No. I guess I didn't explain the genetics well enough. "black sexlinks" use the barring gene to allow sexing, but it only works on black chicks without any dilution (blue or lavender). Either of those dilution factors, while making a pretty chicken, fades the black enough that the white headspot and barring on the feathers is not visible. They are still there, you just can't make it out, so you won't know the sex until they are much older.Ooooo! Does that mean you might be selling a lavender sexlink blue egg layer next year!?! Here is my little boy with one of your blacks--they are growing up so beautifully--friendly and sooty!
They were looking like little crows for a bit! I have all three sleeping in the coop now--separated from the big girls. I find that sleeping in the coop for a couple weeks teaches them to go in on their own at night--also all my chickees come when they are called!
There are 2 other common sex linked genes used for sexing chicks:
1. "red sexlinks" rely on gold and silver. Black covers both of those, so you can never get a sexable chick if black is present. Black is the base color for blue and lavender, so that eliminates those as well.
2. "feather sexing" relies on 2 breeds or strains with different speeds of feathering. This is used with commercial white leghorns because their dominant white covers barring and red/gold. It could work with lavender or blue, but would take a lot of effort to develop strains of Ameraucanas that are homogygous for fast and slow feathering. Then it only works within the first few day or 2.
Lavender and blue are always going to make hard to sex chicks. The only consolation is that a lavender Ameraucana roo should be fairly easy to re-home to someone that wants to use him for breeding.
