Easter Egger Sexing "tips and tricks" *Pictures Included*

[mymilliefleur]

Thanks for posting. I can Usually tell if I have hens or roo's after a couple of weeks ( once in a while I get one I can tell at hatch). I don't think they are sex linked, like red stars, or other breeds like that, but usually pullets take after their fathers and roos after their mothers, so if you crossed a black EE roo with a black and red EE hen, you would probably get mostly Black pullets, and red and white cockerels. there is a lot of color variation though, as you can see in these three pullets. they are all full sisters:



Their father was mostly Black and white with a little red, and his mother carried blue. their mother was red and lavender.
sorry to bore you with all this, But I love talking genetics.

 

[bruceha2000]

Well I got them from a breeder who said they had aurancuna cross with Ameracauna, and fizzles. So I have 2 hatched from the 2 bluer/green eggs and 1 frizzle.

Wish me luck!!))))

Do you mean Araucana when you typed auracuna?

Americana (in all its various spellings) is not a recognized breed, just another name for Easter Eggers which is also not a recognized breed. If a purebred Ameraucana is crossed with anything but another Ameraucana, you get an EE though I'm not quite sure what you would call an Ameraucana x Araucana pairing. I suppose it is possible that an Ameraucana crossed with a first generation EE could pop a few true Ameraucana if the genes line up.

If the eggs were green, they came from an EE hen, purebred Araucanas and Ameraucana lay blue and only blue so the breeder is suspect.

 

[sweetbeak]

Do you mean Araucana when you typed auracuna? 

Americana (in all its various spellings) is not a recognized breed, just another name for Easter Eggers which is also not a recognized breed. If a purebred Ameraucana is crossed with anything but another  Ameraucana, you get an EE though I'm not quite sure what you would call an Ameraucana x Araucana pairing. I suppose it is possible that an Ameraucana crossed with a first generation EE could pop a few true Ameraucana if the genes line up.

If the eggs were green, they came from an EE hen, purebred Araucanas and Ameraucana lay blue and only blue so the breeder is suspect.

Thanks for the information, I'll guess I will just see how they turn out. I have one hen that lays blue eggs, not 100% sure what she is either?

 

[sweetbeak]

I know ameracaunas were created in the U.S and they're veery rare outside of it.  I'm guessing you have an araucauna mix, I wonder how they got into australia? any breeders?

I've only found one breeder, and I got this hen from him. I think in Australia there is a lot of confusion between the chickens that lay blue eggs.

 

[mymilliefleur]

This is a great article on Ameraucana's, Araucanas, and EE's. I fond it very helpfull.
http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/john_w_blehm/

 

[cwrite]

I've only found one breeder, and I got this hen from him. I think in Australia there is a lot of confusion between the chickens that lay blue eggs.

Hi sweetbeak. I'm not sure why your breeder told you that they had Ameraucana's mixed with araucana's. We don't have Ameraucana's here. What we have are called Araucana's but look like Ameraucana's except that we allow more colours and have tailed birds. Australia doesn't have any rumpless chickens with ear tufts. We have Araucana's with tails, muffs, beard and a crest - ideally. However, there are many non-standard araucana's that are clean faced with no crest but are still pure araucana's and the will lay blue eggs. If you get green/olive eggs then there has been cross breeding with another breed.
I hope you find this helpful because there isn't much information out there and I'm also having problems sexing my 7 week old chicks. The Araucana breeders website is useless for information as they don't publish the information for all to see - you have to be a member to see the details of the required standard. However it is published in a book if you really want the information. It's quite expensive.

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Quote: The Australian Araucanas are very similar to US Ameraucanas, with the addition of a crest, which is really cute! If you post pics of your chicks, maybe we can help sex them here. It will have to be mostly by color pattern if the combs aren't visible. I think the connection between pea combs and blue shells still holds true. Not linked, but the traits are usually inherited together.

 

[cwrite]

The Australian Araucanas are very similar to US Ameraucanas, with the addition of a crest, which is really cute! If you post pics of your chicks, maybe we can help sex them here. It will have to be mostly by color pattern if the combs aren't visible. I think the connection between pea combs and blue shells still holds true. Not linked, but the traits are usually inherited together.

Thanks Wishing4Wings. Unfortunately I have lavender and some mixed with cream/salmon so I don't think that colour will help. The pea comb to blue colour gene is the same here. I'd appreciate it if you have any ideas with these four. It's hard to see the comb when they have crests and they all went red weeks ago, but it has been very hot. They are 7 weeks old, were sold to me as pure Araucana's and hatched from pure blue eggs, no hint of green.






My guess would be roo for all of them, but I'm really not sure and am beginning to doubt myself more the older they get.

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Quote:
Love the crests!

I don't see much in the way of beards on them. Ameraucanas in the US have muffs and beards and don't grow wattles. Do your Araucanas grow wattles? That might be another way to tell the sex. Otherwise, can you look at the combs under the crests? The heat can cause them to look red, but what are the chances of you getting all 4 cockerels?!

If you can manage to see under the crests, here's what they look like at about 7 weeks.
pullet, ridge up the center

cockerel, much thicker and wider, looks like two ridges on either side of the center one. (sorry, not the best pic)


If you do look, hope they don't beat you up too much!

 

[cwrite]

@Wishing4Wings my broody actually hatched 11/12 but the rest are pretty similar to the variety I posted. That could be really bad odds if redness indicates gender! The cream or cream and lavender have the most in the way of crests, but they all look pretty clean faced so far. I'm still hoping for some muff and beard development which they are supposed to have. They are also not supposed to grow wattles so yes, pretty much Ameraucana's except with crests and more accepted colours. This is my first experience with this breed so I wasn't expecting it to be so hard to sex them. Lol. Live & learn.
Thanks for the pics - they are very helpful.