Sex Linked chicks: Shank color

[HollyParks]

Okay I am a little bit confused. I have one rooster and he is a Silked EE. I have a variety of hens, but I hatched chicks from the Blue Cuckoo Maran, Welsummer, Delaware, and another Silked EE.
I was sure that the black skin would mean daughters, but I thought there would also be other indications such as the coloring from the mother. I’m more confused about one Welsummer chick. “He” has orange shanks and normal chicken-colored skin, but the pattern looks very much like a female Welsummer.
My thought was that I have a Welsummer cockerel, a Delaware pullet, 2 Blue Cuckoo Maran pullets, one Blue Cuckoo Maran cockerel, and the Silked EEs are unknown for awhile.

I have a few more just hatching and that’s 3 more Welsummer offspring, one with dark skin two with lighter/pink skin.
What are your thoughts?

 

[NatJ]

Okay I am a little bit confused. I have one rooster and he is a Silked EE. I have a variety of hens, but I hatched chicks from the Blue Cuckoo Maran, Welsummer, Delaware, and another Silked EE.
I was sure that the black skin would mean daughters, but I thought there would also be other indications such as the coloring from the mother. I’m more confused about one Welsummer chick. “He” has orange shanks and normal chicken-colored skin, but the pattern looks very much like a female Welsummer.
My thought was that I have a Welsummer cockerel, a Delaware pullet, 2 Blue Cuckoo Maran pullets, one Blue Cuckoo Maran cockerel, and the Silked EEs are unknown for awhile.

I have a few more just hatching and that’s 3 more Welsummer offspring, one with dark skin two with lighter/pink skin.
What are your thoughts?

I would start by double-checking the leg colors of all the parents. But yes, if the father has dark skin and the mother has light skin, I would expect black skin on daughters and light skin on sons (although the genes that cause certain feather colors can also mess with the leg color in a few cases).

I have seen some chicks that hatched with legs that looked light colored, then got darker over the next few weeks (eventually confirmed to be females with dark legs, from a sex-linked cross similar to what you have.)

I have never been good at sexing chipmunk-striped chicks by the down color, so I can't personally say about that. But if you keep an eye on what these grow up to be, you will probably know for the future whether that color/pattern can exist in males from your particular cross.

Posting a photo of the rooster (father of the chicks) might help, and possibly the hens as well.

 

[HollyParks]

I would start by double-checking the leg colors of all the parents. But yes, if the father has dark skin and the mother has light skin, I would expect black skin on daughters and light skin on sons (although the genes that cause certain feather colors can also mess with the leg color in a few cases).

I have seen some chicks that hatched with legs that looked light colored, then got darker over the next few weeks (eventually confirmed to be females with dark legs, from a sex-linked cross similar to what you have.)

I have never been good at sexing chipmunk-striped chicks by the down color, so I can't personally say about that. But if you keep an eye on what these grow up to be, you will probably know for the future whether that color/pattern can exist in males from your particular cross.

Posting a photo of the rooster (father of the chicks) might help, and possibly the hens as well.

The first is the rooster and the hen of his kind ( with their offspring from last fall) and the Welsummer, and the Blue Cuckoo Maran.
So far all Welsummer chicks have the same dark marking but only ones had dark shanks, the others have orange.
The Blue cuckoos all have dark shanks (as I predicted) but only one has a white head spot, which I assumed made him a male.
I’m in the dark with the Silked EE.
Oh! And all chicks but two have an extra toe.

 

[NatJ]

The first is the rooster and the hen of his kind ( with their offspring from last fall) and the Welsummer, and the Blue Cuckoo Maran.
So far all Welsummer chicks have the same dark marking but only ones had dark shanks, the others have orange.
The Blue cuckoos all have dark shanks (as I predicted) but only one has a white head spot, which I assumed made him a male.
I’m in the dark with the Silked EE.
Oh! And all chicks but two have an extra toe.

In that case, I would say the Welsummer-mix chick with dark legs should definitely be a female, and the others are probably male but I would double-check in a few weeks just in case the leg color changes.

For chicks from a Blue Cuckoos hen, your logic sounds right to me (white head spot means male), assuming the father has no barring gene (hard to be sure on a rooster the color of yours, but if you are getting colored chicks with no white barring from your other hens, then he probably does not have the barring gene. If you ever get a chick with barring from a non-barred mother, you would know he has barring hidden by those white feathers.)

For the Silkied EE, I'm in the dark too.

 

[HollyParks]

In that case, I would say the Welsummer-mix chick with dark legs should definitely be a female, and the others are probably male but I would double-check in a few weeks just in case the leg color changes.

For chicks from a Blue Cuckoos hen, your logic sounds right to me (white head spot means male), assuming the father has no barring gene (hard to be sure on a rooster the color of yours, but if you are getting colored chicks with no white barring from your other hens, then he probably does not have the barring gene. If you ever get a chick with barring from a non-barred mother, you would know he has barring hidden by those white feathers.)

For the Silkied EE, I'm in the dark too.

Thank you!
Would the barring be present at hatch or would that develop as the feathers grow in?

 

[NatJ]

Would the barring be present at hatch or would that develop as the feathers grow in?

White barring on the feathers will of course show up as the feathers grow in.

But the barring gene will cause a light spot on top of the head of some chicks when they hatch. It is usually easy to see on black chicks (Barred Rocks), much harder to see on light colored chicks (Delawares), and on some colors of chicks it just isn't there at all (example: Cream Legbar females, where it is probably affected by some other genes that are involved in their coloring.)

 

[HollyParks]

White barring on the feathers will of course show up as the feathers grow in.

But the barring gene will cause a light spot on top of the head of some chicks when they hatch. It is usually easy to see on black chicks (Barred Rocks), much harder to see on light colored chicks (Delawares), and on some colors of chicks it just isn't there at all (example: Cream Legbar females, where it is probably affected by some other genes that are involved in their coloring.)

Awesome, thank you. I will be watching for barring. These are my first male chicks other than the “pure” Silked EE roo. So far my Welsummer offspring are keeping their orange shank color while the other is dark.