I would do a cream legbar roo over splash ameraucana hens
The F1 offspring and their kin will inherit the autosexing gene of the cream legbar rooster, and potentially the bearding of the splash Ameraucana mother. Once the hens start laying of this cross, they will have blue or green tinted eggs. Roos will be lighter in coloring than female kin and will inherit the barring gene, while the hens don't inherit the barring genes. If the male is barred and the female is not,
barred males get two copies of the gene,
females only one, and the difference in expression causes a visible difference in chick down color at hatch. The male provides the 2 barring chromosomes and the female only provides 1, Male chicks will have the ZZ chromosomes. They will get one barred Z chromosome from the father and 1 non-barred chromosome. Therefore resulting in the barring less visible or not present in the male, But the females have the ZW chromosome. getting the barred Z chromosome and the W from the mother. They will be barred but only slightly.
The cross will be autosexing if the Cream Legbar rooster is strongly barred and the Splash Ameraucana hen is not barred Once this cross hatches, the male will have lighter down and a less pronounced spot on the head. While females will have darker down and a more pronounced head spot or vice versa depending on the base color
Here are some points to measure...
- Autosexing in this cross is due to the sex-linked barring gene from the Cream Legbar male.
- The splash Ameraucana contributes no barring, allowing sex-linked inheritance to express visibly.
- Chicks may be autosexing at hatch based on down color/pattern differences due to barring.
- It’s not guaranteed like in purebred Cream Legbars, but with a sharp eye and the right parent stock, it's very possible.
Why It Works Here
- The barring gene dosage differs (males B/b, females B/-), producing clear visual differences in down color and pattern.
- Splash Ameraucanas share the same blue‑egg gene, so all offspring still lay blue‑green eggs.
- You get a near-autosexing cross without losing the blue egg trait.
Tips for Best Accuracy
- Use a strongly barred Cream Legbar male—more barring gives better contrast.
- Be familiar with what the patterns look like at hatch—practice improves accuracy.
- Expect ~95% accuracy if you’re using quality breeding stock; occasional ambiguous chicks may still appear, just as in pure Legbar lines
Much of that is wrong.
I would do a cream legbar roo over splash ameraucana hens
That will not give color-sexable chicks.
With that cross, every chick will inherit one barring gene from the Cream Legbar father, and no barring gene from the Ameraucana mother. That means both male and female chicks will show barring, and they will have the same amount of barring, because every chick has one barring gene.
If the male is barred and the female is not, barred males get two copies of the gene, females only one, and the difference in expression causes a visible difference in chick down color at hatch. The male provides the 2 barring chromosomes and the female only provides 1, Male chicks will have the ZZ chromosomes. They will get one barred Z chromosome from the father and 1 non-barred chromosome. Therefore resulting in the barring less visible or not present in the male, But the females have the ZW chromosome. getting the barred Z chromosome and the W from the mother. They will be barred but only slightly.
This is badly mixed up.
With autosexing chicken breeds:
Female has sex chromosomes ZW, with barring on the Z chromosome. The W chromosome makes her female but does not have a barring gene.
Male has sex chromosomes ZZ, with one barring gene on each Z chromosome. Because he has two barring genes, his color is lighter than the female.
This is how it works in Cream Legbars and Barred Rocks and various other breeds that are pure for the barring gene. Every Z chromosome has barring, but males have two and females have one, so they look a bit different.
With sexlinks (one-time crosses that produce color-sexable chicks):
Father has no barring gene. His ZZ sex chromosomes have no barring at all. He gives one to each chick, so each chick has one gene for not-barring.
Mother has a barring gene. Since her chromosomes are ZW, she has barring on the Z chromosome, and the W chromosome does not affect her color. The mother gives a Z chromosome to her sons, which means they get a barring gene, so they show barring. The mother gives a W chromosome to her daughters, which makes them female but does not give them barring.
So for sexlink chicks of this type, sons have one barring gene (from their mother) and daughters have no barring gene.
A mating that does not produce color-sexable chicks:
Autosexing father (two barring genes) gives one to each chick.
Not-barred mother (no barring genes) does not give any to each chick.
Sons and daughters each get one barring gene from the father and none from the mother. Both sexes of chicks look alike.
For how many barring genes are involved:
2 barring genes, males of autosexing breeds
1 barring gene, females of autosexing breeds, or male sexlinks, or both sexes of chicks from a mating of barred father/not-barred mother
0 barring genes, female sexlinks, also both sexes of breeds that have no barring
Note that there are several ways to get chicks with just one barring gene (female autosexing, or male sexlink, or both sexes if the father was barred and the mother not.)
Why It Works Here
- The barring gene dosage differs (males B/b, females B/-), producing clear visual differences in down color and pattern.
You are correct that a cross of Cream Legbar rooster and not-barred Ameraucana hen gives those genes.
Sons have B/b (capital B is one barring gene, lowercase b is a not-barring gene)
Daughters have B/- (capital B is one barring gene, and - means she does not have a second Z chromosome to have barring or not-barring.)
But you are wrong in the interpretation. When males and females each have one barring gene, they do not look different at hatch. They look the same. They continue to look the same as they grow up, except for sex-specific differences that have nothing to do with the barring gene.
