10 week old EE Crowing

Hello All,

About 12 weeks ago my mom and I got our first bunch of chickens.
They are a few days shy of 12 weeks.
We have 2 Easter Eggers and 6 Rhode Island Reds.
We got them all at the same time from the same local feed store.

Anyway, about two weeks ago one of our Easter Eggers started crowing, even though everyone we have talked to says that it is much too early for this....
The fact remains “Vanilla” is crowing.
Vanilla is an all white Easter Egger. In the photos you will notice she has some color, this is poop. Anyone with a white chicken knows how easily they show poo on their feathers.
The other Easter Egger is a mix of browns, with green legs and puffy cheeks and she has a beard. I call them both my little Amish Princesses.

I have included some photos of Vanilla because we think that he/she is rooster who is crowing early.
I have read up on hens crowing as well and I am confused, everything I have read seems to contradict other things I read and people I speak to.
I am confused about Easter Egg sexing, I have seen the Backyard Chickens posting (all 300+ posts) and this just confused me even more because the “sexing rules” do not seem to have any clear cut lines as they seem to with most other breeds.
From what I can tell everyone is just guessing....
I have seen photos that people rule on as being a rooster in one post and then I will see another post with a photo of a similar looking chicken and the posters in this will rule that the chicken is a pullet.
No one gives any reasons for their judgments or the guidelines they used.


So, basically what should I look for and when?


Searching for photos of chickens at different age stages is a joke!!!
I get everything other then what I am looking for.
When I search “12 week old Rhode Island Red Hens” or “3 month Old Rhode Island Red (pullet, hens, chickens)” I get photos of chicks, fully grown and basically every other breed other then Rhode Island Red.
I just want to know what to expect in my own chickens.

Back to Vanilla
Vanilla’s crowing started all on one day.
Actually it was night time (about 2 am)
A few of my next door neighbors have roosters and in the last six months we have heard some new roosters starting up. All of these roosters have taken several months to get their voice fine tuned, but not Vanilla, s/he had it on day one.
The sound has changed a little bit to include a slight deflection at the end but that’s it.
My direct next door neighbors’ rooster took three months to get his voice and during this time the crowing went from pathetic crackles, to a nice solid crow.

My mom and I have found out that when we remove the other Easter Egger, Coco, from the coop, this usually instantly triggers Vanillas crowing.
Vanilla doesn’t crow when one of the Rhode Island Reds is removed.

If we shut their light off while Vanilla is crowing, s/he will usually crow once more then stop, but as soon as the light is turned back on (within a ten minute period) Vanilla will start up again.

Every night we pick up the chickens because we are those kinda people!!!
When we pick up Vanilla s/he fights a bit but as soon as s/he is away from the group s/he calms down and is very docile.
Vanilla usually falls asleep in our arms.

When Vanilla started crowing s/he would crow about 10-12 times and then stop, but this morning (4AM) s/he crowed for no reason and it seemed to go on forever!!!
Much longer then the neighborhood roosters usually crow which is usually sporadically (handful of times) for a few hours in the morning (4:30-7AM), a couple of times during the day and then in the early evening (3:30-6PM)

As you can see from the photos, Vanilla has a bit of a comb, s/he has had this for over a week and it hasn’t gotten any bigger.
Vanilla’s spur bumps are very small, there is a slight bump but that’s it, it’s just a bump.
S/he has no saddle feathers.


If Vanilla turns out to be a rooster we will have to find him a new home and we would like to make sure his new owners are going to keep him as a stud and eat him.
Vanilla is very docile and very gentle and it would be ashame to see such a beautiful all white Easter Egger be used as food.

Any help would be greatly appreciated because the two of us are really broken up as to what to do.
We don’t want fertilized eggs but we also do not want to see any harm come to such a sweet chicken.

Thank You!

p.s Sorry for the long post.

I think cockerel. Crowing and the comb are why I say that.

There aren't any good rules for sexing Easter Eggers since they're mixes--they could be heavy on Leghorn, or recently infused wtih true Ameraucana, or who-knows-what.

I got 5 EE "pullets" earlier this spring. Two were quite obviously cockerels early--they were bigger, heavier legs, had the "three row comb" and got darker red on the wings. The first started crowing around 9 weeks, the second around 11 weeks.

ETA: is there a reason you don't want fertilized eggs? They are no different to eat if you collect them every day.

Hello Popsicle,

Thanks for the reply.

I forgot to add in the original post that the first crowing happened when Vanilla heard a very high pitched sound, similar to a dentists drill.
There was this guy grinding something nearby and it seemed to irritate Vanilla.

I am glad you brought up the bit about mixing and how the comb could be a bit of leghorn because it does look like this.


The reason I don't want fertilized eggs is that well, they are fertilized.
To be honest in the past I have had issues eating eggs because of the whole discarded embryo thing and the idea of eating a fertilized egg isn't my cup of tea.
Plus I am not looking forward to the blood spot in my hard boiled egg.
My neighbor uses her fertilized eggs and she likes them but again this is just not something I can see myself doing right now.

I feel horrible even having to consider "getting rid" of Vanilla, so this is why I will continue to show him lots of love so he can go live with people who will love him and not eat him.
I do not want to pass my problem onto someone else, I want to pass a good hearted chicken onto people who will love him.

Hello Popsicle,

I checked out your Etsy link and I love your signs!!!
They are priced right too!

Do you do custom signs?

Yeah I think you have a cockerel.

Hello Mr MKK Farms,

Thanks for the reply!!

Could you tell me what about Vanilla tells you s/he is a rooster?
I am confused about the cues and any help will be appreciated.

Thank you again

Mary Poopins said:

Hello Mr MKK Farms,

Thanks for the reply!!

Could you tell me what about Vanilla tells you s/he is a rooster?
I am confused about the cues and any help will be appreciated.

Thank you again

Click to expand...

I can tell by the bright red comb and the feathering (saddle and tail) and crowing is a huge indication he is a cockerel.

Good Luck!

Hello Mr Mkk Farms,

Thank you
I am new to all of this and until the saddle feathers are really noticeable It could be staring me right in the face.

I have talked to people who say that hens will crow as a form of protection, so this is why I am so clueless.
I keep getting conflicting information.

Thank you again for your help