Barn yard mix chicks- do yellow spots on head always mean male?

[TeamChaos]

We've got a bunch of babies around here and a lot of them have yellow spots on their heads- does that always mean male? Thanks.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

The only time the markings on a chick mean anything are for specifically bred sex-linked chicks (specifically the black sex link - in which, at hatch, the males will have the white "dot" on the head and females do not) - barnyard mixes are just that, mixed breed chicks, so the markings mean nothing in regards to gender.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

That being said - what are the parent breeds - depending on the breed of the male(s)/female(s) you have in your flock, your "mixes" may inadvertently be sex links, but the likelyhood of that happening by luck/chance, vs having chosen to keep males/females of the necessary genetic background would be slim.

 

[TeamChaos]

Roosters could be 1. suspected white leghorn 2. barnevelder 3. welsummer 4. japanese bantam (highly doubt it) and the moms were EE, cochin, dominique… so no sex linked as far as I know!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Roosters could be 1. suspected white leghorn 2. barnevelder 3. welsummer 4. japanese bantam (highly doubt it) and the moms were EE, cochin, dominique… so no sex linked as far as I know!

Yeah, you have yourself the ingredients for a lovely bunch of barnyard mixes, so the markings are a moot point with regards to gender.

 

[donrae]

You actually can have sex link chicks from that cross. The Dominique hen under the Barnevelder or Welsummer rooster would make sex link offspring. Males would have a spot on the heads and be barred, females would have a solid head and be non-barred. Technically the Leghorn's male chicks with the Dominique hen will be barred, but the white in the Leghorn will hide that, so it's not visible. I'm not sure how the Japanese bantam's genetics would come into play there, it would depend on what color he is.

You don't specify color on the Cochins, but if any are barred, the rules are the same as for the Dominique hen.

A white/cream spot on a black head just means the bird is barred. Pure bred barred birds will all have the spot, regardless of gender. A barred rooster will have all barred chicks, so all his offspring would have a spot regardless of gender. But in your case, a black/dark chick with a white/yellow spot on the head means male.

 

[TeamChaos]

Uh oh, so I might have a lot of little boys after all! Ha ha ha… guess we'll find out. The "white leghorn" was actually a packing peanut from a hatchery so I guess there's a good chance he was a sex link, yeah?

 

[donrae]

You could post a pic and we can tell you which he is, but if he's old enough to breed you should be able to tell. White Leghorns are solid white, fairly light bodied birds, and have large white earlobes. Red sex link males can be mostly white, but they'll have red on the wings at least, some have a fair amount of red, and red earlobes. Either way, the white usually interferes with the barring enough you can't really call the offspring a sex link.

 

[TeamChaos]

You can't get a true gage of his size here, but he's a big dude w/ yellow legs and no red on him. He doesn't have white ear lobes either.

 

[donrae]

Not a Leghorn or a rsl....maybe a white Rock? They're pretty massive birds. Leghorn roosters top out at something like 7lbs, if memory serves.