Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

Hi All
Earlier this spring we bred a Buff Brahma rooster to a dark Brahma hen. Now that the chicks are 4 months old it's very obvious they are sex linked. We didn't breed for this. We just liked the colour of the buff Brahma rooster more than the dark so bred that way.
We have 7 cockerels that are dark with a fair amount of white feathers on their saddles and 9 buff pullets. Is this a weird coincidence or is that how sex linked works? Could expect the same again?
Thanks
Dave

I have absolutely 0 knowledge of such things but that is intriguing! I would love to see pictures. Because chicken pictures are the best!

Wait for WLLady, if anyone she can tell you if it's a true sex-link or not.

Love your username by the way, I should change mine to hates gutting lol!

Hubby hates gutting too so guess who.....

Waiting on verdict for true sex link.

iv heard that the buff gene is a weird one, and that probably has something to do with it. im no genetics wizard though, thank goodness! wheres Robbie? she loved to theoretically reverse engineer these conundrums.

you know what though... if it is a sexlink n not a coincidence, it may not make plucking any easier but it will make the decision much easier!!!

The chart I use for getting info on sex-linked chickens is found on the Backyard chickens site....

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/26120 ... nformation

So yes a buff brahma rooster breed to a dark brahma or a light brahma hen produces sex-linked chicks.

Check out post on Backyard Chickens

Hiya....
Sorry been busy today.
Yes a buff male over dark hen is sex linked. The buff brahma are gold based. The dark brahma are silver based.
Silver and gold are sex linked-ie on the Z chromosome. Boys are ZZ -so the buff boys carry 2 gold alleles...ss for argument sake.
Girls are ZW-and the dark brahma hens thus carry 1 copy of silver S and only have 1Z so they are S-
Cross these with the punnets square gives you Ss males (one copy gold and one copy of silver) and s- girls one copy gold only. So for the chicks the boys should be split gold and silver (lighter-and the silver will give them light hackle feathers as adults) and girls gold (darker) chick down colour and the girls will look like dad-buff when all grown up.

What is neat is that this does not work the other way around...it has to be gold based dad over silver based mom. If the dad is silver and mom is gold it doesnt work. Also if you cross the sex linked kids you will NOT get more sex linked kids....but if you cross the same parents again you will get exactly the same thing again.