Boy or Girl please?!

[junebuggena]

The chick looks like a pullet for now. Still a bit young to be certain.

 

[camper82]

Fingers crossed for that. And, you are absolutely right. They were called sex linked when I got them at Tractor Supply. They were our first birds so forgive my ignorance. You know your stuff. Thanks for the help.

 

[drumstick diva]

agree with Junebuggena - Yes, she certainly does know her stuff !

 

[camper82]

I'm impressed! You agree it is a pullet?

 

[rebrascora]

If the hens are not RIR but red sex links, does that not change the goal posts as regards possible father. I'm not in any way as knowledgeable as junebuggena but the chick looks barred so I would have guessed the father was the legbar and the white colouring was perhaps coming through from the sexlink hens. I may be totally off the mark though.

 

[junebuggena]

If the hens are not RIR but red sex links, does that not change the goal posts as regards possible father. I'm not in any way as knowledgeable as junebuggena but the chick looks barred so I would have guessed the father was the legbar and the white colouring was perhaps coming through from the sexlink hens. I may be totally off the mark though.

Nope. Red sexlinks usually have a copy of dominant white, but they are a red base color. This modifies all black coloring to white. The chick is not barred. The chick has juvenile partridge type patterning. Looks like barring at a glance, but is completely different when you take a closer look. The chick did not inherit the dominant white, since there is black patterning. The silver base color could not have come from the mother, since the redsexlink hens (and Rhode Island Reds for that matter) only have a red/gold base color gene. The silver must have come from the father. And since Legbars are a gold/red base color, he could not have fathered this chick. The only logical conclusion is that the silver Easter Egger (carrying red/gold) is the the father.

 

[rebrascora]

@junebuggena
Many thanks for the explanation. It will take at least a couple more reads of it before I get a grasp of it, but really appreciate you taking the time to spell it out.

 

[camper82]

Here is an update. I think it is a pullet.

 

[junebuggena]

Here is an update. I think it is a pullet.

With a comb that well developed and red, on chick that young, combined with the patchy coloring, it's a cockerel.

 

[camper82]

In your experience, are the roosters bullied more than the hens when they are getting established in the flock? It's mother has left it on its own now and they are really putting this baby in its place.