Red Columbian- Autosexing Potential? An Experiment

[nicalandia]

That is strange. Welsummers-with their red duckwing pattern- seem to have sexual dimorphism from hatch. I accidentally crossed a LF Buckeye (light down) with a Welsummer and it appears to be female so far.
I am curious to see if your friend's issues are rooted with the very dark down strain.

Also Welsummers lack Columbian like RIR or Buckeyes, columbian seems to have little effect on chick down, but perhaps it does when sexing using the Welsummer method at least on the RIR

 

[Amer]

Also Welsummers lack Columbian like RIR or Buckeyes, columbian seems to have little effect on chick down, but perhaps it does when sexing using the Welsummer method at least on the RIR

Now that I think about it, the chick had no columbian traits whatsoever. It had wild type coloring. But the only rooster in the pen was a Buckeye.
How would that come about?
Within the fairly inbred group of LF Buckeyes, there were no red wheatens.

 

[nicalandia]

Now that I think about it, the chick had no columbian traits whatsoever. It had wild type coloring. But the only rooster in the pen was a Buckeye.
How would that come about?
Within the fairly inbred group of LF Buckeyes, there were no red wheatens.

That is strange indeed, a mystery. Let see next time with better documentation.

 

[Amer]

That is strange indeed, a mystery. Let see next time with better documentation.

The only picture that I have is a poor picture I used to show the size difference between a regular chick and a button quail.
I can confidently say that it hatched looking like a larger Welsummer with longer down and a pea comb, (actually quite lucky considering that Buckeye sometimes throws singles) so not much difference in the aesthetics anyways.

 

[Amer]

She is only a couple weeks old now, and feathering as you'd expect for a duckwing pattern.

 

[Amer]

An update on the crossed chick. She may have duckwing colored down, but she is feathering out with a pattern fairly typical for a red columbian bird. I am beginning to fear there will be no distinction to tell her apart from a Buckeye. Do duckwing based columbians have any differences from wheaten based columbian?

 

[nicalandia]

Do duckwing based columbians have any differences from wheaten based columbian?

Wheaten based Columbian have lighter shade underfluff, Wildtype columbians will have slate/grey colored underfluff.

 

[Amer]

Wheaten based Columbian have lighter shade underfluff, Wildtype columbians will have slate/grey colored underfluff.

Huh. Buckeyes are supposed to be wheaten, but they have slate underfluff. Does that mean they are actually Wildtype?

 

[nicalandia]

Huh. Buckeyes are supposed to be wheaten, but they have slate underfluff.

I looked at the SOP for Buckeyes but did not find any reference for underfluff color chart.. Seems like your Buckeyes are Heterozygous for the wheaten allele(eWh/e+).

 

[Amer]

I looked at the SOP for Buckeyes but did not find any reference for underfluff color chart.. Seems like your Buckeyes are Heterozygous for the wheaten allele(eWh/e+).

No, the SOP calls for slate underfluff. That is why I am wondering whether they are wildtype based.