Sex links?

[ricky lafleur]

Wondering if these could be sex links , Father is buff orp, Mother is black Australorp. I think the brown one with gold chin is a hen, and the two pale ones are roosters

 

[NatJ]

Wondering if these could be sex links , Father is buff orp, Mother is black Australorp. I think the brown one with gold chin is a hen, and the two pale ones are roosters

There is a chance, but I think probably not.

The way they could be sexlinks: gold father (Buff Orpington) and silver mother (Black Australorp might be silver under the black) would produce gold daughters and silver sons.

But the problem is the black. A Black Australorp should be producing black chicks, where you can't see if they are gold vs. silver.

Any chance you could be mixed up about who the mother is?

If you are sure the black hen is the mother, I think it is more likely that the Buff Orpington gave some chicks a gene that turns black into white, which cannot be used for sexing but can cause there to be some light-colored chicks.

Maybe post an updated photo in a few days, when you can see what color the first wing feathers are. That might help sort out what set of colors you are dealing with, whether it's a gold/silver difference or a black/white difference.

 

[ricky lafleur]

Thanks, the black hen is definitely the mother, I will take some photos in a few days

 

[ricky lafleur]

Some photos of their wings

 

[NatJ]

Some photos of their wings

I think the colors are mostly a black vs. white difference, which does not indicate anything about their sex. So the sexes might happen to line up with the colors they are showing (coincidence) or they might not.

[Ignore the rest of this post if you just wanted the practical conclusion and don't really care about the genetics involved.]

The Black Australorp mother must have either the silver gene or the gold gene, because every chicken does, but on a solid black chicken we cannot tell which one by looking at her. If she has the gold gene, then all chicks will be genetically gold (black or white from other genes, but any leakage should be gold). If the Black Australorp has the silver gene, then daughters would have gold (if it leaks through the black or white) and sons would have silver (again, if it leaks through the black or white; although sons may also get some red leakage in their shoulders as they mature, even if they do have the silver gene.)

If you had a black chick with silver leakage (like the black & gold one but with silver where the brown is in the wing feathers), then we would know that the Black Australorp had silver, and that the chick with silver was a sexlink male. But you don't have a chick with that coloring. And if any of the white-feathered chicks are showing silver, we can't recognize it because it just looks like white on a white chick.

 

[ricky lafleur]

Thanks, do you think the black hen and buff rooster are both carrying recessive white gene?

 

[NatJ]

Thanks, do you think the black hen and buff rooster are both carrying recessive white gene?

They could be, but I think it more likely that the Buff Orpington has the Dominant White gene. That turns black into white.

In a Buff chicken, there is not supposed to be any black. But if there are any little dots of black, they are pretty obvious. Some Buffs have Dominant White, so any little black bits turn into little white bits, which are less obvious.

Given that some chicks have white and some have black, I would guess the Buff has one Dominant White gene and one not-Dominant White gene (does allow black to show.) So about half of chicks are able to show black, and about half are showing white instead.

Recessive white would require both parents to have a gene that their breed is not "supposed" to have. Dominant White would require the only one chicken (the Buff) to have a gene that is known to be sometimes present in Buff chickens.

The numbers also lean in the direction of it being Dominant White:
If this is recessive white, it should show up in about 1/4 of chicks from this mating.
If this is Dominant White, it should show up in about 1/2 of chicks from this mating.
2 white chicks out of three is closer to 1/2 than to 1/4, although it is such a small number that it doesn't prove anything either way.

 

[ricky lafleur]

Update, 4 more chicks hatched, 2 dark with gold around the eyes and chin, a pale one with a black mohawk and a very dark one with no gold and much fatter toes and lower leg

 

[NatJ]

Update, 4 more chicks hatched, 2 dark with gold around the eyes and chin, a pale one with a black mohawk and a very dark one with no gold and much fatter toes and lower leg

Very interesting!

At this point, I think it is likely that they are all gold (genetically speaking), which would mean the Australorp is also genetically gold not silver, and that would mean they cannot be sexed by color. But I can't be positive.

I don't know why the one would have the fatter toes and legs. There's a chance it may be a male and the others females, but having that many chicks with just one male seems pretty unlikely. (Then again, I've had a hatch of 11 chicks that were 9 male and 2 female, so off-balance numbers certainly do happen.)

I'd definitely like to see photos when these new ones have some feathers.

 

[Rhodebar Lover]

What country are you in? Can we have pictures of each parent?