Future Hens or Roos? FBCM X CCL

[Backyard Divas]

I have 3 five week old French Black Copper Marans (roo) X Crested Cream Legbar (hen) chicks and of course I am trying to figure out if I have pullets or cockerels. The mom lays fairly olive colored eggs already, so I would think the eggs of these will be even darker olive. I only plan on keeping one, and one of them has a bad toe that should either cause it to be culled if it is a roo, or straightened/amputated if it is a hen so it doesn't cause issues. That was the only chick that had a little brown check on it's head at hatch, if that helps.

I'll include pictures of mom and dad for reference. Thanks in advance for your help!

Mom has the biggest comb I've ever seen on a cream legbar.

Her egg color. It is interesting because her coating appears to be green (see the drop). When she first started laying the eggs were bluer but as she got into her groove they are more sage green to light olive.

Dad - was very sweet and calm. I found him a good home in the country.

Both as 5 week old chicks. He is on the left, she is on the right. Ignore the one in the middle and sorry for the poor quality, it is all I have of them at that age. You can see his size and prominent comb though.

The chicks:

 

[JedJackson]

Normally this cross would be sex linked, but your female CCL doesn't appear to have any barring, so the chicks probably are not sex linked in this case. I think the CCL is maybe an olive egger instead. In any case, I think it is too early for these guys. Give them a couple of more weeks, and if it isn't clear by then, please post updated photos of the chicks. I hope you get the genders you want!

 

[gimmie birdies]

This is "Olivia" She is a BCM/CC Meyer's sent me, I think in a rare breed selection...

 

[Backyard Divas]

Normally this cross would be sex linked, but your female CCL doesn't appear to have any barring, so the chicks probably are not sex linked in this case. I think the CCL is maybe an olive egger instead. In any case, I think it is too early for these guys. Give them a couple of more weeks, and if it isn't clear by then, please post updated photos of the chicks. I hope you get the genders you want!

Thanks for your reply!

It is funny because the CCL is a Greenfire Farms Rees CCL and they don't sell EE or OE, but she sure does look to be somewhat of a cross with her comb and eggs. I'm not really worried about it as her eggs are pretty and she is a good layer.

I don't have any great pictures of it but she had very distinct and dramatic stripes on her tail feathers when she was younger but now you don't really see them. Here is the best pic I could find of her at 8 weeks and you can see a little bit of the tail striping.

So with the sex-linking, does that mean that the one with the brown check on the back of its head at hatch is a male? Because that is the one I most suspect is. It stretches it's neck up and looks at me in that predator evaluation way, and I've seen it raise it's hackle feathers showing dominance. It would be best if any are cockerels that it is that one as it should be culled due to the toe. It must be something in that line, because the production CCL I got with this Rees one had that defect too only worse.

 

[Backyard Divas]

Ohh, yeah. They could be siblings. How old is she? Eggs yet/color?

View attachment 3305624
This is "Olivia" She is a BCM/CC Meyer's sent me, I think in a rare breed selection...

 

[JedJackson]

Thanks for your reply!

It is funny because the CCL is a Greenfire Farms Rees CCL and they don't sell EE or OE, but she sure does look to be somewhat of a cross with her comb and eggs. I'm not really worried about it as her eggs are pretty and she is a good layer.

I don't have any great pictures of it but she had very distinct and dramatic stripes on her tail feathers when she was younger but now you don't really see them. Here is the best pic I could find of her at 8 weeks and you can see a little bit of the tail striping.
View attachment 3305506
So with the sex-linking, does that mean that the one with the brown check on the back of its head at hatch is a male? Because that is the one I most suspect is. It stretches it's neck up and looks at me in that predator evaluation way, and I've seen it raise it's hackle feathers showing dominance. It would be best if any are cockerels that it is that one as it should be culled due to the toe. It must be something in that line, because the production CCL I got with this Rees one had that defect too only worse.

Let me ask you this. Did any of these chicks have spots on the back of their heads as chicks?

 

[Backyard Divas]

Let me ask you this. Did any of these chicks have spots on the back of their heads as chicks?

The one with the toe issue had a very small brown spot on the back of it's head. Otherwise it looked like a BCM chick when it hatched.

 

[JedJackson]

Well, since the hen does have the barring gene, I think the sex link thing may be in play. In which case all of the chicks are females.

The way it works is when you cross a non-barred male over a barred female, the chicks are sex linked. The males will have white spots on the backs of their heads as chicks, the females will not. Later, when they feather out, males will have barring and females will not.

That is my best guess, but the tale will be told in a few more weeks regardless of that. Also, if your hen was bought from Greenfire, then she likely is pure legbar. Just not much barring on her.

 

[Backyard Divas]

Well, since the hen does have the barring gene, I think the sex link thing may be in play. In which case all of the chicks are females.

The way it works is when you cross a non-barred male over a barred female, the chicks are sex linked. The males will have white spots on the backs of their heads as chicks, the females will not. Later, when they feather out, males will have barring and females will not.

That is my best guess, but the tale will be told in a few more weeks regardless of that. Also, if your hen was bought from Greenfire, then she likely is pure legbar. Just not much barring on her.

Thanks! I'll report back when it becomes more apparent. As of right now I don't see any barring on them, just two are slightly less black than the third.

 

[Backyard Divas]

Update: Just wanted to post some updated pictures (6 1/2 weeks old) of the two remaining chicks. The third (the blacker one) got killed by a hawk, must've had it's head out of the cage bars or something. Really unfortunate because it was the one that I had planned on keeping. If the hawk had to have a snack I would rather it had gotten the crooked toe one.