Sex- linked Information

[nicalandia]

I have learned that dominant white can be in a number of birds, when I crossed my blue Americana over my easter eggers hens, the white hens produced white chicks with flecks, not the expected black or blue chicks.

Dominant white covers the colorings you are using to separate the males and females; both will be white with dominant white. Hence use of white birds are usually not used.

except when you dont use feather coloring to sex them...

 

[Arielle]

Draye, be careful here. Tim writes a lot of detail in the first post becasue feather genetics is very complicated with many exceptions, so if you can't fully understand the main point, here is what you can do.

Your RIR rooster can be used in BOTH types of colored sexlinks IF

1. the hen must carry silver,or
2. the hen must be barred and must carry two genes for black

Your columbian wyandotte carries the silver gene to use in the cross with your RI rooster.

Avoid the white rock hens as you will get confused on separating the girls and the boys. If you are new to sorting the chcks, keep it easy and keep the colors of males and females very distinct.

You white rocks are likely to carry dominant white which will make all the chicks a white.

 

[draye]

Draye, be careful here. Tim writes a lot of detail in the first post becasue feather genetics is very complicated with many exceptions, so if you can't fully understand the main point, here is what you can do.

Your RIR rooster can be used in BOTH types of colored sexlinks IF

1. the hen must carry silver,or
2. the hen must be barred and must carry two genes for black

Your columbian wyandotte carries the silver gene to use in the cross with your RI rooster.

Avoid the white rock hens as you will get confused on separating the girls and the boys. If you are new to sorting the chcks, keep it easy and keep the colors of males and females very distinct.

You white rocks are likely to carry dominant white which will make all the chicks a white.

It is not me that is trying to do the sexlinks.
I was just trying to answer a question about White Rocks. I know what Tim was saying about the White Rocks. I was trying to explain what was being said about the White Rocks being used in a sexlink cross. I just can't seem to put it down like I want it to come out.

Just thought it might be worth a try to see what you come up with. I no longer have White Rocks, I got dissapointed with them, the rooster weasvery aggressive so I showed him how aggressive I could be and he became dumplings.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've spent way too much of this afternoon going through this thread page by page looking for discussion on this. I still don't have a clear answer but I think the problem with White Rock hens is recessive white, not dominant white. I think I was wrong when I mentioned dominant white.

The problem with recessive white is that when it is paired up, it can mask anything. You don't know what's under there.

The way I understand this is that with White Rock you don't know what is under that recessive white so you don't know if the chick will be a red sex link or not. It's that simple. You don't know what is hiding under the white on White Rocks. The recessive white has nothing to do with it directly. It's what else might be present under recessive white that is important.

Editted to shorten and simplify the response.

 

[Arielle]

I noticed in a mixed batch of chicks ( missing hen shows up with chicks) that one of the chicks was a dark brown with a white head spot. So I am here to ask if that brown coloring can be used to make sexlinks as well ? ANd if so what is the coloring this chick exhibited? Or is this just to hard to pull off?

 

[farmerChef]

I noticed in a mixed batch of chicks ( missing hen shows up with chicks) that one of the chicks was a dark brown with a white head spot. So I am here to ask if  that brown coloring can be used to make sexlinks as well ? ANd if so what is the coloring this chick exhibited? Or is this just to hard to pull off?

I dont exactly get what your asking, but if the chick has a white spot on its head, it is barred. Do you know if all the eggs she could hatched would have been all hers?

Do you hae barred hens and/or roosters? If you just have hens, the chick is male. If you have roosters, chick can be either male or female.

 

[draye]

I noticed in a mixed batch of chicks ( missing hen shows up with chicks) that one of the chicks was a dark brown with a white head spot. So I am here to ask if that brown coloring can be used to make sexlinks as well ? ANd if so what is the coloring this chick exhibited? Or is this just to hard to pull off?

Post picture.
Keep your eye on it. This could be a red barred.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Can the barring gene be used when chicks exhibit a non-black phenotype? In this case the chick was a dark brown, and the spot clearly visible.. ( DUe to having barred hens and roosters, this chick could be male or female)

Quote: It is about 6 weeks old now; and we caught it earlier today to look closely at the feathering. It is barred. A dark brown barred chick. Pretty. But not as pretty as the buff barred.

 

[Arielle]

Maybe I need to rephrase the question. is this possible.

Red rooster x barred hen that is mixed ( carries both a black gene and a red gene)?
Or a mixed rooster ( black and red) to mixed barred hen ( black and red)?

 

[nicalandia]

Maybe I need to rephrase the question. is this possible.

Red rooster x barred hen that is mixed ( carries both a black gene and a red gene)?
Or a mixed rooster ( black and red) to mixed barred hen ( black and red)?

as long as the hen is barred you will have sex links, pullets will lack any barring and the boys will be barred...