Color genetic identification help

[Rlmp817]

Thank you for such a detailed reply @NatJ!

Here are some current photos to illustrate some of the chicks, and I see what you are saying!
Current mom/chick combos from this rooster
Chick # 1
Dark skinned chick from the black hen. All her chicks that hatched are very dark skinned, likely from the feather coloring and dark wash on the front of her legs.

Chick #2

This chick is from the silver hen in the center of the photo. It is a week old and hatched as a chipmunk pattern & slightly darker skin.

Based on this, these two hens wouldn't work for the skin color linked sexing, correct? Or does the chipmunk look like a possible sex link?

 

[NatJ]

Thank you for such a detailed reply @NatJ!

You're welcome
I had to think it out bit by bit, so I just typed it up as I was thinking-- sharing the logic can help people learn, and if I make a mistake someone might catch what bit I got wrong.

This chick is from the silver hen in the center of the photo. It is a week old and hatched as a chipmunk pattern & slightly darker skin.

Based on this, these two hens wouldn't work for the skin color linked sexing, correct?

I think you are correct, that these hens will not work for the skin color sex linking.

Or does the chipmunk look like a possible sex link?

Skin color sexlink, no.

But I think yes, gold/silver sexlink. You can check that as it grows: silver male or gold female. (Some light shades of gold look too much like silver when the chick is young, so even when the sex linking works in a genetic sense, it is not useful if you cannot tell the colors apart!)

 

[Rlmp817]

@NatJ , another question for you
Which silkies be considered silver the gene game? Are there any silkie colors that I could add that would create a sex linked silkie chick with my current rooster?

 

[NatJ]

@NatJ , another question for you
Which silkies be considered silver the gene game? Are there any silkie colors that I could add that would create a sex linked silkie chick with my current rooster?

Silkies don't seem to have many silver varieties. The only recognized one I know of it called "gray" (silver version of Partridge.) With the amount of black they have, you might have to raise them for quite a while before you can tell the "gold" ones from the "silver" ones.

I know that Silkies can come in other colors, not recognized by the American Poultry Association, but I don't know what other silver-based ones you would actually be able to find.

Columbian (like Light Brahma and Light Sussex) is often one of the best colors for producing sexlinks.

Silver Laced or Silver Spangled or Silver Pencilled or Silver Partridge can all work, but many of them have so much black in the chick down that you can't see the gold/silver color until they grow a bunch of feathers.

And unfortunately, white silkies are typically not Silver. There are many different genes that can make white on a chicken, and recessive white is the usual one in white Silkies.

 

[Rlmp817]

@NatJ
I thought as much but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something!

I am looking locally for some silver laced bantam wyandottes/cochins or light brahmas/sussex before I order from a hatchery.

 

[NatJ]

@NatJ
I thought as much but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something!

If you are missing something, then I am missing it too