Sex- linked Information

[Ridgerunner]

You sure?
Problem with silver is that it doesn't cover black.
Birds without black but are gold such as a buff or red can be changed to solid white by switching the gold to silver.

As sure as I can be with anything concerning chicken genetics. It seems with chicken genetics every time I say something someone can come up with an exception. I understand what you are saying and logic says it should work but several years back one of the chicken genetics gurus on here was very clear that it could not be done after I said something like you just said. It's been a lot if years so going by memory is tricky but I'm pretty sure it was @Sonoran Silkies earlier in this thread. I'm not going to go back and try to dig it out, this thread is just too darn long.

If you go to Henk's genetics calculator you can put in some combinations that give you "unicolor silver", not unicolor white. I don't know why it makes that distinction. On a male silver gives you yellowish saddle and hackle feathers, certainly not pure white. I don't think it would do that on a female but I could be wrong. Or maybe silver is just enough off-white in a hen that a genetics purist would see a difference from white.

 

[The Moonshiner]

As sure as I can be with anything concerning chicken genetics. It seems with chicken genetics every time I say something someone can come up with an exception. I understand what you are saying and logic says it should work but several years back one of the chicken genetics gurus on here was very clear that it could not be done after I said something like you just said. It's been a lot if years so going by memory is tricky but I'm pretty sure it was @Sonoran Silkies earlier in this thread. I'm not going to go back and try to dig it out, this thread is just too darn long.

If you go to Henk's genetics calculator you can put in some combinations that give you "unicolor silver", not unicolor white. I don't know why it makes that distinction. On a male silver gives you yellowish saddle and hackle feathers, certainly not pure white. I don't think it would do that on a female but I could be wrong. Or maybe silver is just enough off-white n a hen that a genetics purist would see a difference from white.

I know what you mean.
The more you know the more you realize you don't know much.
As for silver showing yellow. It does happen but not always. I have silver leghorns and a few do get it especially after 2 or 3 years. Some never have it or get it.
I did breed away from it. In my early days I had more develop it then I do now. I haven't had any in a couple years.
As for the chicken calculator. Its an awesome tool and lots of fun but not always accurate. I cross colors and have seen it be wrong before. Tons of times I see patterns bleed through when it says they would be unicolor.
The genetics are just too broad for it to be correct all the time. Hell of a job with it but it will never be perfect.
I do believe it shows unicolor white with buff carrying silver. Id have to check it again.
Many years ago I was working on putting barring on a buff bird. Remember when lemon barred orps came out? Trying to duplicate it on another breed. The silver came in with the barring and I did produce solid white birds. Trying to get the silver back to gold and getting all the genes needed for buff was a huge issue at the time and the white birds showed me it wasn't going to be as easy as it looked on paper so I ended up scrapping that project.

 

[Ridgerunner]

For anyone wondering here is a link to that genetic calculator we are talking about. It is a lot of fun, it can be addicting, and you can learn a lot. But you are right it is fairly simplistic and does not handle some things very well. It seems to have troubles with buff sometimes and it does nothing as far as leakage. Another issue is that there are a lot more genes that affect color or pattern than that calculator uses. That would have to be a massive program to even begin covering most of them.

http://kippenjungle.nl/Overzicht.htm#kipcalculator

Hatching can be fickle. One time I had a hen hatch four eggs, two of the chicks were red barred. 50%. I then set about 20 eggs from the same parents in the incubator and got zero red barred. You have to hatch a lot of chicks when you start a project unless it is extremely simple. The more different criteria you are using the harder it gets.

Since you’ve had solid white hens just using silver I’ll have to quit saying that it can’t be done. Thanks for the correction, it’s not the first time I’ve been corrected. That actually explains how some red sex link males with no dominant white can have a white tail, like those RIR roosters over the RIW hens. I couldn’t figure that out.

But that still leaves the problem with solid white hens where you don’t know their genetics. They may or may not have silver and even if they do have silver with other white there may be other genes that will prevent the difference in red sex link males and females from showing up in down color. You use a solid white hen at your own risk.

 

[Thomas Lamprogiorgos]

I created two new threads to develop the topic!!!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/blue-sex-link-hybrid-chicken.1214953/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/color-sex-link-olive-egger-hybrids-olivians.1214951/

I think that color sex link is so interesting.

 

[PekinFluff]

I have a SLW roo and a GLW hen and was wondering what the outcome of crossing these would be? Would they be sex-linked and if so what colours?

 

[The Moonshiner]

I have a SLW roo and a GLW hen and was wondering what the outcome of crossing these would be? Would they be sex-linked and if so what colours?

No they won't be sex linked.
Pullet chicks will be silver laced. The cockerels will look silver laced but as they mature they will get some yellowish look to them. Mostly on their back and in the hackles and saddle feathers.
SL is silver based. GL is gold bases. Silver and gold is sex linked.
Hens can only have one gene. Either silver or gold. They pass their gene to their sons only. They receive their gene from their father.
Cockerels get two genes one from each parent. They can have two silver, two gold or one of each. Silver is dominate to gold.
With your cross the pullets get silver from their father and will be silver.
The cockerels will get one silver from father and one gold from their mother. Silver is dominate so they will hatch looking silver.
In theory they are supposed to stay looking SL. Silver is dominate and supposed to hide the gold. In life the gold leaks through a little so it makes them get the yellowish look.
It is possible they could not get the yellowish look but I've never had any silver/gold that didn't.
I have had many that did look a tad different then a Silver/silver at hatch but not reliable enough to consider them sex linked.
If you had a GL rooster over a SL hen then the chicks would be sex linked.
Pullets would be GL and hatch looking GL. Cockerels would be siver/gold and hatch looking SL.

 

[PekinFluff]

Thanks, that’s really helpful!

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

If you had a GL rooster over a SL hen then the chicks would be sex linked.
Pullets would be GL and hatch looking GL. Cockerels would be siver/gold and hatch looking SL.

So would a Golden Lakenvelder rooster over a Silver Lakenvelder hen create sex linked chicks?

 

[The Moonshiner]

So would a Golden Lakenvelder rooster over a Silver Lakenvelder hen create sex linked chicks?

Yes it would.
Pullets would be gold lakenvelder.
Cockerels would look like silver lakenvelder at hatch. They may have a slight gold tinge. The cockerels will mature with the yellowish tinge because they would carry both silver and gold.
When you're working with lakenvelder the pullet chicks will be like their father regardless which their mother is.
Gold rooster over gold hens equals gold pullets.
Gold rooster over silver hens equals gold pullets.
Silver rooster over silver hens equals silver pullets
Silver rooster over gold hens equals silver pullets.
Silver/gold rooster over silver hens equals both silver or gold pullets.
Silver/gold rooster over gold hens equals both silver or gold pullets
Hens only have one gene either silver or gold. Whichever they have is passes to the cockerels chicks. Cockerels get two genes whatever the mother has and one of the two the father has. So cockerels can be silver/silver, gold/gold or silver/gold.
To be sex linked it has to be a gold rooster over silver hen.
Pullets will get gold from father and look gold. Cockerles will get silver from hen and gold from rooster. Since silver is dominate a silver/gold will look silver at hatch.
If you cross a silver rooster with a gold hen then pullets will be silver because of roosters silver. Cockerels will get silver from rooster and gold from hen. So they will be silver/gold but look silver. So both pullets and cockerels will look silver at hatch so that's why it only works one way.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Thank you for the clear and concise reply.