Sebright question...

[enola]

Crossing the gold on silver causes sex-link traits ? ? ? Wow. Is it obvious at hatch, which are male and which are female ? Or do you have to wait for feathers to start growing ?

 

[Guitartists]

I think you will get some lighter gold offspring.. more of a cream color.

+

will =

&

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Gold/silver is a sex-linked gene: females have only one copy, and can only pass that copy to their sons; to their daughters they pass the W chromosome which does not contain any sex-linked genes.

Males have two copies of the Z gene, which may both contain gold (S,S), both contain silver (s,s) or may contain one copy of each (S,s). They pass one copy of what they carry to every chick they father, regardless of gender.

The photos of gold and silver sebright chicks on feathersite are very different from each other.

 

[enola]

Thank you for the pictures and explaination, it is much clearer now !

 

[MoodyChicken]

Guitarists: that site doesn't account for the sex-linking. Any silver female crossed to any gold male will only produce gold female offspring and silver male offspring. There is no in between... unless you get one of those genetic freaks that have an extra sex chromosome. lol Oh wait, I'm sorry! I looked at the picture wrong. I thought that those were all the possibilities, not this + this = this. my bad! ignore what I wrote above.

Enola: it depends on the variety. In the case with sebrights, you should be able to tell at hatch. In the case with, say, Brown Red and Birchen, you have to wait till the neck feathers start growing (about 2 weeks).

 

[SunAngel]

Thanks for the pics and all the info everyone!

I would like to keep a few gold females, but 1 roo is enough! Its great to know I should be able to tell right away.