Genetics Question UPDATED with Pics

[ceeceeholt]

We have a real mix of backyard chickens and this is the first time we let Broodies set eggs. Out of 8 white eggs ALL are Roo's. The Rooster is a Game Hatch and the hen is a White Leghorn. They all came out white or light yellow with black spots, some have 1 or 2 black spots and some more. The black spots are only coming through on the wings on 2 of them.
So, my question, is this all genetics or just dang bad luck that all WL eggs became Roo's? The other crosses were hens of BO, RIR, of those all are pullets.
Thank you in advance for any help you can give. In the future I may not hatch anymore white eggs.

 

[rachlore]

i would guess dang bad luck

 

[Chris09]

What makes you think that there all roosters?
You cant go by chick color because neither color is sex-linked.


Chris

 

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

What makes you think that there all roosters?
You cant go by chick color because neither color is sex-linked.


Chris

X 2 They are not all roosters !!!!!!

 

[AinaWGSD]

Statistics are a funny thing. Statistically, each egg has a 50% chance at hatching a cockerel and 50% chance of hatching a pullet. In theory, half of the eggs you hatch should be male and half should be female. In reality, statistics only work when you are looking at a large sample size. Out of 1000, 400, or 100 eggs, about half of the chicks will hatch out male and the other half female. When working with a much smaller sample size, say 12, 8, or 6 eggs, the statistics don't mean as much as far as what you can actually expect in your outcomes. Even if 60%, 80%, or 100% of the smaller sample of eggs hatch out one sex or the other, that doesn't mean that each egg didn't have the same statistical chance of being the other sex at fertilization, just that you don't have a large enough number of eggs for that 50% chance to actually result in a 50% hatch. It's kind of like a coin flip. Every time you flip a coin, there's a 50% chance it could be heads and a 50% chance that it could be tails. If you flip a coin a few hundred times, then it's likely that approximately 50% of those times it will be heads and 50% of those times it will be tails. But if you flip a coin 4 times, it's unlikely that it will be heads twice and tails twice. That doesn't mean that the statistics are wrong or that there is something about that one coin that caused it to land heads 3 times and tails once (or vice versa) it just means you didn't flip it enough times for the 50% statistic to mean anything.

That said, why do you believe that all of the leghorn cross chicks are roos? Every single chick hatched from a white leg horn hen will be born white or yellow with varying degrees of black spots, regardless of whether they are cockerels or pullets because leghorns are dominant white and that's what dominant white crossed with any other color will look like as hatchlings. If you are basing the gender of your chicks on the color of their down, I'm willing to bet that not all of the leghorn eggs hatched out roos and not all of your other eggs hatched out pullets. It is possible (I hatched 6 Ameraucana/speckled sussex cross chicks and I'm pretty sure every last one of them is a cockerel), but I wouldn't assume it just because the chicks are a certain color. None of the hens you listed when mated to that rooster would produce sex-link chicks, so you will not be able to tell gender based on down color. You have to wait for them to start to develop secondary sex characteristics (rooster-like behavior, growth and pinkening of comb and wattles, saddle/hackle/sickle feathers, etc).

 

[ceeceeholt]

Guess I should have said they are almost 5 weeks old now, not just born. What makes me think they are cockerls are the rather large pink to red combs they are sporting I've had WL before and the the pullets all had yellow to pale colored combs and NOT that large at this young age. I'll go out and take some pics tonight!

 

[ceeceeholt]

Here are a few pics of the ones that would stay still long enough for a picture



They are 4 weeks and 1 day today. Roo's?

 

[Chris09]

In the last picture the White one on the Right Side looks to be a pullet.


Chris

 

[Bharpo]

Notice the round heads also, I've noticed in my hatches that 95%, or so, of my round headed, vice sloped or angular headed, chicks are pullets.

 

[Bharpo]

Also about the Leghorns, last year I picked up a couple of WL pullets from a local store both had large red combs ( my best layers), this year I picked up a couple of all White Leghorns from Ideal that have very small pink combs (March 2 hatch that haven't begun yet). So the comb size and color isn't that reliable, though I will say redder usually means roo, but there are genetic factors and feed factors that govern that, too.