Barred gene

[Diana777]

Hello peeps, I have a genetics question. I crossed a blue roo with my olive egger who is half cuckoo maran, therefore she has the barring gene and will give sexed off springs that are barred, only males will be barred. My question is, will all chicks have a dot on the top of the head or only those with the barred gene? I’ve had about 5 hatch and all have the dot on the top and all have some white lines coming in so it’s hard to tell who’s who until later I assume or are all those boys?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

All barred chicks have a spot on their head

 

[The Moonshiner]

Dot indicates barring so only those will have the head dot.
If they're feathering in with the white stripes that's you second indication they're barred and males.

 

[Ridgerunner]

There are two requirements for black sex links. One you meet for sure, the hen has to be barred and the rooster cannot be. The other requirement is that you can see the spot on the down. Your hen is half cuckoo Marans, but what is the other half? Will that other half give down on some chicks so you cannot see the spot? With a blue rooster that is base black that should be unlikely but stranger things have happened. I assume he is pure for the Extended Black gene.

I have no experience with the blue gene and black sex links. That has come up on here before. The experts say you can see the spot but some less experienced people have had trouble being sure. That may be because their chickens were not as pure genetically as they should be. I'm kind of skeptical about some of the things I read.

If by white lines you mean you can see barring on the feathers as they feather out, they are boys. The girls will not have barring.

 

[Yardmom]

Only the chicks with the barred gene will have a dot on the head. Are all your chicks getting dots on the head? If yes then they are all barred.
Any chance of the blue rooster having the barred gene? It isn't always easy to see on blue. If he does have a barred gene, he could pass it to pullets.

 

[Diana777]

All barred chicks have a spot on their head

Yes but these are not a barred breed. It’s a blue roo with a barred hen. It should give me barred males and solid color females, so I’m wondering if the females will have a spot on the head too or only the males?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Yes but these are not a barred breed. It’s a blue roo with a barred hen. It should give me barred males and solid color females, so I’m wondering if the females will have a spot on the head too or only the males?

They won't if your female was barred and your male was not. Only the males will be barred. Barred birds will always have a head spot

 

[Diana777]

There are two requirements for black sex links. One you meet for sure, the hen has to be barred and the rooster cannot be. The other requirement is that you can see the spot on the down. Your hen is half cuckoo Marans, but what is the other half? Will that other half give down on some chicks so you cannot see the spot? With a blue rooster that is base black that should be unlikely but stranger things have happened. I assume he is pure for the Extended Black gene.

I have no experience with the blue gene and black sex links. That has come up on here before. The experts say you can see the spot but some less experienced people have had trouble being sure. That may be because their chickens were not as pure genetically as they should be. I'm kind of skeptical about some of the things I read.

If by white lines you mean you can see barring on the feathers as they feather out, they are boys. The girls will not have barring.

She’s cuckoo maran/ cream legbar mix. And yes I see some what could be barring but I want to make sure lol

 

[Diana777]

Only the chicks with the barred gene will have a dot on the head. Are all your chicks getting dots on the head? If yes then they are all barred.
Any chance of the blue rooster having the barred gene? It isn't always easy to see on blue. If he does have a barred gene, he could pass it to pullets.

No, he doesn’t have barred gene, I bred him. The first 5 chicks I hatched had the dot but I hatched some recently that don’t have the dot so that made me wonder if these were all females and the ones with the dot were all males, if so it’s way easier to sex than having to wait for their feathers to come in to see if it’s really barred or what. Thanks for ur input!

 

[Ridgerunner]

The barred gene is a sex linked gene. The hen has only one gene at that "gene pair" on her DNA. She will give it to her sons but not to her daughters. If the hen has the barring gene and the rooster does not, then the chicks will be sex linked. Any barred chicks are male, any not-barred are female. That part is very simple.

As long as the chick has a solid colored head so the spot is easy to see, no problems. Yours should have that. The problem comes in when you cannot tell if the chick has it or not. A solid yellow chick is obviously a problem. Some other genetics give you a chick with yellow down on the head you can't be sure. The spot is there with a male, but you can't clearly see it.