The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: DippyEgg on May 16, 2021, 09:54:33 pm
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Will the males and female chicks look different with this cross? Or would it have to be the other way round?
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I doubt there will be a difference. You would need both parents to be barred in order to create a chick with an obvious pale head spot (indicating male), but I have found in some strains of marans it is not always as obvious as that. My cuckoo marans all hatch with some degree of head marking, males are usually more obvious but there is always the odd one that catches me out. I don't sex Maran chicks by head spot alone but wait until I see some feathers appearing.
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Ok, I see, thanks. I'll put some in the incubator and see what happens! :fc:
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You should get barred chicks (cuckoo) some will be like the cock and some will be blue barred. This is if everyone is breeding true. You may get some other mixes if either the hen or the cock carry other genes! But no sex link here. Let us know what happens! :chook: :thumbsup:
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Thank you. I will let you know in 2 and a half weeks!
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The Cocks like NHBs have a spot on the head and tend to be lighter in colour.
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Just to let you know the result from my very small experiment.. Five eggs hatched. We got three cuckoo boys (one had more blurred spots than the other two). The two hens are black and grey (blue).
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End of 2020 Ì had 5 out of 6 hatched, hen was black, (can't remember breeding from from 2012) but cockerel was araucana x, At a few weeks old, 2 light coloured, 3 going to be black. I jokingly commented on another forum about sex-linked, got laughed at.
I was right, all the black ones were female, 2 brown cockerels. ;D
More to this lark than we know.