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

[Harmoni]

They all look like pullets except for Goldie, who is still a "maybe." I was expecting a larger redder comb and more black on the breast if a cockerel. No red patches on the wings either, so Goldie is either a slowly developing cockerel, or a pullet. Leaning toward pullet now, but the comb shot is not clear enough to be certain.

Here are some more shots of Goldie

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Here are some more shots of Goldie

I've never seen a dark spot like that on the breast, but otherwise Goldie looks like a pullet to me. Not 100% sure so we'll see what the others think.

 

[Finnie]

Somebody mislabeled the bin. Wouldn't be the first time.

@chirpyderp when Wishing4Wings said they mislabeled the bin, she didn’t mean they wrote EE instead of “Americana” or vice versa. She meant the employees got their breeds mixed up and put the EEs in the bin for some other breed and that breed in the EE bin. Since you got a reddish chicken that started out as chipmunk, there was probably a bin labelled as that breed, and it was probably full of fluffy-cheeked multiple color chicks with pea combs.

You may or may not have looked at those chicks and passed them up and not paid attention to what breed they were labeled as. Or it’s even possible that those chicks were all sold before you got there, and that sign taken down. I don’t know what all of Hoover’s production hybrid breeds are called, but that chick looks like it could be one.

One of the common mislabelings that occurs is that the box arrives with a list of what’s in it. The box will be divided into 4 compartments. It’s up to the employees to figure out which of the compartments contains which breed on the list. It’s very easy for them to guess wrong. I bet that there are some other people out there confused as to why their production layer chicks are turning out to look like Easter Eggers.

You could scroll through Hoover’s brown layers. You might find a breed that matches your chick.

 

[bruceha2000]

The other thing I question is their assertion that they "must breed true" to be an actual breed.

Me too since I'm pretty sure that even in the SOP APA Ameraucana description thye only have to breed true 50%. I find that curious.

I think the term EE has come to encompass all blue gene laying chickens not clearly part of a breed.

That would be unfortunate since W4W's listed characteristics are what I understand to be an EE. Green or slate legs, pea comb, blue or green eggs (MOST of the time), muffs and beards. Every EE I've gotten met all of these though I understand a couple could be missing since the birds don't breed true. Certainly you'll have a hard time breeding 2 EEs of that description and being able to predict the color/pattern anything but "undetermined until they are older". Calling a Legbar an EE because it lays blue eggs would be just wrong.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

The Landrace type of W4W‘s, like the girls I had is exactly what I expect too... but because of a variety of people’s projects, backyard breeders mixing breeds and selling them as EEs, and various other issues... EE is now a bigger box. So that’s the problem, and an observation in watching the flak over the various hatchery EE/Ameraucana and how the terms get used.

I also think different hatcheries produce different looking Landrace types... my two that got stolen were from Ideal, my original girl from forever ago before I started keeping again was from a different hatchery... but all three were definitely of the Wild type feather pattern and colors along with the other traits. The other younger EEs that got stolen with my older girls (I posted) which included a rooster we planned to use in breeding were from Cackle and seemed to have a high % of SOP Ameraucana colors in them, so pattern wise they looked very different than our original type girls. Leg colors of the new birds matched SOP better too.

This time we are getting bantams from Cackle... and White Sport Crested Cream Legbars and CC Legbar crosses to check out from Meyers. The CCL type birds I would not call EEs either... but we also now have WTB and WTO lines on the market too. They vary greatly in look.

The Crest of the CCL along with the cream gene and the blue egg gene all come from 1 “Chilean Hen”... keep in mind in the UK the British Auracanas are very different than US ones... they choose to not breed for the lethal tuffs or no tail... so their birds all have crests, muffs, beards, and tails... so more in common with American Ameraucanas. The CCL was born out of college experimental breeding project...

Here are pictures of British Auracanas... not my birds... but more in common with our EEs I think...

 

[Harmoni]

12 weeks now. I was just told speckle is a Roo on fb. Any input here? I am sure the other 2 are pullets as there have been no changes to them. Last pic is a group picture.

 

[Wishing4Wings]

12 weeks now. I was just told speckle is a Roo on fb. Any input here? I am sure the other 2 are pullets as there have been no changes to them. Last pic is a group picture.

All 4 are pullets!
Goldie was the one I thought was a cockerel because of the black feathers coming on the breast, but they odviously didn't come in all the way.

At 12 weeks a cockerel would have an unmistakable bright red comb and some male coloring, especially wing patches. You have 4 pretty pullets.

 

[bruceha2000]

Your FB friends don't know what the are talking about. If you want to know EE gender this is the place and W4W is your go to gender guesser. Right WAY WAY more often than not.

 

[JenPrenares]

Any guesses on these 7 ish week old EEs? Also, when do pea combs turn red for roosters in this breed?

 

[Harmoni]

Any guesses on these 7 ish week old EEs? Also, when do pea combs turn red for roosters in this breed?

2 and 3 are definitely girls. 1, you'll have to watch and wait. I had one with a black breast which I was told might be a boy, but as she got older the black dispersed.