Can the Ameraucana chicks be feather sexed and if so when is the best time to do it?
Feather sexing chicks can be accomplished by crossing males that are homozygous for rapid feather growth or carry two rapid feather growth alleles ( k+/k+) with females that are hemizygous or carry only one slow feather growth allele ( K/_W).
The female parent contributes a dominant gene for slow feather growth (K) to all the male offspring while the female offspring will inherit only one rapid feather growth allele ( k+) from the father. This cross produces males that have slow feather growth (K/k+) and females that have rapid feather growth (k+/_W).
So the sire line must be bred to keep the fast growing feather genes and the dam must be bred to have the slow growing feather gene. This can only be accomplish by keeping two seperate lines to then combine them to feather sex. After the first generation it will not work.