Sorry for dropping off the radar again - Fuzz is back in school so hopefully I'll be around more regular.
I wanted to post an update on this little project. As you may recall, I recorded chick phenotype:
type 1=mostly black/lavender, little to no cream, similar to a brown/red chick (all of these were from split x split matings, so none were retained to maturity)
type 2=black with cream bottoms, the "normal" black
type 3=black with excessive cream, particularly around the eyes, what I've heard referred to as clown-faced or owl-faced
and compared it to the birds at maturity, looking for patterns that might help me cull at an earlier age. The hypothesis was that type 1 & type 3 would produce more leakage than type 2.
I also recorded the color of their feet/legs to test the theory Mike posted regarding sexing chicks based on how far the dark pigment extended down the legs & feet.
The results were not what I expected, but very interesting none-the-less:
Looking back at chick pictures, there did seem to be a trend that the feet/legs of females were more pink and males more black, which was kind of cool, but there was too much variance in the actual markings to guess with much accuracy.
The birds that developed leakage looked no different as chicks than the ones that didn't.
Now for the surprise:
100% of phenotype 2 chicks ended up being male
100% of phenotype 3 (clown-faced) chicks ended up being female
I totally did not see that coming!! Obviously this is not a scientific study, since it represents a very small number of birds, and only my line (others have mentioned males that were clown-faced chicks), but certainly makes me want to play with this more!
