Black Giant x White Leghorn - White with leakage?

[NellaBean]

So in theory, does that mean that although I am not creating "sex-links" the chicks are still sexable by feather spot color and leg color?

 

[Krys109uk]

So in theory, does that mean that although I am not creating "sex-links" the chicks are still sexable by feather spot color and leg color?

Sounds like they're sexable by spot & leg, but not at hatch.

Not sure about those with the grey spots

At least with the birds with light legs & barred feather spots, you can be sure they're males.

I'd think the birds with black spots are the ones with dark legs & they'd, presumably, be females​

 

[tadkerson]

In the 1940s poultry men would cross a black rooster (australorp) on a white leghorn to produce offspring for egg production. The poultry men reported that the chicks with black spots were females and the males were white. I have also had the same experience in my work with dominant white. Warren determined that this was not a very accurate way of sexing chicks. But I imagine it would help your odds if you had to pick pullets.

Tim

 

[Krys109uk]

Clearly selecting for black spots would only work if all the females were carrying barring.

 

[tadkerson]

Krys,

My reference to black spotting concerned chick down and sexing chicks. I do not understand the connection between black spots and barring. Please explain.

Tim

 

[Krys109uk]

My reference to black spotting concerned chick down and sexing chicks. I do not understand the connection between black spots and barring

Oh I see. I am sorry; I hadn't read your post accurately.

That is interesting. I hadn't realised there was any correlation between the black spots in I/i+ down & the chick's gender.

The barring thing was only referring to the black flecks in the feathering.

Sorry for the confusion.

 

[NellaBean]

Well I haven't gone through every single chick, but all of the ones I have seen with dark legs ARE pullets. And all of the obvious boys do have yellow legs. There are still a few that are iffy.....can't tell if their spots are black or barred without grabbing them and a few that have yellow legs but still "iffy" on gender. I would guess in another week or two it will be obvious on the iffy ones as well.


Very interesting! I do think this cross will make some nice layers....and nice big roosters.



On a slightly related topic, I also have Jersey Giant Rooster x Rhode Island Red Hen......6 chicks, all appear "black". However, some do have red bleeding through in the hackles area. Will these leakage have any connection to gender? I have only noticed it in two of the chicks, and they aren't anywhere near as obvious on boys vs girls as the leghorn crosses.

 

[Krys109uk]

I also have Jersey Giant Rooster x Rhode Island Red Hen......6 chicks, all appear "black". However, some do have red bleeding through in the hackles area. Will these leakage have any connection to gender?

I'd expect red leakage in the adult plumage of both genders of that cross. Males sometimes seem more prone to leakage, most especially in hackle & shoulder.​

 

[NellaBean]

Well these chicks are probably getting around 7-8 weeks old. Gender is very obvious on both the black/white cross and the black/rir.

Here is one of the (BIG!) Giant/Leghorn boys, picture taken a week or two ago.

A group shot of a bunch of the boys (with a couple brahmas, and a couple girls in there also)

The girls and brahmas have been split off into their own pen, as the boys are just being grown out for processing.


Here are pics of the girls from today:


You can see the dark legs on the girls.

All the girls have black leakage, and a couple have a LOT of it.

The RIR/Giant crosses are much more substantial in size. I had 6 hatch out, 1 died (appeared to be pullet)....let with 3 pullets, 2 cockerels. There is a almost solid black chick of each gender.....and 1 pullet with significant reddish leakage in neck/chest/shoulders (looks like a black sex link), 1 pullet with a little bit of leakage in neck area.....and 1 cockerel with a LOT of leakage, including a big red patch on his chest. The cockerels also have red feathers coming in scattered throughout their body here and there.

The standard brahma cockerels are about the same size of the Giant cross pullets. The Giant cross cockerels are huge compared to the girls and the brahmas both.

All chicks are similar in size to my 12-13 week old RIR pullets. At 8 weeks.


Here is an older picture (although pretty timely as to when these eggs were fertilized/hatched) of the Black Giant rooster and the RIR hen that made the black chicks.

And here is a picture of the RIR girl with one of the Leghorn girls, so you can compare size. I am kind of surprised by the size difference in the RIR cross pullets, as my RIR girl is NOT bigger than my Leghorns.

And a current picture of the Giant cockerel, to show how he has filled out since the earlier pics. He is close to 8 months old now.

 

[NellaBean]

How does the white with black leakage carryover into the next generation? Like if I bred the white boys to the white girls....or the black rooster dad back to the white daughters (more likely)? It is kind of a neat look, wouldn't mind to have more of the black on the girls.