A little mad!!

[chickenkeeper12]

So I ordered 7 Easter egger chicks from MPC in early April. My order was 6 hens and one roo. They are now around 7 weeks old and no sign of a rooster. I really want another roo especially an EE. I have had a large fowl rooster and he had sign of being a roo at around 3 weeks. I'm curious if EE take longer to develope. Also they are all close to the exact color exempt for one pure white one and i was curious if that could be the roo. Btw it has some growth defect and lump on its chest since it was 1 week old and it grows half the size in half the time as the other ones. I really want a roo but don't know what to do.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

There are 18 configurations of the private parts of the chicken and 4 of them are very similar to the opposite sex. So the vent sexers at the hatchery only have a 90% success rate at sexing chicks.

http://www2.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/sexing_chicks.html

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/597401/vent-sexing
see post #10

 

[Traphill]

Did you call them about the lump? I have ordered from MPC three times and the customer service has always been good. You should know by 8 weeks what you have judging by the comb.

 

[donrae]

Your white bird could possibly be your EE. At 7 weeks, we should be able to tell if you post pics in the What Breed or Gender section. If you're used to straight comb birds the pea comb of the EE can look unimpressive.

Lump on it's chest, is that just it's crop?

 

[Manningjw]

Your white bird could possibly be your EE. At 7 weeks, we should be able to tell if you post pics in the What Breed or Gender section. If you're used to straight comb birds the pea comb of the EE can look unimpressive.

Lump on it's chest, is that just it's crop?

You are right, EEs can be harder to determine gender, it isn't quite as apparent as some breeds with larger combs/waddles.

I was wondering the same thing if she is just noticing the crop being full.

 

[aart]

Anyone know if the 3 row pea comb(male) vs the 1 row pea comb(female) is a viable indicator of gender in EE's?

 

[chickenkeeper12]

Thank everybody for your info. To clarify a couple things i got all EE chicks, they all don't have combs yet, and the lump on its chest was huge. Around goofball size and watery until we put them outside and that's when is slowly started to get harder and harder.

 

[donrae]

Anyone know if the 3 row pea comb(male) vs the 1 row pea comb(female) is a viable indicator of gender in EE's?

It's generally pretty reliable, yeah. I wouldn't say 100%, but I sure use it as criteria when evaluating gender. One piece of the puzzle, so to speak.

 

[subhanalah]

Thank everybody for your info. To clarify a couple things i got all EE chicks, they all don't have combs yet, and the lump on its chest was huge. Around goofball size and watery until we put them outside and that's when is slowly started to get harder and harder.

sounds like a full crop.

 

[aart]

Quote: Could be the crop....have you checked them very early in the morning? Most chooks pack that crop up during the day, but it should be empty in the morning.