Color Question re: Gold & Silver Wyandottes

[wild chick]

I have gold laced & silver laced Wyandottes - not show chickens by any means. My rooster is by a SLW rooster from a GLW hen, so he is silver with a little gold leakage. He is the only rooster on the place. I thought with any silver in the mix the chicks would always be silver with gold leakage only in the males. This hen just hatched 2, photo at 1 day and again at 13 days with Roo in the photo for reference. One is most definitely getting gold wing feathers. Question, is it possible to get a gold (as an adult, obviously the chick "looks" gold now) with 3/4 gold 1/4 silver? Next question, is it most likely a male, since only the males got gold leakage with the other clutches that were 50/50 mix, or can it be a female when the ratio goes to 75% gold/25% silver, and this doesn't look like leakage, it looks like a regular gold chick? This is a genetic question, as I like the gold color better, and I thought I'd never see it again!

 

[BlackHackle]

From this crossing, your roosters will either be Golden Laced, or Silver Laced with leakage. Your hens should be Silver laced or golden laced

 

[Sneebsey]

Your cockerel is 'split', so has one gene for Silver and one for Gold; he will pass on either gene. With this in mind, and depending on what the mother is, he can produce gold, silver, and split offspring. Cockerels have two 'slots' for the base colour genes, whilst hens have only one. Only a cockerel can be a 'split', as they get one gene from each parent, whilst pullets only get one gene, from their father.

Split Cockerel x GLW hen
Half the pullets will be Gold, half Silver. Half the cockerels will be Gold/Silver split, half will be Gold.

Split Cockerel x SLW hen
Half the pullets will be Gold, half Silver. Half the cockerels will be Gold/Silver split, half will be Silver.

 

[wild chick]

Awesome! I thought for some reason that I could never get another gold. We decided to give up color for good personality after dealing with a human aggressive roo. This one never gives us a minute of trouble so he's a keeper. Thanks for the good explanation @Sneebsey - now I just have to hope the gold is a girl.

 

[Sneebsey]

He's an ideal cockerel for your situation, really, as he will produce both types of hens and cockerels. The only issue is with the split cockerels you will produce; if selling hatching eggs, just be clear with your customers that this is possible, but you can always hatch, raise and sell the pullets and pure cockerels and butcher the splits, if you're comfortable with that, of course.

Though you say they are not show quality, if you choose to work on the lacing, that seems to be all that is off about these two. Their form is good, the hen in particular is nice and colour is the easiest thing to fix. Keep breeding and you'll find that they'll produce some nicely laced birds together which will produce better again when out-crossed to another line.

 

[wild chick]

@Sneebsey - I don't have a big enough flock to offer hatching eggs, but thank you so much for the compliments. The hen (her name is Gretchen) is one of my favorites. I have much better photos of her & Stuart (the roo), so if you think from these pictures they are OK, I'm really happy! I would love to breed for better lacing, and one of my cull choices is a good layer but a terrible personality and has no lacing to speak of, most of her breast feathers are white with pale grey outline, if any. I was pretty set that I would put productivity over pretty, but really I just don't want more like her, so off she goes. Thanks for being encouraging for culling whats not best for the flock!