Easter egger dud??

[donrae]

Yep, that straight comb and the brown eggs means she's a brown egger.

You can tell pea comb vs straight comb at a young age. Straight comb has little saw teeth sticking up. Pea comb will look more like a broad flat spot.

 

[carlf]

EEs should have a pea comb.

 

[aart]

Here's an odd one....this bird is from a Wellie cock over an olivish laying hen(mix of EE over an amberlink).
Single comb, lots of beard and wattles...


....and lays what I call a 'khaki' colored egg...shell is blue under coating..in center of basket. Brown eggs in basket are from same cross.

 

[Spartan22]

All my EEs (Ameraucana/Araucana accdg to hatcheries) have pea combs including the pink egg layers.

 

[lazy gardener]

What she said. It takes a bit of practice. You can start by looking at pics of chick combs. Next spring, take some time checking out combs at the feed stores, even if you are not buying. Sometimes, comb style is a distinguishing trait that will help you to know what breed you are looking at. For example: Barred Rock and Dominique chicks look very similar, with the difference being straight comb vs. rose comb. Very noticeable in day old chicks.

 

[donrae]

Easter eggers should have a pea comb, yes.

The pea comb gene and the blue egg gene are supposed to be very close on the DNA strand. Difficult to separate. Not impossible, of course, cause there are pea combed brown egg layers (Brahmas, for instance) and straight combed blue eggers (Legbars). But, with mixes, it's a general rule of thumb. Pea comb has a higher liklihood of blue or green eggs.

Straght combs are recessive, so they can "hide" under the other combs for a few generations.

Easter eggers are kind of a mixed bag, genetically. This particular bird lost the odds for the blue egg gene is all. She's still a nice bird.