Giant Daisies?

[wyomingmaryland]

Hello,

New to BYC but reading for awhile, usually when in crisis over past year with new endeavor of having chickens. One of my 5 Marsh Daisy hens ended up going broody about 5 weeks ago right when my Black Jersey Giant roo got eaten by something (free range all day). Three weeks later, I awoke to 8 chicks, one eventually died. Im happy to have the heir to my roo, but Im now curious about what kind of crossbread this gonna be. Heres a pic of some of the hens and the giant.


I understand its a black sex link but not much more than that. Only one has a spot on top of its head, but others have some yellow/white markings on head around eyes, while others are have all black heads. Im assuming those are the hens, and the marked head are the roosters. Is this right? ...adding pictures...

What would happen if I bred the roosters back into my other Marsh Daisys? Would they be beefier hybrids? Mostly black? Hard to breed the black out? I understand there may be tons of variation in the characteristics of the progeny but would it be probable to get some good free range beasts? Is this heresy to breeders? Im suddenly interested in making my own breed that would be good for my predator pressured free range situation.

Thanks for letting me voice some of these thoughts. Now I will continue to read up on breeding. I would appreciate any good books on breeding genetics of chickens.

 

[Sunshine0235]

The chicks shouldn't be black sex link. I just looked up marsh daisies and they aren't barred. Do you have pictures of the chicks, especially the one with the dot.

 

[junebuggena]

They would only be black sexlinks if the hen is barred. None of you girls look barred. The Jersey Giant is 'extended black' which is a very dominant gene that can be difficult to eliminate. They may also carry recessive white. It will take a few generations before you start to see more colorful chicks.
Second generation cross breeds do not have the 'hybrid vigor' of first generation crosses. The Jersey Giant is a slow to grow and mature breed, chicks will likely mature a bit faster than typical Giants, due to not being 'pure'.

 

[pa2chitown]

The leg color may help determine sex. I believe that abnormality in typical black sex-linked color indicates "bleed through" of other genes located on a second sex chromosome. These would be male. Chicks that have standard black sex-linked color will be hens. Of course, this is as accurate as any method. If you can differentiate the marsh daisey leg color in chicks versus jersey giant, in the chicks, that would clinch it.
JMHO

 

[wyomingmaryland]

 

[wyomingmaryland]

One with dot on head is on right in this second photo. Maybe it's a spec?

 

[junebuggena]

I don't think that's a definite head spot, just a lighter bit of chick down.
Here is what male black sexlinks look like compared to female black sexlinks. The two boys are very obvious.

 

[donrae]

I agree, you do not have sex linked chicks. You'll just have to wait for regular sex characteristics to sex them.

Black is hard to breed out. It's one of the more dominant colors and tends to override most everything else. Your birds may have some leakage of gold color from the gold-based mommas, but they'll be mostly black.

Putting a rooster back over the flock of hens may give you a bit more color in the next generation. The Giant blood will make the offspring larger, but will also slow maturity a bit compared to most dual purpose breeds.

Most folks here are fine with mixed breed flocks. Sometimes you just want characteristics of a few different breeds and want to see how things play out

 

[pa2chitown]

You have sex linked females. They have only one sex chromosome that they received from poor old pappy.
The females will all look like characteristic black females.
The males will have one sex linked chromosome and one non sex linked. If there were no other genes participating in the dosage based trait, the males would look just like the females. This is what people mean when they say "you dont have a sex linked cross". HOWEVER, since other allelez for color exist the gene product " bleeds through". So the chick, just like the adult will have some minor colors that appear in an otherwise dominant trait.
You see, in this case, dominant means most abundant gene product.
So, once again, if it looks like a characteristic female, it probably is. If it has abnormal color(s) this is a male with one sex linked chromosome and one "other".

In other words, the female cant look like anything other than a female (as much as always), the male can vary from female looking to anything abnormal for females (which you describe correctly).

The shanks could be a clue but i dont know if you can determine color difference between the two breeds at this age?

 

[donrae]

You have sex linked females. They have only one sex chromosome that they received from poor old pappy.
The females will all look like characteristic black females.
The males will have one sex linked chromosome and one non sex linked. If there were no other genes participating in the dosage based trait, the males would look just like the females. This is what people mean when they say "you dont have a sex linked cross". HOWEVER, since other allelez for color exist the gene product " bleeds through". So the chick, just like the adult will have some minor colors that appear in an otherwise dominant trait.
You see, in this case, dominant means most abundant gene product.
So, once again, if it looks like a characteristic female, it probably is. If it has abnormal color(s) this is a male with one sex linked chromosome and one "other".

In other words, the female cant look like anything other than a female (as much as always), the male can vary from female looking to anything abnormal for females (which you describe correctly).

The shanks could be a clue but i dont know if you can determine color difference between the two breeds at this age?

What sex linked cross is the OP getting from a solid black male and gold females? It's not black sex linkage, there's no barring present in the females. It's not red sex linkage, that requires a silver female.

If you believe these are all females, I'm curious what you think a male chick from this cross would look like?