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I completely disagree that EEs can have any color leg; some people persist in saying that any mixed-lineage chicken is an EE but that's really not true. You can't get EEs by breeding anything and everything; they are their own landrace and Ameraucanas came out of them, not the other way around.
Most hatchery EEs will eventually have willow (green) or slate legs. I'd give these guys a few more days to color in, but I'd also check to see if they have single or pea combs. If they're single combed, they're probably going to grow up to be a bearded mix that will lay brown eggs. Those tend to have yellow or light legs as well.
In the gamey-colored/wild-colored EEs the lightest chipmunk chicks tend to be males because the silver gene is sex-linked. The girls grow up to be a partridge-y color and the boys grow up to have silver hackles and saddles. If the hatchery has light-colored EEs or has mixed their EEs with something else, or has managed to breed out the silver, the light chicks anybody's guess. I would not want anybody to get rid of a light-chipmunk chick because they assume it MUST be a boy.
Oh, and tufts in Araucanas are not feathers. They're a fleshy peduncle that forms because the chick's developing ear doesn't grow correctly. They're actually a kind of head deformity and are lethal in homozygous and some heterozygous chicks. That's why I personally am not interested in them as a breed, not because they look odd. Silkies are a lot odder looking than any Araucana
. I believe the fight over whether it's ethical to breed tufted birds has raged for decades even within the Araucana club.
Please clarify for me, as I am splitting a box of EE with another person in march. baby EE look like the chipminks- correct? And if I am digging to make sure I am getting the pullets, I want the darker ones? What other features do you look for in a day or two old that might help?
