Wing sexing...

[Foolhardybuffalo28]

I just went to TSC and I bought a black sex link out of one of their bins that was full of only females... I also bought three americanas, the limit on buying chickens at tractor supply is four chickens so I had no choice... But what my issue is? Is that the black sex link? I've checked the wing and it's not a female. It's a male out of the americanos. I've got two females and one male. I'm really good at figuring out males from females with their wings, but I was recently told that that doesn't matter depending on the breed. Can you tell the sex from the wings of a black sex link and americanas? Or is somebody just pulling my leg and giving me poop information... I've never had any issues sexing my chickens by their wings. I'm just questioning myself based off of something that was said to me

 

[NatJ]

Black sexlinks can be sexed by their color, both when they hatch and throughout their lives. Males are black with a light spot on top of their head at hatch and they grow black feathers with white barring. Females are black with no light spot on the head and no white barring in the feathers. (Both males and females may show bits of other color leakage as they grow, but the white barring in males and not in females is a reliable feature of this kind of sexlink.)

I can't say whether the chick you got is really a Black Sexlink or not. There are plenty of other breeds that are black in both sexes, and others that have white barring in both sexes. But IF your chick is really a Black Sexlink, then you can trust the coloring to tell the sex, no matter what the wing feathers may seem to be telling you.

The kind of "wing sexing" that seems to pop up all over the internet is only accurate on some specific crosses of chickens, because it relies on the genes for fast feathering and slow feathering (yes, they do just what is sounds like. Chicks grow their feathers faster or slower according to which genes they have.) Some entire breeds have the slow feathering gene, others have the fast feathering gene. But crossing a fast feathering male and a slow feathering female will give chicks where the feathering speeds are opposite what the parents have (so the sons feather slowly and the daughters feather fast.) Many internet pages tell how to wing-sex chicks but do not tell that it only works on some chickens. That is just as bad as saying that black chicks are female and barred chicks are male: true of one kind of sexlink, but absolutely not true of all chicks.

 

[Foolhardybuffalo28]

So this is my little chick that I was told was a black sex link.

 

[NatJ]

So this is my little chick that I was told was a black sex link.

It might be, or it might not be.
I don't see anything that would be impossible for that kind of hybrid. Some black sexlinks do have large amounts of leakage in gold, brown, or red. Others can be solid black, or have small amounts of other color.

I think it will just have to grow longer before anyone can tell for sure.

Edit to add:
https://suchthelike.com/2012/03/19/meet-the-flockers/
This a blog post that includes a photo of two black sexlink pullets that are showing large amounts of gold/brown coloring.