Easter Egger Sex-Links?

[RoosterWhisperer]

These. Since barring is carried on the "Z" chromosome, you can see when it is distributed from the hen, only the males receive a copy.


View attachment 2878438

I get the B thing, but what do blue and purple Zs have to do with anything?

 

[EmmaRainboe]

I get the B thing, but what do blue and purple Zs have to do with anything?

Thanks, I still don't get it lol! I specialize in human genectics.
Chicken genetics are getting to be a bore for me.

Here, so you know how sex is determined in humans? The mother will pass on one X chromosome to each offspring, and the father will pass on either an X or a Y. If the offspring receives a second X, it's sex will be female; if it receives a Y, it will be male.

So:

XX = Female
XY = Male

The purple Xs andYs represent the genes passed on from the father, anr the blue are the genes passed on from the mother.


In chickens, sex determination is like the opposite. The mothers determine the gender. (In chickens, instead of using 'X' and 'Y' chromosomes, we use'Z' and 'W')

Females are ZW
and Males are ZZ


So in this punnet square, every offspring recieves a Z from the rooster, but only the males receive a second Z from the mother. Because the mother's Z carries barring, her sons will all be barred.

 

[EmmaRainboe]

Here, so you know how sex is determined in humans? The mother will pass on one X chromosome to each offspring, and the father will pass on either an X or a Y. If the offspring receives a second X, it's sex will be female; if it receives a Y, it will be male.

So:

XX = Female
XY = Male


View attachment 2878442

The purple Xs andYs represent the genes passed on from the father, anr the blue are the genes passed on from the mother.


In chickens, sex determination is like the opposite. The mothers determine the gender. (In chickens, instead of using 'X' and 'Y' chromosomes, we use'Z' and 'W')

Females are ZW
and Males are ZZ


So in this punnet square, every offspring recieves a Z from the rooster, but only the males receive a second Z from the mother. Because the mother's Z carries barring, her sons will all be barred.


View attachment 2878443

I put a red 'B' under the Zs the mother is passing on to demonstrate they are carrying barring.

 

[Floof]

This shows the same concept without labeling which chromosome the gene is attached to. You just need to understand that the hen passes 1 copy of a gene and the rooster passes 2 copies and that the pullets can only inherit one copy and the males can inherit 2.

 

[Let There Be Light]

Ok, so a new question. I know Barred rocks are Sex-Links... They have multiple roos, the two others I'm interested in is a Copper Maran and a Cuckoo Maran. Would any of these roos mixed with my hens make Sex-links? Or why wouldn't it?

 

[NatJ]

I know Barred rocks are Sex-Links

Barred Rocks can be auto-sexing. That means you can breed pure Barred Rocks to pure Barred Rocks and get pure Barred Rock chicks, and still sex them by color.

Sexlinks are when you breed a male with one trait, and a female with another trait, and you can tell the sex of the chicks because of which gender chick inherits which traits.

Barring can be used either way, because you can sort chicks by appearance into three groups: no barring, one copy of barring, two copies of barring. So you can do autosexing (males have barring genes on both of their Z chromosomes, females only have 1 Z chromosome so they only have 1 copy of barring) and you can also do sexlink (barred mother passes barring to son, unbarred father passes not-barred to daughters and sons. Only the sons show barring.)

They have multiple roos, the two others I'm interested in is a Copper Maran and a Cuckoo Maran. Would any of these roos mixed with my hens make Sex-links? Or why wouldn't it?

The Copper Maran would be a good choice to make sexlinks with your barred hens.

The Cuckoo Maran could make pure barred birs, but they are probably a bit harder to sex than the sexlinks you would get with the Copper Maran rooster.

So a family friend has an easter egger rooster that they want to give away (or eat). I want sex-links

If you post a picture of the Easter Egger rooster, we can probably tell if he will work to produce sexlink chicks with your hens.

I have barred rocks, cuckoo maran, a golden laced wyandotte, and another chicken that I think is a black sex link. Could I mix this easter egger roo with any of my hens and get sex-link easter eggers?

As several other people have said, you can produce sexlinks from the Barred Rocks and the Cuckoo Marans.

None of the feather-color sexlnks would work with the Gold Laced Wyandotte or the Black Sexlink, but there's is a chance of the skin-color sexlinks working there.

 

[NatJ]

This still sounds a little bit iffy. If I were the OP I would cross only the breeds I know would give me sex-linked chicks for sure.

Actually, it's not as iffy as it sounds.

The really neat thing about sexlinks is you can pick the breeding stock by looking at them, with no need to know their ancestors, just because of how the genes work.

The father must have two copies of the recessive gene (on his two Z chromosomes.)
Because the gene is recessive, he only shows that gene if he does have the two copies you need him to have. So if he looks right, he IS right.

The mother must have one copy of the dominant gene on her only Z chromsome.
Because she only has one Z chromosome, she cannot be hiding anything else. So you just look at her, and see if she's got it or not. Again, if she looks right, she IS right.

Then when you cross them, the daughters get the recessive gene from their father, and they show it.
The sons get the recessive gene from their father and the dominant gene from their mother, so they show the dominant gene, and that's how you know their sex even when they are very young.

What are punnet sqaures? I was playing with genetics and it came up.

A punnett square is a way to show what happens with a particular gene when you cross two animals (or plants or people.)

Some people find it helpful to look at a diagram, instead of reading a bunch of words, so a punnett square is very useful for them.

If you want to read more about how a punnett square is used, here is a page that explains it in a way that seems clear to me:
https://www2.palomar.edu/anthro/mendel/mendel_2.htm

I find that punnett squares are easy to use now that I understand them, but I get badly tangled up if I try to explain them Oh, and I don't use them for more than one trait at a time. That still confuses me too much.

They're named after Reginald Punnett, who came up with the idea.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

You can also make sexlinks by leg color green over yellow I think makes green legs daughters and yellow sons

 

[NatJ]

You can also make sexlinks by leg color green over yellow I think makes green legs daughters and yellow sons

Yes.

Green or blue legs are caused by dark skin (recessive trait, so you need the father to have it.)
Yellow or white legs are light skin (dominant trait, so the mother needs to have it.)

So a father with green or blue legs, crossed to a hen with yellow or white legs, should produce chicks that can be sexed by leg color. Green or blue legs indicate daughters, yellow or white legs indicate sons.

But one problem is that sometimes the chicks all hatch with light legs, and the dark color doesn't show up until later. (Not good if you want to know the gender at hatch, but fine if you are willing to wait.)

Also, certain feather colors can affect the leg color too. So if one parent has black feathers, they might produce offspring that have some black in the legs, which covers up the color you want to see for sexing.

It certainly can work, but there are good reasons why it's less common.

 

[Let There Be Light]

Barred Rocks can be auto-sexing. That means you can breed pure Barred Rocks to pure Barred Rocks and get pure Barred Rock chicks, and still sex them by color.

Sexlinks are when you breed a male with one trait, and a female with another trait, and you can tell the sex of the chicks because of which gender chick inherits which traits.

I thought it was auto-sexing, not sex-link. Trustable Google said it was sex-link. I am shocked!