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

[Katt66]

I purchased my two EE's from My Pet Chicken last year, and they are both the partridge pattern. I love some of the grey, to white colored ones that we see here. I don't see any way to mail order and ask for specific looking chicks. My local feed store (Big R) sells what they call Aracauna. The staff calls them Easter Egger. They have a huge variety of colors in the chicks, and even at a day or two of age you can already see the beards. Mine looked like little chip munks when I got them last year. What color chicks would I look for to get the white or grey adults?

Thanks

As has been stated, with EE's its a surprise grab bag when getting chicks. But here's my experience with them:

Two standard looking chipmunk chicks as babies:



Looked like this as they grew up:


Here's two more, the one on the left was a "chipmunk" without the stripes. And the other was the same pattern but with the black pigment missing:




The darker one in the above picture turned out exactly like the earlier striped "standard" chipmunk but with a dark black head where the previous chick had light grey coloring:


And here's the yellow chick with the grey down it's back in the above pic as a young cockerel:


And finally there's this guy. Solid yellow with just a slight hint of a chipmunk cap under his yellow chick down:


And here he is earlier this month, all grown up:


And for the pullets, there's these two from Cackle Hatchery last fall.
First one was shades of black and dark brown marbled.


Second one was blue blue blue with a slight dusting of rust colored tips on top of her head:


First pullet all grown up:

Second pullet grown up more. As you can see, she looks exactly like the other one though they looked much different as chicks. Except this one has a bright orange patch on top of her head where the other is solid black:


But though they're now six months old and started laying a few weeks ago, I don't think they're done "coloring up" just yet. The one with the orange on top of her head now has blue coloring coming in over the orange collar feathers and creeping up her neck till she's just got a slightly darker head. She's pretty much solid blue partridge/lace now with just hints of orange here and there.

The other is doing the same but has more orange coloring over top of her feathers.

These two birds are the most frustrating things to get accurate pictures of. They're like a kalidescope. Every time you look at them they look a little different. And every picture I take of them they turn out looking different. But nothing like they truly look. The only way I can tell them apart, is by that orange patch on top of the one's head.

 

[sharol]

These are my chicks from 2012.

As 3 day olds:


This is chick 3 (Hermione). She was a real beauty, but I lost her to laying problems last fall.


This is chick 1 (Skeeter). She lays longish green eggs.


This is chick 2 (Diva). She had dark eyeliner as a baby. She is the mother of my Rooster, hatched last summer.


This is chick 4 (Precious). She lays grayish green eggs.


This is my Rooster, Jake. He is a "pure" EE -- both parents (Diva, above) and Butch (deceased) were EE's. The yellow chick is a BO mom with the same roo. He was completely white with some black/blue/green in his tail and gold highlights. He was rehomed as an older cockerel.
As a chick:

He had a prominent comb even when he was tiny.



As an adult:


I love my EE's. You never know what you're gonna get.

 

[cortner1195]

Thanks for all the advice and pics. I think that I will buy local so that I have a chance to get some different colors.

 

[debid]

So quick question, I have 5 - 8.5 wk old EE chicks.  I know one is a rooster, black and white (white on shoulders, blackish head), 3 row of peas and red comb.  One is a hen, probably 2 of them are hens, one black and white one and one brown partridge feathering with a orange head but brown muff.  The other 2 I thought were hens, but now at 8 weeks I noticed that their comb is slightly reddish, they too are the partridge color with orange heads.  Now does that matter?  Its no where near the size of the comb on the cockerel.  but its got me confused, and kind of worried that they might be roosters.  there is no red/orange on the wings/shoulders yet, but when would I begin to see that happen, at what age?  Right away while feathering in?

Just looking for some tips, I might have missed the answers to these questions while sorting thru the 500 some pages, so if this is a repeat, I apologize. 

Feather patterns are more reliable than comb tint.

Male combs will not only change color, they grow. Often, they are reddish and obviously larger by 8 weeks. Pullets may have a pale comb until near point of lay but IME, it's common to blush a light pink long before. The difference is that the initial blush is generally later (6-12 weeks rather than 3-4) and (unlike males) not followed by growth of the comb and additional reddening until many weeks later.

There are a few late-blooming males but most are obvious to an experienced eye by 8 weeks. As another member suggested, photos and feedback generally can end the doubts.

 

[ElCerritoPlace]

Feather patterns are more reliable than comb tint.

Male combs will not only change color, they grow. Often, they are reddish and obviously larger by 8 weeks. Pullets may have a pale comb until near point of lay but IME, it's common to blush a light pink long before. The difference is that the initial blush is generally later (6-12 weeks rather than 3-4) and (unlike males) not followed by growth of the comb and additional reddening until many weeks later.

There are a few late-blooming males but most are obvious to an experienced eye by 8 weeks. As another member suggested, photos and feedback generally can end the doubts.

So heres some pics from this morning.

1 B/W pullet


2 Black muffed, pullet




3 pullet?






4 cockerel



5 pullet or cockerel? but is it just me or does someone else see some brighter orange feathers coming in on the shoulders?

 

[debid]

No worries on 3 and 5! Those are girly girls. That's exactly the pink I was talking about. Most of my pullets have had a comb that went a bit pink like that but then nothing more until they were a couple months older. And yes, I believe you've gotten the rest correct as well. BTW, my orange hen has a slightly darker shade in the center of the wing, too, but it looks quite different on a male. For one, the feathers where the wing patch will be on a male would be noticeably lacking in pattern and the male red is a deep, brick red rather than a slightly more rusty shade.

 

[ElCerritoPlace]

Whew! Thats a relief! Thanks its good to have a second opinion on these. This is my first batch of EEs. And I seem to have gotten a large number of cockerels in the other breeds, with this batch of chicks. All my speckled sussex look to be roosters. My 5 EEs are the only ones that are skewed toward females.

 

[debid]

Where did you get them?

FWIW, hatchery SS are notoriously difficult to sex by juvenile appearance. I was actually told once, in no uncertain terms, that the cute 16-week pullet I'd posted was a cockerel. On the BYC Sussex board, no less! And yeah, that had me worried. But, they were wrong. I wasn't sure on my newest one either because it had such wonky juvie feathers and a curled tail. She, too, is a lovely hen now. So, until you see rooster feathers emerging, don't abandon hope! They are tricky.

 

[ElCerritoPlace]

Where did you get them?

FWIW, hatchery SS are notoriously difficult to sex by juvenile appearance. I was actually told once, in no uncertain terms, that the cute 16-week pullet I'd posted was a cockerel. On the BYC Sussex board, no less! And yeah, that had me worried. But, they were wrong. I wasn't sure on my newest one either because it had such wonky juvie feathers and a curled tail. She, too, is a lovely hen now. So, until you see rooster feathers emerging, don't abandon hope! They are tricky.

MM hatchery. This is my first year ordering hatchery birds. Don't know if I'll do it again. Just a personal choice, not so much that the hatchery people weren't helpful. The thing is, all the SS have large combs no size difference and all appear, I think, to have red wattles forming, although slow to emerge compared to the welsummers. What feathering should I be looking for? I thought the iridescent green/black feathers in the tail were a sign of a cockerel. Although the tails on all the SS seem to be kind of ratty looking. Anything else I should be looking for? I have a friend coming to pick up 3 pullets this weekend and if there was a way to tell if any SS were pullets then it would give her more options. They live in town and can only have 4 hens, so I told her I'd raise what I ordered until they were big enough to go outside and then she could pick out some.

 

[debid]

If you ordered pullets and they all have the same amount of comb/wattle, I'd expect that you do, in fact, have pullets!

Mine showed little pink wattles with that first comb blush. But, like the EEs, no red and they saved the big comb growth spurt until later.