Boy or Girl (Cochin Silkie Crosses)

[MacGuyver]

Have to show you my cute mutts. I crossed a buff Cochin bantam roo over a black Silkie hen and got these two babies. Trying to figure out what they are.



First of all, here's the Daddy.



And here's the Mommy.



Here's the buffish one.



And here's the black one.



Here's a comparison of their feathers. The buffish looks to be feathering out faster than the black. Is that a sex linked characteristic? These pictures are from four days old. I'll add more current pictures in a bit.

 

[hdowden]

its to early to tell

 

[MacGuyver]

Finally got my toolbar back so I could post more pictures.



The buffish one has five toes on each foot.



And a single comb.



Here's what the wings look like more feathered out.



Profile view.



Outside in the big brooder.



The black one has four toes on one foot, and five, though not properly formed, on the other.



Definitely not a single comb, I'm guessing pea or walnut.



Wings are feathering in now, love the streaks of color.



Full picture.



Outside in the big brooder.

 

[hdowden]

wait till they are about 8 weeks old with 6 being the youngest for an accurate guess

i know its hard to wait and i keep looking at mine and wondering what they are

silkie/d'iccle babies

 

[MacGuyver]

wait till they are about 8 weeks old with 6 being the youngest for an accurate guess

i know its hard to wait and i keep looking at mine and wondering what they are

silkie/d'iccle babies

Have you hatched any out before? Or is this your first group? To me, the color, skin variations, comb differences, and rate of feathering seem so different, that I'm wondering if any of them are sex linked. I wish I knew more genetics, because I really think this could be figured out by someone. . . just not by me!

 

[hdowden]

these are 2nd generation mixes and there is varying degrees of coloring on the legs and combs. all 8 of mine have black skin (just hatched out more) and some have 4 toes and some have 5. there are no crest on any of them.

feather sexing (the length of the wing feathers at hatch) is a sex link trait that ,if i remember right, silkies and cochins do not have

if i had to hazard a guess on gender now i would say the black maybe a cockerel due to the buff coloring but since dads a red/buff cochin its more than likely just bleeding of his colors

 

[MacGuyver]

these are 2nd generation mixes and there is varying degrees of coloring on the legs and combs. all 8 of mine have black skin (just hatched out more) and some have 4 toes and some have 5. there are no crest on any of them.

feather sexing (the length of the wing feathers at hatch) is a sex link trait that ,if i remember right, silkies and cochins do not have

if i had to hazard a guess on gender now i would say the black maybe a cockerel due to the buff coloring but since dads a red/buff cochin its more than likely just bleeding of his colors

I am guessing that the light colored one is a cockerel because I just saw it sparring with the Dominique cockerels. I have no clue about the black. I'm hoping that she's a girl because my point in hatching out from the mix was to get, in the words of a friend, "an ugly mutt that can hatch a chick for you from a stone".

 

[hdowden]

I am guessing that the light colored one is a cockerel because I just saw it sparring with the Dominique cockerels. I have no clue about the black. I'm hoping that she's a girl because my point in hatching out from the mix was to get, in the words of a friend, "an ugly mutt that can hatch a chick for you from a stone".

mixes are never ugly they are actually some of the prettiest chickens out there. sparing really doesnt mean anything since hens will spar to establish the pecking order although i have noticed the prettier the chick the more likely its going to be a cockerel not always to though

 

[MacGuyver]

mixes are never ugly they are actually some of the prettiest chickens out there. sparing really doesnt mean anything since hens will spar to establish the pecking order although i have noticed the prettier the chick the more likely its going to be a cockerel not always to though

I figured out the comb genetics. There are two alleles, pea and rose, for combs. A chicken can be dominant or recessive for both. Straight comes are the only ones you can tell genetics of by looking, and they are (p,p)(r,r). Since the rooster is a straight comb, and the hen is a walnut comb, but together they had one straight comb offspring (p,p)(r,r), I know the silky has to be heterozygous for both traits, that is (P,p)(R,r). That leaves the black cross also heterozygous like its mom. They aren't sex linked though, so that won't help at all. I can't figure color genetics for the life of me. It all seems very confusing. I found a color calculator online, but it said a buff rooster over a black hen would give all black offspring, which is obviously wrong, since one of them wasn't black. I can't figure skin color genetics or toe digit number genetics out either. :/

 

[Climbingalbatross]

I know this is an old thread, but I am curious as to the sex of the chicks. I am guessing the one with longer wings and yellow legs turned out to be a female. The darker chick with smaller wings a male. I say this because hens transfer many of sex-linked traits to the male progeny. I bred a silkie male with a cochin female and ended up with slow feathering dark shank hens and fast feathering light shank roosters. Now I am trying the reverse arrangement with a cochin dad and silkie hen. So far all of the babies seem to be slow feathering with dark shanks.