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

[Bush Chickens]

Smokey' s comb is pinker and bigger than some eggers older than her,and she is like a karate ninja when she gets outside with the other chicks.and she is all black and white splotchy peppering. Is she a he??? I will be very sad

 

[debid]

Smokey' s comb is pinker and bigger than some eggers older than her,and she is like a karate ninja when she gets outside with the other chicks.and she is all black and white splotchy peppering. Is she a he??? I will be very sad

Give her a week and post an update. Being able to see the full feathering makes a big difference in assessing the overall pattern.

 

[TipihlowLadies]

here is EE roo

 

[Twinklin]

I know it's way too soon for me to post but we just got our first 4 chicks ever, about a week ago. One was sold as an Americana and were told it would have the pale greenish eggs so I'm assuming it's an EE. We got 4 different breeds though so I have nothing to compare her to. She is like twice the size of all the other chicks and waiting the 4+ weeks to find out what she really is is KILLING me. Do EEs sometimes run larger than RIR, Black Sex Links or Welsummers? Those are the other 3 we have to compare her to. She seems to be at the same stage of feathering out as the others except the Black Star who is behind the others in size and has 0 tail feathers. I'm hoping the EEs large size isn't a sign she's a boy.

 

[Wishing4Wings]

I know it's way too soon for me to post but we just got our first 4 chicks ever, about a week ago. One was sold as an Americana and were told it would have the pale greenish eggs so I'm assuming it's an EE. We got 4 different breeds though so I have nothing to compare her to. She is like twice the size of all the other chicks and waiting the 4+ weeks to find out what she really is is KILLING me. Do EEs sometimes run larger than RIR, Black Sex Links or Welsummers? Those are the other 3 we have to compare her to. She seems to be at the same stage of feathering out as the others except the Black Star who is behind the others in size and has 0 tail feathers. I'm hoping the EEs large size isn't a sign she's a boy.

My EE chicks were larger and grew more quickly than the other breeds I had. My pullet had larger and thicker legs than the cockerel (until about 13 weeks) so it's hard to know for sure. Sending girly thoughts your way.

 

[Twinklin]

Thanks, that makes me feel a bit better. I'm just super paranoid. We got them from a nice older feed store and they were supposed to be sexed at the hatchery but I know even they're not 100%. A friend ordered 12 females and 3 males from MyPetChicken and ended up with 4 roos so even they make mistakes. Hopefully our friend would be willing to take another in if we end up with roosters.

I've been trying to calculate the odds... so if our friend had 1 in 12 that was a male and we have 4 chicks, one being sex linked, that means we have a *taps frantically on her calculator* 75% chance of them all being female?.... *head explodes*

Thanks again.

 

[petuniaSD]

Hi! Any thoughts on breed and gender on this one? Possibly an EE? Came from an assorted bunch; pipped from a brown egg and needed help getting out. the teacher didn't want the students to see it pecked to death by its stronger sibs, so they asked me to save it. it came home and it's doing great at 6 weeks now (pipped Easter weekend). I'm new to chickens, and we're planning on getting another couple soon. it's has such a sweet disposition, and is not afraid of the pooches thanks!

 

[ForTheKids]

I would like to thank all of you for your pics and words of wisdom. Thanks to studying all these pictures, I'm now confident in thinking that Stacey and Emma are indeed girls. Rounded feathers, allover patterns, red on the breast, but no red on the shoulders, nice pale combs. Thanks for all of the free education!

Emma on the left, Stacey on the right with the stripe.




A trip to the chicken coop.... Took more than a little coaxing to come down the ramp.




Stacey went first.



Emma took a little longer.





Sugarbaby is not amused! Emma is not concerned.





Stacey always has a very curious look.




Here a couple of headshots at 5ish weeks:

Stacey on the left. Emma on the right.



Emma:



Stacey:




Emma thinks Stacey is the mom. She follows her everywhere! She can't stand to be more than a few feet away from her.








I'm fairly confident that our girls are pullets. Again, thanks for all the tips! I'll post some pics when they are all grown up. They were hatched 4/1/13, so they are just about 6 weeks old. I'm pretty sure if they were roos, I would be seeing different things by now. Doesn't mean I wasn't panicking for a while there!

MM

 

[Homestead girl]

Actually, a VERY easy way to show people sexing EE's by demonstrating with your pictured birds there is by color. EE's are very easily sexed by color, as most are actually sex-linked too.


Females in most cases come out a partridge looking brown and black, often known as wild-type duckwing. Some though are silver too, which is strictly black and white, sometimes with a salmon breast.

Males on the other hand are quite often black and white, but have colored red, orange, or yellow feathers that emerge on sometimes the neck, back, and most importantly and almost always the shoulders. These are tell-tail signs of a male, as females cannot have that color in those regions. Other male colors that are red flags are one coming out with a black breast and red markings on the shoulders, neck, and back.

True saddle and hackle feathers actually come in much later, so judging by them is a hard thing to do, especially when someone is new with chickens.

I am very new to chickens, These are my first that I have owned. I have 13 EE that are 5 weeks old. So I should be able to guess at who is a roo and who is a pullet ? Here is a picture of them.

 

[Bush Chickens]

My Smokey is about 7 weeks(I think) she/he used to be grey,but the new feathers are ALL black white or both. both Good?bad?