RIR and White Leghorn Cross

[wjallen05]

My Leghorns are 236 Leghorns. Most of the chicks are white-ish with some gold coloring, one has quite a bit of gold, some have spots, and then this one little bugger is SOLID black. It is SO neat! It has a bit of gold around it's face like the rest of them. Strangest thing. I got some pics of him today, will need to post them on here. I am trying to figure out how to feather sex them... I'm a little confused how to be for sure.

 

[sangel4you]

very interested in this post as I have a RIR roo and white leghorns that I plant to hatch some chicks from...
MY roo is about a year and a half...when is he too old to suffieciently fertilize?
WJAllan...adorable pics!

 

[sangel4you]

Tim, do you have a picture of the female wings to compare?

 

[tadkerson]

No. I did no get a picture of the females (DUUUUUH). I just had some chicks hatch- they are a day old. I will check them tomorrow to see if the feathers have grown or are still small enough to categorize as slow feathering. I will have to take them out from under a hen- she may object-so I may get bloody. If I have too much trouble, I will have some chicks hatching in a 2.5 weeks and I will post a pic. If I remember.

Tim

 

[Krys109uk]

I can't see how one could feather sex RIR male on white leghorn female. As the male offspring would be K/k+ & the female offspring would be K/- ....basically both sexes are K.

 

[tadkerson]

Quote:
You are correct- males have to be rapid feathering (leghorn) and females slow feathering (RIR).

Tim

 

[sangel4you]

wait so youre saying to do the feathering you have to cross a leghorn roo with a RIR pullet? I thought we were talking about the opposite cross.

 

[tadkerson]

Quote:
You are correct- I went back and changed the information in my original post. I need to be more careful in posting. I do make mistakes. I need to double check my posts.

Tim

 

[wjallen05]

So then chicks by a RIR roo and Leghorn hen cannot be feather sexed? No wonder I'm having a hard time with mine. Though, with my last batch, I checked them at about 5-6 days or so of age, and one had very long and developed feathers and the other 3 and tiny feathers, the difference was very significant. I gave them away to a friend and told her I thought they were males. I still have the alleged female. I guess we'll find out soon for sure. They're about 4 weeks old now.

(update: the 3 that I gave to a friend turned out to be 2 females, 1 male and the one I kept is a female)

 

[tadkerson]

You have to wing feather sex chicks right after they dry to obtain the most efficient sexing.

You can feather sex them by their tails at around ten days. Long tails have rapid feather growth and shorter tails (<1 cm) have slow feather growth. Females have longer tail feathers. Males shorter tail feathers. This is a general rule because their are other factors that can effect feather growth.

I double and triple checked this information. I am 99.99 % sure it is accurate.

Tim