Breed Color help!

[GoldenCometKeeper]

A little background:

I have a "cherry egger" (New Hampshire/RIR cross) rooster and 9 hens. The hens are RIW(6) and Golden Comet/Cinnamon Queen(3) (whatever you choose to call them). I took 4 eggs to my neighbor because she had a broody cochin and I wanted to see if she would hatch out any chicks. I had no way to know if the eggs came from my Golden Comets or my RIWs.

Now I have two 3 week old chicks, who are doing great. Here is the issue-
I have no flipping clue if they are cockerels or pullets. From everything I have read, a first generation Golden Comet (RIW hen and Cherry Egger Roo cross) will be sex links. The roos will be completely yellow/white when hatched and the hens will be yellow with brown stripes (which is how the GC hens looked when chicks).

These two chicks I have are WHITE.

More research tells me that hens tail feathers start to develop sooner than a rooster's.

By a week old these two chicks had long pretty tail feathers (at least for a chick). When I got the rooster back in May, he did not have tail feathers until weeks after the hens got theirs.

I guess my question is, should I be expecting these two to be roosters? Why are they both white still?
Hoping some more seasoned chicken people can help me out here.

 

[aart]

I don't think that cross makes sexlinks?
Wait 6 weeks and look for redder larger combs and wattles.

 

[keesmom]

According to this thread that cross will not produce sex linked chicks.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/sex-linked-information.261208/

And from the first paragraph:

The number 1 rule is that two sex linked chickens can not be crossed to produce sex linked offspring. A sex linked chicken can not be crossed with any other variety of chicken to produce sex linked offspring. A person can not produce sex linked offspring if they cross a male sex linked variety with any variety of female. A person can not produce sex linked offspring if they cross any variety of male with a sex linked female. A person can not use sex linked birds in any cross to produce sex linked offspring. There is one exception to rule number one; a red sex link that is a non-barred and non-dominant white male can be used in a black sex linked cross.

 

[GoldenCometKeeper]

The hatchery I bought from said that to make "their" Golden Comets, they breed the Cherry Egger male with a Rhode Island White female. Which is what I attempted.



I am not sure which hen laid which egg, but I know that if they came from the Golden Comets, I won't be able to tell their sex by their color.

With the Golden Comet male pictures I've seen, I probably have two roosters. The hens I had at this age were a lot darker.

I am just being hopeful that I managed to get two hens. But that hope is dissipating. Better prepare to rehome them, my current Rooster is pretty sure he's the boss-though he sometimes lets the older hens boss him around.

 

[keesmom]

The hatchery I bought from said that to make "their" Golden Comets, they breed the Cherry Egger male with a Rhode Island White female. Which is what I attempted.

My bad. I mistakenly assumed Cherry Eggers were red sex links. (Too many trademark names.) I missed your mention that they were initially RIR x NH. They are a production Red type, not a sex link. So yes, the chicks are sex linked if they came from your RIW. If from the Comets, they are not.

In general pullets do get tail feathers more quickly than cockerels. What do their combs look like?

 

[lazy gardener]

I believe your roo x RIW WILL produce a red sex link. In that case, the pullets would be red, and the cockerels would be white. As for the roo x your sex links: you will not get a sex linked chick from that breeding.

 

[GoldenCometKeeper]

I have no way of knowing which hen laid the eggs. Most of them lay in one nest. I figured that if they came from the comets that they would be darker. Grade school color knowledge- dark + dark = darker. Apparently chickens don't follow that rule

Their combs are starting to poke up a little. Developed slightly in the last week. Still small but I can't remember how the hens' looked at this age.

The tail feathers are at least 2 inches long.

These chicks are throwing me for a loop. Still a newbie though. "Just hatched"