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

[Heron's Nest Farm]

I have yet to get a light colored female so I am really interested in this bird. The rump on the above bird looks like a girl to me, but saddle feathers could show up later.

I have two light colored chicks right now and I am wondering if anyone has noticed a correlation between chicks with white and a splotchy pattern or white with a pronounced stripe indicating sex?

 

[Wishing4Wings]

I have yet to get a light colored female so I am really interested in this bird. The rump on the above bird looks like a girl to me, but saddle feathers could show up later.

I have two light colored chicks right now and I am wondering if anyone has noticed a correlation between chicks with white and a splotchy pattern or white with a pronounced stripe indicating sex?

Splotchy patches on the wing that interrupt an overall pattern is more often male. Females tend to have even, consistent patterns. Not 100% accurate, of course. The comb can give some good clues too.

 

[Heron's Nest Farm]

That is what I am thinking. I am going to watch this pair carefully and we shall see.

Any other opinions echoing or diverging?

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Do you have pictures of them you can post?

 

[wiseowl]

Hi, I am completely new to this, so have patience. This is our first experience with chickens and this is my first post on this site.
We have two 12 week olds, that up until recently we thought were hens. One of them I have no doubt is a hen, but the other, I am really starting to question. So I thought that those with more experience could weigh-in, so we don't have such a shock if this one starts to crow. ;-)
This is India. We were told that she was a hen when we got her at 6 weeks old. But as she gets older, she has me wondering. She has much flashier, inconsistent coloring than her sister, who seems to have the typical Easter Egger hen coloring. India is starting to get some iridescent green feathers at the base of her tail and some dark red shiny feathers on her body.
We think that they are Easter Egger/Silkie mix, by the way.

 

[mymilliefleur]

@wiseowl ! Yes, I'm afraid India is indeed a cockerel. He's a very handsome boy though.

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Hi wiseowl!

Welcome to BYC. Excellent job for a first post. Those are great pictures.

Yuppers, it's a boy. In addition to the things you noticed, you can see the saddle feathers coming in at the base of the tail, sharply pointed pale gold with the black centers. Only males get those. You can compare to your pullet who has only short, broad, blunt feathers in that area. Iridescent feathers are not necessarily confirmation of a male, females have them too, but generally not as much. Roosters are meant to be flashy!

Also, I think he is a Silkie cross, which gave him the dark skin, crest, feathered legs, and 5 toes.

 

[Heron's Nest Farm]

Do you have pictures of them you can post?

will snap photos today. They are only 6 days old, but it would be fun to guess.

As I said before I have yet to get a girl with any white. I see these photos of others and I really want one. I will snap a photo of the dad. I kept him out of my 6 I had to choose from because he was most reminiscent of a jungle fowl and I thought he might give me the greatest chance for color diversity. I have him over all my brown egg layers in the Orchard Run. His first chicks are super cute.

I have two obviously from the RIR out there. They look like they will be Reds with poofy cheeks. I have a few barred and non barred which I expected from the Barred rocks out there.

I have created chocolate orpington crosses that I hope will lay blue eggs. They are just coming on now, but I need to trap nest them to be sure. They look like smaller English chocolate Orpingtons with poofy cheeks. Holding my breath for a blue egg. I just do this for fun as I do pure bread orpingtons for the most part.

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Quote:
Cool! The chocolate orp must look great with cheeks! You probably already know, but if you are hoping for blue/green eggs, the birds with pea combs (coming from Ameraucana/Araucana breeds) have a better chance of having the gene for blue shells. Those two traits are very close together on the chromosome, so they are usually inherited together.

 

[junebuggena]

will snap photos today. They are only 6 days old, but it would be fun to guess.

As I said before I have yet to get a girl with any white. I see these photos of others and I really want one. I will snap a photo of the dad. I kept him out of my 6 I had to choose from because he was most reminiscent of a jungle fowl and I thought he might give me the greatest chance for color diversity. I have him over all my brown egg layers in the Orchard Run. His first chicks are super cute.

I have two obviously from the RIR out there. They look like they will be Reds with poofy cheeks. I have a few barred and non barred which I expected from the Barred rocks out there.

I have created chocolate orpington crosses that I hope will lay blue eggs. They are just coming on now, but I need to trap nest them to be sure. They look like smaller English chocolate Orpingtons with poofy cheeks. Holding my breath for a blue egg. I just do this for fun as I do pure bread orpingtons for the most part.

You're not going to get blue egg layers from the Orpington crosses. The brown 'coating' applied to the blue eggshell results in shades of green. The barred Rocks will produce sexlinks when crossed with a non-barred rooster. All the male chicks will be barred.