X2 Those are some handsome chickens in your avatar.
Color genetic identification help
- Thread starter Rlmp817
- Start date
Thanks.
They're a misunderstood breed, that's almost extinct, they need all the care, & love they can get.
Most of those males could be used to sire several kinds of sexlinks with various hens.
@MysteryChicken already mentioned the skin color option.
You could also do gold/silver sexlinks.
That requires a male with red feathers (you've got several of them. It is fine for him to have some black or blue feathers too.) It requires silver hens (white with black markings: Silver Laced, Silver Columbian, Silver pencilled, etc.) The sons would have silver (white) like their mothers, the daughters would have gold (red) like their fathers. Be aware that for some chicks you would have to wait until they grow some feathers to see the difference, while for others you would be able to see the color difference in the chick down color.
You could also do barred/not-barred sexlinks.
That requires a male with no white barring (I think that is all of yours in the photos.)
It requires a female with white barring (Barred Rock, Dominique, Cream Legbar, Bielefelder, etc.)
The sons get white barring like their mothers (and usually show a yellow dot on their head when they hatch.) The daughters take after their father and have no barring (and no yellow dot on their head when they hatch.)
I kinda forgot about the Gold X Silver sexlinking, been sick so my brain hasn't been working as great.
Yes, using Barred hens would work to make Sex-links, but I don't know if they have Barred Rocks.
I have no idea what they already have or do not have, other than what's been shown or mentioned in this thread. But since they mentioned the possibility of adding hens or pullets to the flock, I just listed some examples of colors or breeds that could work.
Oh, okay. That's fine.
- Thread starter
- #18
Thanks! I will take some photos of my other hens that are in the silvery spectrum and see what you guys think for a gold/silver project, if that's ok.
I do not currently have any barred chickens, but I am open to getting some in the future. Right now, working with what I have will be best, but planning for the future is very helpful!
I appreciate your ideas!
- Thread starter
- #19
ok! Current non silkie hens
I don't know if my reply will show the photos or not, so I'll describe each photo/hen as I go. (Edit to add: it looks like my post has links to the photos, so they can be seen by clicking the links, but the photos are not displaying in my post. I don't know how to fix that, so I'll just leave it the way it is.)
I do not see any hens with barring, so there will be no barred/not-barred sexlinks. (Much easier to say this here, rather than saying it again for each bird pictured.)
The all-black ones and the all-blue ones will not produce any useful sexlinks:
they do not show gold or silver
they do not have barring
the genes for black feathers often affect skin color, so you cannot usefully sex their chicks that way either
(Genetically, each black chicken is gold or is silver, but that is not useful because you cannot see the difference!)
Probably not useful for sexlinks.
I think she does have the Silver gene, but it's covered up by so much black you would not be able to tell which chicks are gold vs. silver to actually sex them (until they are so much older that the gender is obvious anyway.)
Blue hen in the middle: will not produce sexlinks.
Black/white hen behind her: I think that one is genetically black with mottling, so will not work for gold/silver sexlinks either.
Black silkie-type fluff behind her: will not produce sexlinks.
White head peeking into the left side of the frame, with a few darker feathers on her neck:
YES! She should work for gold/silver sexlinks.
Black & white chicken with black comb:
not light-skinned, so definitely cannot produce skin-color sexlinks.
I cannot tell if she is mottled (will not produce sexlinks) or silver with black markings (would produce sexlinks.)
Sorry to be unclear about this one
If you know whether she is mottled, or if you have other photos of her, we might be able to figure it out.
Black chicken, with another black one behind her:
neither one will produce gold/silver sexlinks
Three that will not produce gold/silver or barred/not-barred sexlink chicks:
Red in the front right, yellow/gold with a crest in the upper left, black/white mottled by the ladder.
Middle-right of the photo, white neck/gray tail should be able to produce silver/gold sexlinks. Her feet look blue, so she would not produce skin-color sexlinks. (Blue and green are "dark skin" for this purpose.)
The background chickens will not produce sexlinks (dark silkie, red, mottled, black)
The one in the center front probably is silver, so she could produce silver/gold sexlinks. But because she has so much black, her chicks might have really dark down, so you might not be able to see the color difference when they are young. It should be clear once they are a few weeks old, but that may be too late to be useful. (Their first feathers will probably be black ones in the wings, so still not useful for telling gold from silver.) She appears to have dark feet, so no skin-color sexlinks from her.
Black hen, not useful for sexlinks.
She's got yellow feet (genetically "light") so she "could" produce skin-color sexlinks: but her legs have enough dark on them (because of the feather-color genes) that actually recognizing leg color in her chicks will probably not work.
right side, back end of a hen with dark tail. I think she's the same one that was in the previous photo (looked genetically silver, but with so much black that the gold/silver status of her chicks might be hard to tell.)
I do not see any hens with barring, so there will be no barred/not-barred sexlinks. (Much easier to say this here, rather than saying it again for each bird pictured.)
The all-black ones and the all-blue ones will not produce any useful sexlinks:
they do not show gold or silver
they do not have barring
the genes for black feathers often affect skin color, so you cannot usefully sex their chicks that way either
(Genetically, each black chicken is gold or is silver, but that is not useful because you cannot see the difference!)
First one, black with a little white on her neck:
Probably not useful for sexlinks.
I think she does have the Silver gene, but it's covered up by so much black you would not be able to tell which chicks are gold vs. silver to actually sex them (until they are so much older that the gender is obvious anyway.)
Second picture
Blue hen in the middle: will not produce sexlinks.
Black/white hen behind her: I think that one is genetically black with mottling, so will not work for gold/silver sexlinks either.
Black silkie-type fluff behind her: will not produce sexlinks.
White head peeking into the left side of the frame, with a few darker feathers on her neck:
YES! She should work for gold/silver sexlinks.
Third picture
Black & white chicken with black comb:
not light-skinned, so definitely cannot produce skin-color sexlinks.
I cannot tell if she is mottled (will not produce sexlinks) or silver with black markings (would produce sexlinks.)
Sorry to be unclear about this one
If you know whether she is mottled, or if you have other photos of her, we might be able to figure it out.
Fourth picture
Black chicken, with another black one behind her:
neither one will produce gold/silver sexlinks
Fifth picture
Three that will not produce gold/silver or barred/not-barred sexlink chicks:
Red in the front right, yellow/gold with a crest in the upper left, black/white mottled by the ladder.
Middle-right of the photo, white neck/gray tail should be able to produce silver/gold sexlinks. Her feet look blue, so she would not produce skin-color sexlinks. (Blue and green are "dark skin" for this purpose.)
Sixth picture, black/white mottled, will not produce sexlinks.
Seventh picture
The background chickens will not produce sexlinks (dark silkie, red, mottled, black)
The one in the center front probably is silver, so she could produce silver/gold sexlinks. But because she has so much black, her chicks might have really dark down, so you might not be able to see the color difference when they are young. It should be clear once they are a few weeks old, but that may be too late to be useful. (Their first feathers will probably be black ones in the wings, so still not useful for telling gold from silver.) She appears to have dark feet, so no skin-color sexlinks from her.
Last picture
Black hen, not useful for sexlinks.
She's got yellow feet (genetically "light") so she "could" produce skin-color sexlinks: but her legs have enough dark on them (because of the feather-color genes) that actually recognizing leg color in her chicks will probably not work.
right side, back end of a hen with dark tail. I think she's the same one that was in the previous photo (looked genetically silver, but with so much black that the gold/silver status of her chicks might be hard to tell.)
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