11 Week Easter Egger - mixed signals

[FuzzyCritters]

thank you SO so much for this info!!

yeah i haven’t seen anything similar to him online which is why i asked and he was a “mystery” egg i hatched and everyone said EE bc green shell but he didn’t even look like a typical EE (i know they’re just a big mix but you know the lil cuties with the eyeliner)
ohhh so he’s a “gold leakage” color? thank you! i haven’t been able to describe him really.

i just love what a confusing mystery my dude has been even though it drives me crazy. i’ve looked into genetic testing bc i’m that obsessed with him but they only do parentage genetic testing for pigeons, not chickens

I'm guessing his mom was an EE, but his dad is a different breed because of his white legs and cushion comb (not common in EEs). It's too bad there are no breed tests for chickens yet

 

[InterestingChickens]

By those pictures he dose seem to have a beard, but no muffs.

 

[sourland]

I hate to be odd man out, but I'm not certain that bird is a cockerel.

 

[Eelantha]

I'm guessing his mom was an EE, but his dad is a different breed because of his white legs and cushion comb (not common in EEs). It's too bad there are no breed tests for chickens yet

I suspected sex-linkage too, and it's nice to see my hunch confirmed The best breed test that can be done is to have the breeder keep track of which birds he breeds together, so whoever buys the resulting chicks knows what the parents are if they want more of that cross.

@InterestingChickens - the muffs are on the sides of the chicken's cheeks, while the beard sprouts over the throat. I spotted cheek feathers but no throat feathers on OP's EE, so that's why I said Araucana over Ameraucana for a possible parent xD (then again, ten weeks old is still young, maybe the EE hasn't fully grown its beard yet.)

@sourland - What makes you think the EE is a pullet? Is it its eyes?

 

[sourland]

I don't see the male specific feathering that others see. To me hackle feathers are indistinct and saddle feathers are rounded. I understand that pointed hackle feathers can be difficult to see in white birds, and those 'head shots' are difficult for my old eyes to work with.

 

[Eelantha]

I don't see the male specific feathering that others see. To me hackle feathers are indistinct and saddle feathers are rounded. I understand that pointed hackle feathers can be difficult to see in white birds, and those 'head shots' are difficult for my old eyes to work with.

The male specific feathering needs more time to grow out, I think. The chick's comb is redder than its sibling though, and that's usually a sign that it's a potential boy

 

[eclectic-em]

If he hatched from a green shell, that makes him at the very least an F2 cross.... unless the Araucana or Ameraucana hen that laid his egg came from a line that laid green eggs instead of blue ones. Green-laying purebred Ameraucanas are something that's frequent enough in Canada that I look twice at their breeders before buying chicks, but if you're in the USA it shouldn't be too much of a problem, as they prefer their girls to lay blue.

Gold leakage happens most often in sex-linked crosses, in the male chicks. But I'm pretty sure there's one type of white plumage that can also leak gold, but I don't remember which one it is...

I wish I could help you more with finding the possible parentage of your cockerel. Maybe you could post pictures of your EE on this thread? His parentage may be unknown, but if someday someone posts pictures of an EE matching yours and knows what chicken breeds went behind its creation, that could potentially solve your mystery

this has already helped so much! and it makes me feel a bit more sane knowing he’s just a mystery and not me just not searching hard enough.

also this was his egg.. don’t worry about why i have it still LOL (ok it is going in epoxy bc i love george).

and then like a week or two old

and i wanna say ~4 weeks

just if any of these tell you anything else about him!

he is gorgeous and if he and sophie make a few chicks i wouldn’t be mad but they’d be one heck of a mixture lol

 

[eclectic-em]

I'm guessing his mom was an EE, but his dad is a different breed because of his white legs and cushion comb (not common in EEs). It's too bad there are no breed tests for chickens yet

i definitely emailed a company that does like large scale genetic testing for industry just to see if they possibly would be able to do one and i’m waiting to hear back LOL. that’s how dedicated i am to this mystery

 

[eclectic-em]

I hate to be odd man out, but I'm not certain that bird is a cockerel.

it’s okay you and the girl i got sophie think Georgie is a Georgina. but even on an easter egger facebook page they say boy! but since he’s a bit unusual now i’m not sure. he’s just so big compared to sophie!

 

[FuzzyCritters]

I suspected sex-linkage too, and it's nice to see my hunch confirmed The best breed test that can be done is to have the breeder keep track of which birds he breeds together, so whoever buys the resulting chicks knows what the parents are if they want more of that cross.

It would be nice if the breeder had a list of what breeds they keep. Maybe we would get a better idea of what he could be. @eclectic-em, did the breeder mention what breeds they had, or was it just totally random mix eggs?

I spotted cheek feathers but no throat feathers on OP's EE, so that's why I said Araucana over Ameraucana for a possible parent xD (then again, ten weeks old is still young, maybe the EE hasn't fully grown its beard yet.)

He does have a small beard--there are some dark feathers under his chin. I think you are right about him still growing his beard out, because muffs and beards are linked and you can't have one without the other. He also probably has only one copy of the beard and muff gene, giving him smaller beard and muffs.