Sex Linking

[phoebusartemis]

I have an auto-sex hen, a purebred crested cream legbar, that had some babies. We believe that her babies are sex-linked, but I have a question about my other hens and their babies.
We have two other hens: a splash orpington and a light brahma. Both of them also hatched babies. Both of our roosters are also silkies, so they do have dark skin. Would both of our other hens' babies be sex-linked?

 

[nuthatched]

None of your babies are sexlinked

 

[Charlie Wooster]

No

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Well, actually...

For the Legbar hen, it depends entirely on what variety of Silkie the roosters are. If they aren't barred/cuckoo or white (depending on what gene is making them white), then you would be producing sexlinked chicks based on the barring gene. The gene is sexlinked, so hens can only pass the gene to their sons. So only male chicks in such a cross would be barred. Some other color genes like blue can make the barring harder to see, so how easily you'd be able to tell which are barred and which aren't will depend on if those genes are at play as well.

As for the others, Splash Orpingtons usually have slatey legs if my memory is correct, so no, they would not make skin color sexlinks. But Brahmas should have yellow shanks, and thus a Brahma hen mated to a Silkie rooster should make skin color sexlinks. There must be other genes that can interfere with this as some have reported it not working accurately, but pullets out of such a cross should have dark shanks, and cockerels should have pale shanks.

 

[phoebusartemis]

Well, actually...

For the Legbar hen, it depends entirely on what variety of Silkie the roosters are. If they aren't barred/cuckoo or white (depending on what gene is making them white), then you would be producing sexlinked chicks based on the barring gene. The gene is sexlinked, so hens can only pass the gene to their sons. So only male chicks in such a cross would be barred. Some other color genes like blue can make the barring harder to see, so how easily you'd be able to tell which are barred and which aren't will depend on if those genes are at play as well.

As for the others, Splash Orpingtons usually have slatey legs if my memory is correct, so no, they would not make skin color sexlinks. But Brahmas should have yellow shanks, and thus a Brahma hen mated to a Silkie rooster should make skin color sexlinks. There must be other genes that can interfere with this as some have reported it not working accurately, but pullets out of such a cross should have dark shanks, and cockerels should have pale shanks.

I have two silkie roosters, one is white and the other is black. I'm not sure which one is the dad to my chickens, but I'm taking a guess and saying it's the white one because he is the dominant rooster and I see him mount much more than I see the black one mount. I'll attach pictures of both. They both have dark skin.

This is a picture of my light brahma.

This is a picture of my whole flock.

This is a picture of my splash orpington and my black rooster.

Another picture of my whole flock.

This is a photo of both of my roosters.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Okay, so White Silkies are typically based on the recessive white gene, c, that requires two copies of the gene to express and make a bird white. That means that, if your rooster is recessive white, all of his offspring should be colored instead of white because of the recessiveness of the gene. If that is the case, then yes, he should make barred sexlinks with the Legbar and skin color sexlinks with the Brahma. Bear in mind recessive white hides all other plumage color genes, so he could be hiding something that would muddy up the chick down and make barring hard to see or skin color harder to determine.

Some White Silkies, with increasing frequency here in the U.S. at least, are based on the dominant white gene, I, instead. Dominant white, since it is dominant, expresses with either one or two copies of the gene. So if your White Silkie is dominant white, either all or half of his offspring (depending on if he has one or two copies of the gene) will inherit the gene and be mostly white as well. If that's the case, then you may or may not be able to produce sexlinked chicks with him, as dominant white would hide barring, and it tends to wash out skin color so pullets may look light-skinned at hatch like their brothers.

Your Black Silkie rooster should make sexlinks with either the Legbar or the Brahma, however. Chicks from him with the Legbar would be barred and light-shanked if cockerels and not barred and dark-shanked if pullets. From him with the Brahma, pullets should have dark shanks and cockerels lighter shanks.

 

[phoebusartemis]

Okay, so White Silkies are typically based on the recessive white gene, c, that requires two copies of the gene to express and make a bird white. That means that, if your rooster is recessive white, all of his offspring should be colored instead of white because of the recessiveness of the gene. If that is the case, then yes, he should make barred sexlinks with the Legbar and skin color sexlinks with the Brahma. Bear in mind recessive white hides all other plumage color genes, so he could be hiding something that would muddy up the chick down and make barring hard to see or skin color harder to determine.

Some White Silkies, with increasing frequency here in the U.S. at least, are based on the dominant white gene, I, instead. Dominant white, since it is dominant, expresses with either one or two copies of the gene. So if your White Silkie is dominant white, either all or half of his offspring (depending on if he has one or two copies of the gene) will inherit the gene and be mostly white as well. If that's the case, then you may or may not be able to produce sexlinked chicks with him, as dominant white would hide barring, and it tends to wash out skin color so pullets may look light-skinned at hatch like their brothers.

Your Black Silkie rooster should make sexlinks with either the Legbar or the Brahma, however. Chicks from him with the Legbar would be barred and light-shanked if cockerels and not barred and dark-shanked if pullets. From him with the Brahma, pullets should have dark shanks and cockerels lighter shanks.

I think my white rooster has the recessive C gene because the babies hatched were not white. Other than one chick with black and white feathers, I have no white chickens. I will attach pictures of each baby individually. I'm not exactly sure who was the mother of some of these.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Okay, I'll do my best with this, but bear in mind that these kinds of mixes can be tricky. I am assuming any of your hens could have been the mother of any of these chicks?

I agree that your White Silkie is likely recessive white based on these chicks. It's common for White Silkies to carry the genes for partridge patterning under recessive white, too, which I'm seeing a bit in these chicks. So that adds up.

One thing I notice right off the bat is that, in looking at your hens again, it looks like your Legbar is not pure. Her coloration is off, and I don't see barring in her plumage, either. So unfortunately she would not make barred sexlink chicks, but she still has light shanks so should make skin color sexlinks when bred to a Silkie rooster.

The above chick is from the Brahma hen and is a cockerel.

The above chicks, I can't tell if it's just the lighting or not, but they both appear to have blue-gray plumage? They are most likely out of the Orpington hen based on their mostly solid coloring, so cannot be sexed by their skin color.

If they aren't blue-gray like they look in these shots and are instead definitely black, then I would guess your Black Silkie managed to father a chick or two after all!

The above chick I can't decide if I'm seeing blue-gray plumage in or not, either, but this one could also be out of the Orpington (if it does have blue-gray plumage) and thus not sexable by skin color. Or, it could be out of the Legbar mix hen (if it does not have blue-gray plumage) and be a pullet.


The remaining 4 I would assume were out of the Legbar mix hen, maybe the Brahma hen, and therefore should all pullets based on their slatey shanks.