What might my chicks look like? Black Cochin X Dominique

[Redhead Rae]

I just put a dozen hatching eggs under my broody Buff Orpington this evening. The eggs come from my Black Cochin Rooster and my 3 Dominique Hens, 2 Dominique/Buff hens, and 1 Dominique/RIR hen. All my hens have barring with the mixed hens having buff or red coloring bleeding through on their chests and heads. Will I still get Black Sex link chicks from all the hens in this hatch or just the pure Dominiques?
This is a picture of my Black Cochin, Molasses:

This is what my Dom/Buff hens look like. This hen hatched out a batch of chicks for me 4 months ago.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I've experienced sex linking any time I use a reasonably clear barred hen with a non-barred darker colored rooster.

It will be clearest with the pure Dominiques....black female chicks (to remain black adults), black with head dot male chicks (for the barred birds they will come).

With my Rhodebar/Barnevelder or Cream Legbar/Barnvelder (Barney being the roo each time), it was harder to always see the male/female difference, but there was a white head dot. A couple I had to wait for grow out as the dot was more of a whisp, so as they grew the barring on males became more apparent.

Since you are using a black rooster who will give a black base, your sex links should be clearer with more distinguishable head dots. Its when the base color is lighter that it gets harder to see the difference with the chicks.

As to grow outs, that black is pretty darn dominant. Once I get black on one of the parents, it pretty much covers any patterns with the exception of the occasional bleed through (except for barring which trumps pretty much everything). So your females will likely be all black no matter who you put your roo over.

But any hen that has distinguishable barring should give sex link ability to the chicks with that black rooster....black females, black based white head dot males who will be barred.

My experiences.
LofMc

 

[Redhead Rae]

But any hen that has distinguishable barring should give sex link ability to the chicks.

The buff and RIR crossed girls are just as barred as the Dom/Buff I posted in the picture, so yay! So males will be barred and females will be black when they grow up?

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Oh...I take that back...my Cream Legbar/Barnevelder girls turned out black based with gorgeous gold pencilling...some sometimes those secondary patterns will come through in a very attractive way.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Yes...your males will be barred, and should show as black chicks with a white head dot.

I should think that the females will have black down because of the black rooster and most likely be mostly black with possibility of some pattern.

As my fuzzy memory comes to mind...my Barnevelder (double lace) over my Cream Legbar (silver/cream with barring) produced barred males similar to the CL barring and females with black base and gold pencilling...but girls were chipmunk chicks, no head dot...and I did not have black base on dad to turn the girls black....I think the black came through from secondary colors which maybe allowed the gold pencilling (Don't have that worked out yet.)

But my Barney is not black....when I put him with my black girls, I get black chicks, both sexes. Black tends to obscure most patterns except barring...for which you'll get sex linking (should)
LofMc

 

[Redhead Rae]

Gotcha. I know what you are talking about with the head dot. I had a leghorn cross roo (he had a black spot on him, so he wasn't pure leghorn and I don't know what he was crossed with) but one of the chicks he had with one of my Dom/Dom cross girls was grey with a white dot. He is a handsome little cockerel now, I want to keep him for a while to see how he looks as he gets more mature.

I also have a little pullet from the same rooster. Mom is a Leghorn/EE and she has some really nice gold lacing on her feathers. She is really a pretty little thing. I love those little cheeks!

 

[Lady of McCamley]

yes...the backyard mixes produce such lovely patterns...but they can surprise you too....which imho is half the fun.

LofMc

 

[Redhead Rae]

I have two breeds I think I will be keeping pure lines of (Delaware and New Hampshire) but I think I will be making barnyard mutts with the rest of them. I'm considering not propagating my leghorn genetics anymore but playing with my less flighty heritage breeds. Thus the Cochin/Dom crossing.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Well she is still sitting with a single minded determination. YAY! I actually have to go out there once a day and pick her up off the nest so she drinks, eats and can do her business. She seems to be like "Hey, what are you doing, why are you moving me? Oh right, I'm hungry/thirsty. Ok back to work." She is also great with me handling her. She doesn't bite or fly at me. She has also stopped laying her own eggs, which she kept doing when she was on fake eggs.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Still sitting strong, 9 days in. We lost another egg somewhere in there so she is now on 10 eggs. I guess 12 was too many or the shells might have been too thin. One hen was having trouble with egg shell thickness a little while back so I wonder if it was her eggs that broke. I'm going bring the broody tote up on the porch tonight and candle the eggs with my new egg candler.