Welsummer roo X these breeds

[Redheadhomestead]

Hey all! I’ve recently acquired a welsummer rooster and he’s already doing his thing. I’d like to incubate some eggs (first go round) and I have these breed of hens

Rir
Barred rock
Sapphire gems
Prairie bluebells

Some minor research has taught me that the barred rock hen mixed with the roo with be sex linked. Will any of the others above be sex linked? I’d love to know which ones are Roos early on. My first run at incubation will likely be the bluebells because I’d like to add some green eggs to our basket.

Also thinking about doing the sapphire gems also because the sapphires are our favorite breed. Any input from a welsummer X these breeds is appreciated!

 

[Amer]

Welsummerx

RIR=red columbian offspring
Barred Rock=barred males with gold leakage, black females with gold leakage
Sapphire Gem=blue and black offspring with gold leakage
Prairie bluebells= you will get green eggs and maybe some brown eggs though Prairie blue bells are variable in color so I don’t know what they will look like.

 

[FunClucks]

I just did a Production Red crossed with Prairie Bluebell hens and Starlight Green Egger hens. The chicks are a few weeks old now, and I've learned a few things. (I"m 90% sure I"m recalling them correctly but I'm super new with the genetics of chickens)

Prairie bluebells have a zinc white gene, which inhibits some amount of the brown egg pigmentation pathways. This gene is dominant. So instead of having all green eggs from the PR x PBB cross, I think I'll get a mix of green and possibly blue eggs. They will have a chalky texture, with occasional deposited calcium and rough shells from the zinc white gene (like the PBBs have). [My SGEs lay a shiny medium green/olivey green egg, so I noticed the difference in texture]. We shall see how that turns out.

There is a lot of chipmunk striping in these chicks (PBB mothers look like a brown leghorn with gold in the hackle feathers, and brown leghorn with silver in the hackle feathers, also a black australorpe). One chick out of 17 has black or dark blue down, and seems to take after the black australorpe-looking hen parent. There are 3-5 chicks that have blurred chipmunk striping (one central line that appears smudged), most of the chick down is white or yellow, with some chestnut from the PR.

Pea comb is dominant over single comb and on the same chromosome as the blue egg gene, so pea comb hens should have the blue egg gene. We'll see how that turns out with the egg color. All my PBBs have a modified pea comb, because they are heterozygous for blue eggs. They all laid blue eggs, but since I bred them to a (brown egg laying) rooster, I expected half the offspring to lay brown. Since the zinc white gene is in there, the half that would lay brown may lay green instead - blue with a light brown wash makes brown, or they may lay blue after the zinc white gene inhibits most or all of the brown pathways. Not sure myself, the brown egg coloring genetics are a lot more complicated than the blue egg genetics, and I'm not an expert. But thought you might be interested.

If your Welsummer donates speckling, those should be some pretty eggs!!! If you go on the Genetics forum, you could look at breeding charts - those should help you too.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-bluebell-and-starlight-green-eggers.1558878/

 

[Redheadhomestead]

Thank you so much!!!