Cream Legbar/ Silver Laced Wyandotte Cross

[sevenfatcows]

I am not sure where to post this, so trying here for a start. We just hatched eight chicks produced by my Crested Cream Legbar rooster over Silver Laced Wyandotte hens. The resulting chicks are all wild type. Seven appear to be female with strong, dark striping from the head right on down, along with dark "eyeliner." Only one chick is different. It is a faded charcoal color with very faint hints of striping and eye markings. I am thinking that it is a male and the rest are all pullets, though that is an unusual sex ratio even for such a small number of birds. In addition to the difference in the down color, the different chick has pinkish legs and feet while all the others have greenish/gray legs and feet. This is very interesting to me because I have bred sex links using green leg color in the sire as the sex link marker, but both the breeds involved in this crossing have yellow legs, or should....Anyone have any experience with this cross?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm not familiar with that cross but the legbar is supposed to be gold based. Silver laced Wyandottes are silver and are sometimes used to make red sex links. That's the formula for red sex links, gold rooster over silver hen. The other part of the formula for red sex links is that you have to be able to see the difference in the down. I'm not sure if your "faded charcoal" is that difference or not.

If I remember right the odds against getting 1 male with seven female are about 240 to 1. That sounds like a lot but it happens.

 

[sevenfatcows]

Thanks for your reply. The gold over silver factor was why I tried this cross. I did a batch before, about a month ago and got the same results except for one chick that had the faded markings on mostly white down. I kept all the faded looking chicks and two of the boldly striped ones and, so far, all the faded birds have developed combs and wattles, while the predicted females have not. What surprised me most was the difference in the leg/foot color. I wonder if that will be reliable as a marker. It may be so, but perhaps only due to some unknown genetics in my particular birds...I'll update this project from time to time. As an afterthought-a couple of years ago I hatched a small group for children who'd be visiting at Christmas. All six eggs hatched and 5 were pullets, so I think with a small sample the ratio can be very skewed.

 

[sevenfatcows]

Here is an update to my first post: there were seven pullets and on cockerel in the hatch. All the females grew up to be very pretty birds with Cream Legbar type coloring-gray on the topside, some salmon shafting on the saddle feathers and here and there elsewhere salmon breast, some crested, some not, some with straight combs and some Wynadotte type combs. Male was silver and black, very handsome bird....I will try to figure out how to post pictures of these birds at various ages. We have now hatched several batches and fl pretty good about correctly sexing them by down and leg color.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Try the "Upload a File" tab on the bottom right of your typing window to add photos. How well that works can depend on what browsers and operating systems you have. It would be fun to see those chicks in down and how they feathered out.

The ratio can be very skewed. I regularly get around 2/3 to 3/4 of one sex or the other with hatches of around 20. I once had seven pullets out of seven chicks. Actual 50-50 hatches are not the norm for me though those happen too. Over a few years the ratio usually comes really close to 50-50 if I add up all hatches but the individual ones are often really skewed.

One of the leg color genes is a sex linked gene but I can never remember which one and how that works. What results you get depends on what other leg color the other parent has, I'd need a cheat sheet to keep all the possible combinations straight. I don't know how many total you have hatched in all your batches but if both parents have yellow legs it sounds like your leg color may be more of a random recessive gene showing up instead of a reliable marker. For sex linking to work reliably the hen has to have the dominant gene and the rooster has to be pure for the recessive gene. If they both have yellow legs I don't see how that can be reliable. But you are the one looking at them and if that is consistent across a few hatches then the odds that it is consistent between males and females really start getting huge.

Wyandottes are supposed to be rose combed. Rose comb is a dominant gene. So if you are getting some straight combed and some rose combed some of your Wyandotte hens are not pure for the rose gene, they have a split parentage as far as that gene goes.

Thanks for the update, glad you followed through.

 

[sevenfatcows]

Green leg rooster over hen pure for almost any other leg color results in green leg pullets. I used this to make white sex links with White Jersey Giant over White Plymouth Rock. There is a very useful leg color chart that I keep handy. The surprising leg color sex clue has been true consistently through multiple hatches, but I know it could be just my birds. I am pleased with the crossing. I hatch for our feed store, so sexing is important. So many people buy straight run, then they appear a few months later with a complaint that they did not get 50/50 and want an adjustment (which we almost always accommodate)-they seem to think I'm bs-ing them when I try to explain about sample size.

 

[sevenfatcows]

Here are pix of a pullet and cockerel of my cross. The pullet, Lola, was not too happy about posing in the flower pot, so she looks a little stressed. She is prettier in person. Chicks in down photos will have to wait until I hatch again, but I will post when I have some.

 

[jzlo]

Hi. I’m following this cause I’m curious as to what color eggs would the silver laced Wyandotte hen and legbar rooster would lay? Thank you

 

[jzlo]

I

Hi. I’m following this cause I’m curious as to what color eggs would the silver laced Wyandotte hen and legbar rooster would lay? Thank you
*i meant their offspring

 

[KarmaKaze]

Here is an update to my first post: there were seven pullets and on cockerel in the hatch. All the females grew up to be very pretty birds with Cream Legbar type coloring-gray on the topside, some salmon shafting on the saddle feathers and here and there elsewhere salmon breast, some crested, some not, some with straight combs and some Wynadotte type combs. Male was silver and black, very handsome bird....I will try to figure out how to post pictures of these birds at various ages. We have now hatched several batches and fl pretty good about correctly sexing them by down and leg color.

Curious what color eggs they lay?