Is this cross sex-linked?

[mufffin]

New color for me, new breed too... I have a few Lavender Marans, pure. If I cross a Lavender Maran rooster with pure Rhode Island Reds, is this cross sex linked? Or, if I cross the opposite way?

 

[HeatherKellyB]

@RoostersAreAwesome @Amer @EmmaRainboe

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Lavender marans appear to be have the birchen pattern, so chicks will likely be too dark to show sex-linking. (Meaning the chicks would have too much black and you wouldn’t be able to see the difference between gold and silver.) Also, a lot of them look like they’re based on gold. Can you post pictures of your lavender marans?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

No. Lavender (self blue is the same color) are solid colored birds. Crossing to pretty much any color besides another lavender makes the lavender gene act like black

 

[Ridgerunner]

If I cross a Lavender Maran rooster with pure Rhode Island Reds, is this cross sex linked? Or, if I cross the opposite way?

No.

I don't know how much you know about sex links and what makes them. The first post in this link goes through how to do it with three common methods. The basic requirements are that the hen has to have the dominant version of a sex linked gene while the rooster cannot have that dominant version and you have to be able see the difference caused by that dominant gene at hatch. Yours fail in those criteria.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/sex-linked-information.261208/

A RIR rooster could be used to make a red sex link or a black sex link when paired with the right hen. A Lavender Marans hen is not the right hen. A RIR hen could be used to make a feather sexed chick but the Marans is not the right rooster for that.

 

[mufffin]

Thank you. I do know a fair bit about sex linking, knew that lavender was probably the same as blue, a black type gene, but have never bred blues or lavenders so on the offchance that someone had more experience, thought I would ask.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Thank you. I do know a fair bit about sex linking, knew that lavender was probably the same as blue, a black type gene, but have never bred blues or lavenders so on the offchance that someone had more experience, thought I would ask.

Lavender is a different gene than the bbs gene

 

[Ridgerunner]

knew that lavender was probably the same as blue, a black type gene

Lavender and B/B/S blue are totally different genes though both are based on black. They modify black to look grey, which is called blue or lavender.

The lavender gene is a recessive gene. As I'm sure you know, that means both genes at that gene pair have to be Lavender for it to have an effect. So unless you are breeding lavender to a bird that also has a lavender gene you won't see it, so treat it as black.

The B/B/S gene is a partially dominant gene. Partially dominant in this case means if both genes at that gene pair are B/B/S you get splash. If one gene is the B/B/S gene and the other is not, you get blue. If neither is the B/B/S gene it defaults to black. So it is treated differently when you cross Blue or Splash with something else.

But both Lavender and B/B/S genes only affect the black feathers. Other colors aren't affected. So it is possible to have a red chicken with a lavender, blue, or splash tail, for example.