your GSL. Since they inherited the dominant E extended black gene from dad, they would normally be all black, except dominant white is turning that black white (or on chick down, light yellow).
If I'm right, those chicks should grow up to be (mostly) white. As they get older they might have a bit of red/gold that leaks through, especially around their wings, and especially if they are roosters.

The black chick could be either the RIR's chick or the GSL's chick, but who did not get her dominant white gene. So you can't be certain on the mom on that one.

Woah that’s super cool!! Chicken genetics have always seemed so interesting to me. I also expected them all to be black, because I just assumed the black would be dominant. Having almost completely white chickens would be fun. I hope they’re not all roosters

 

[labelo]

Woah that’s super cool!! Chicken genetics have always seemed so interesting to me. I also expected them all to be black, because I just assumed the black would be dominant. Having almost completely white chickens would be fun. I hope they’re not all roosters

Chicken genetics is my new rabbit hole hobby! It all started when my parents started letting broody hens hatch backyard mix chicks and, just like you, I wondered who mom was! I went on a dominant white deep dive just for this post, lol, it's not a gene I had worked with much before.

Looking even more into it, it's possible that any chicks with black dots are more likely to be roosters (apparently, males tend to have more black "leakage" than females when they are heterozygous for dominant white (I/i) like your chicks, though both sexes can have it!). So keep an eye on the one with the black head dot, though it could just as easily turn out pullet!

And, sometimes this color--white with black spots--is called "paint"

 

[Dani13563]

Chicken genetics is my new rabbit hole hobby! It all started when my parents started letting broody hens hatch backyard mix chicks and, just like you, I wondered who mom was! I went on a dominant white deep dive just for this post, lol, it's not a gene I had worked with much before.

Looking even more into it, it's possible that any chicks with black dots are more likely to be roosters (apparently, males tend to have more black "leakage" than females when they are heterozygous for dominant white (I/i) like your chicks, though both sexes can have it!). So keep an eye on the one with the black head dot, though it could just as easily turn out pullet!

And, sometimes this color--white with black spots--is called "paint"

That’s so cool!! I hope it’s a pullet, although my parents love rotating roosters every now and then to add more color to the flock, so they might keep it anyways. Thank you for contributing your time to my random question!

 

[Dani13563]

I thought I would add a random update on the chicks. In total 4 chicks hatched. Two yellow, two black. The two black chicks are almost solid black (whereas their father looked more like a penguin as a chick). I though that was strange. The two yellow chicks are growing in their feathers white. They both have red AND black leakage. I will add pics of my favorite one. He has red on his chest and black on his back.