Sex- linked Information

[Kev]

Yep there ya go then!

Chances are pretty good the other half is red sex link hen. The white on their tails and necks is due to dominant white. Dominant white has a big effect on black pigments but weak effect on red/gold pigments. Red sex links are genetically red with black necks and tails(like RIR, Production Reds) but dominant white 'had other plans' for the black areas... So the rooster having that white tail is also a big clue.

 

[lazy gardener]

I'd like to go back to a previous comment made regarding white feathers showing up in a predominantly red or partridge colored hen. (And am I even getting the coloring right, when I refer to Rose comb brown leghorn being partridge colored??) One of my RCBL hens has a white tail feather. This tells me that she may have some white leghorn in her ancestry. How will that muddy the waters with her chicks? I know that I'll not get any sex links out of her anyways. I'm using a red patterned EE roo that throws nice BSL with my Doms.

 

[kathleens1979]

Yep there ya go then!

Chances are pretty good the other half is red sex link hen.  The white on their tails and necks is due to dominant white.  Dominant white has a big effect on black pigments but weak effect on red/gold pigments.   Red sex links are genetically red with black necks and tails(like RIR, Production Reds) but dominant white 'had other plans' for the black areas...   So the rooster having that white tail is also a big clue.

That's interesting! I didn't know the white feathers were dominant white coving black. What would happen if the hen in the cross were recessive white like an Ameraucana? Would the cross still produce sex linked offspring? I thought I had read that recessive white still could be used in that kind of cross, but I can't find the info in the first post of this thread.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Genetically, what makes you think a random white tail feather in an otherwise black tail means white leghorn in the background? I’m trying to learn here, I don’t know the answer.

I’ve had hatchery Speckled Sussex roosters with a few white feathers in their black tail. Not many white, black is predominant. I’m trying to breed that trait into my flock of red and black speckled green egg layers. This normally just shows up in the roosters though I occasionally see it in the hens, especially in their juvenile plumage. Those random white feathers in the tail seem to be pretty dominant. I don’t think dominant white has anything to do with that, some other gene does. Otherwise I’d have a lot of white chickens.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Recessive white is really powerful when the chicken is pure for that gene. If the chicken only has one copy of the recessive white gene, it generally has no effect. There are always exceptions to everything in chicken genetics but a single unpaired recessive white gene is pretty invisible.

About anything can be hiding behind the recessive white when it is paired up. You might or might not have barring. You might or might not have silver. Whether or not you would get sex links from your recessive white Ameraucana will depend on what genes are hiding under that recessive white. Depending on that plus what the rooster contributes you might get red or even black sex links.

Tadkerson mentions in the first post that a solid white chicken is not a good choice to make sex links. White’s ability to mask other genes is why he said that. White Rock or Rhode Island Whites are often used by some hatcheries to make red sex links. They know what genes are hiding under the recessive white so they know it will work for those WR an RIW hens. With our solid white chickens we don’t always know that.

The only way for you to know for sure is to try it and see what happens.

 

[Ebove06]

I just wing sexed all of the chicks, and the white ones with black spots, are females. And the plain white ones and the black one is a roo. Is there such thing as a white sex link?

 

[jerryse]

I just wing sexed all of the chicks, and the white ones with black spots, are females. And the plain white ones and the black one is a roo. Is there such thing as a white sex link?

No as neither type of white is sex linked . I think for feather sexing to be accurate you must breed 2 separate lines and cross them . Interested in how accurate this is .

 

[ronott1]

I just wing sexed all of the chicks, and the white ones with black spots, are females. And the plain white ones and the black one is a roo. Is there such thing as a white sex link?

You will have to wait to see gender since they are not sexlinked for fast feathering.

 

[Kev]

I'd like to go back to a previous comment made regarding white feathers showing up in a predominantly red or partridge colored hen. (And am I even getting the coloring right, when I refer to Rose comb brown leghorn being partridge colored??) One of my RCBL hens has a white tail feather. This tells me that she may have some white leghorn in her ancestry. How will that muddy the waters with her chicks? I know that I'll not get any sex links out of her anyways. I'm using a red patterned EE roo that throws nice BSL with my Doms.

Those are completely different things. The white I was talking about- Dominant white affects all of the black pigments all over the bird. For your brown leghorn example, if they had DW, then they would be Red Pyle colored.

Another example of how DW affects the color- the only difference between Gold laced vs Buff laced is the latter having DW. It changed all of the black lacing on the Gold laced to white, leaving a bird with 'gold feathers with white lacing'.

As for the white on tail, I don't have any real knowledge about this.. sometimes it is a hint the bird carries mottle but there certainly are many cases where it just shows up- this is the part I have no idea about. It has nothing to do with DW though.

Ahhhh.. partridge... the hobby is very inconsistent with names. In Leghorns as far as I know there are only Light Brown or Dark Brown. In other parts of the hobby, Dark brown is sometimes called partridge, but that is also applied to birds that have extra genes to make double/triple pencilling on the hen feathers.

 

[Kev]

That's interesting! I didn't know the white feathers were dominant white coving black. What would happen if the hen in the cross were recessive white like an Ameraucana? Would the cross still produce sex linked offspring? I thought I had read that recessive white still could be used in that kind of cross, but I can't find the info in the first post of this thread.

To add on to what Ridgerunner said(I agree, no way to tell, could be anything under that white), the hatcheries use 'specially bred' whites that have been bred to have a specific color 'under' the white for sex linking purposes. Example, a specific line was bred and tested to be pure for barring and silver. Hens from this line would be perfect for sex linked breeding.

White birds from other breeds or mixed backyard birds have not been specifically bred like this. Literally could be anything. The only exception is if you happen to know what line the white came from.. if you knew it came from a line of silver Amers, then yes it would work to breed her with a red/gold rooster.... Without this information, don't rely on it.