Help. All black sexlink chicks hatching out female??!!??

[Cherie1n2]

First, if I am truely this lucky.. I will be shocked. I have a pen with 5 barred rock hens and one cuckoo Maran hen with one lavender Ameraucana Rooster. Although he is solid lavender, I test bred him with a silver duckwing and I know he also has a gene for birchen.
None of the barred/cuckoo females were laying before I pinned them and I did not put any eggs in the incubator until they had been pinned for a month. I have now hatched 9 chicks from that pen. I am only hatching eggs from that pen.. And all 9 appear female (2 Maran and 7 rocks) ..all should be sexlinked Easter Eggers.. None have white or yellow on the tops of their heads.

Am I missing something? They all look like these..

This one has the most light coloring.. With a yellow spot over each eye like a brow.. But nothing remotely on the top of the head.

 

[southernhusky]

Congrats on the new chickies! I just had my first 2 chicks hatch out and they both look so much like the chick in second picture but I honestly have no idea what mix mine are(was told 36 I originally got were from easter egger/ameraucanas, but all eggs were like cream color or light brown so I'm assuming random mixes). Guess we will find out soon enough? I don't know much about producing sex links but hopefully someone can help.

 

[Cherie1n2]

Thanks, one of the already hatched ones dried and has a little yellow.. And I'm up to 12, two look male.. The others still look female to me.

 

[donrae]

I want you to come kiss my eggs for luck

I have a splash Ameraucana cock over barred hens for blue sex links. Some of my males have hatched with not really a spot, just a lighter area/patch on the back of the head. I'll see if I can get pics up, it was very confusing at first. But, the solid dark headed birds were always female, so I think you're good to go!

 

[donrae]

sorry for the truly horrible pictures.

I'm not sure how your lavender and birchen would effect the sex linkage at all, but I was surprised how the blue made it more difficult to sex the chicks. The pics above are female on the top and male on the bottom.

 

[southernhusky]

Ooooo! Blue sex link sounds awesome. But I think I would need clearer pics to see a difference.

 

[Cherie1n2]

Thank you for the pictures.. I still think I ended up with 10 female and 2 males.. I decided not to cull the two males until the wing feathers come in enough to confirm the barring. I figure I could use that as my quality check since I have 46 sexlinked EE still in the incubator.

I've tried to keep up with down colors.. like my golden birchen sicillian buttercup over my wheaten saipan versus the same buttercup over a black breasted red malay.. both have buttercup markings at hatch, but the malay have mahogany down where as the saipan crosses have a golden yellow down. As far as the black sexlinks go, the cuckoo/ameraucana seem to have more white around the face and better muffs than the barred rock/ameraucana. They are also slightly larger and fluffier at hatch.