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

[marlowmanor]

Here are updated pics, from today, of the "girls"...

Mork - calm and quiet




Mindy - very mellow. Normally hangs with Cher and one of the most outgoing.




Sonny - always on the bottom of the pile, follows what everyone else is doing




Cher - super dominant and very outgoing. She is the first one to check things out, eat, drink, and greet me. She was right next to me the whole time I was taking pictures, chatting with the chicken I was taken pics of.





Pearl - very loud when handled. She sounds like a seagull getting attacked by a cat.




Opal - pretty calm, just sort of does whatever everyone else is doing




Ruby - has been charging at the other babies a lot lately




Groucho - very quiet and shy, normally following Mindy and Cher around.




Harpo - hides behind everybody else, makes the softest tiniest peep ever.



This is the wing that the other chicks attacked. It has healed up nicely, and as you can see feathers are starting to come back in.


Camo - very flighty, bottom of the pack, normally hiding with Harpo. The only place there are still alot of pin feathers, is down the back and by its "ears".








Here are a couple of the youngest (7 wk old) group. They all have almost identical coloring, and really dark greyish black colored legs.
Barbie




Midge - is super tiny. Maybe 1/2 the size of the other girls that she was supposedly hatched with. She can sit in my hand at 7 weeks old.

Camo looks like a definate cockeral. I think Harpo may be one too but the coloring throws me off a bit. The comb looks large though like a cockeral.

 

[flcityslicker]

What are these feathers? I thought they might be hackle feathers coming in, but I think they are too high up.

 

[Nambroth]

What are these feathers? I thought they might be hackle feathers coming in, but I think they are too high up.

Though hard to tell, they do look like hackles to me! Remember, hackles hang down and can be quite long, so they start pretty high up on the neck.

 

[Flowerbh]

I can't remember what thread I saw the decussion about leg color was, but here goes.....on EE legs, you have slate, greenish and willow. What exactly is willow? I would like to check my EE's to see if they have willow legs.

 

[flcityslicker]

I can't remember what thread I saw the decussion about leg color was, but here goes.....on EE legs, you have slate, greenish and willow. What exactly is willow? I would like to check my EE's to see if they have willow legs.

No idea, but a couple of my girls have dark grey, almost black, colored legs.

 

[rlhagan56]

On the thread "First Egg Countdown we were discussing that a little at the last of the thread. Mine in the past that were greenish laid olive green eggs, and the EE I have now has more of slate colored legs, but someone said it has less to do with leg color than comb. I think my girl has a pea comb, it has barely been there and she is almost 23 weeks. I'll have to take a camera out and try to sneak pics of them. Sooo hard to get an unblurry picture of them!

 

[Flowerbh]

I think they were saying that the closer they were to their Ameraucana roots, the more slate colored their legs and the more likely their eggs would be blue. The willow legged ones would probably be more green eggs??? because they were more diluted from the Ameraucana. Anybody else have any ideas on this?

 

[DMRippy]

Greenish legs are from YELLOW legs coming into the EE mix. No correlation to egg color.

AHHHHH the pea comb..... I have a LIMITED answer for that. My biology teacher from college cam over to look at my chickens as she is going to start a little flock. She also brought me a college Biology book. From what I have read the Pea comb and the blue egg gene live very close to each other. So the book said something to this effect... I wrote it down in my own words

Genes on the same chromosome TEND to be INHERITED TOGETHER. Called "GENETIC LINKAGE - inheritance of certain genes as a group" Alleles (they effect how the genes show or can change how they show - like mixing paint colors kinda thing) tend to be inherited together and do not assort independently.


That is all I know..... I can't debate it. But if your birds have a pea comb AND they COULD carry the blue egg gene..... they are more likely to lay a blue egg..... unless they paint it brown too to give you a green egg.... the fun of chickens you will just have to wait and see

NOTE: Not all pea combs carry blue egg genes. It really is the combination of the two that make the connection, not just the pea comb (or the blue eggs). They have to ALSO have the blue egg genes. Pea comb can be inherited without a blue egg ie Brahmas, but in the case of Ameraucana....they are genetically attached at the hip

 

[Blarneyeggs]

Well put Donna, and Thank You!

I've got a little girl with the pea comb, green legs, hatched from a blue egg and she lays BROWN eggs for me. Demonstrating that indeed sometimes the genes are NOT inherited together. What are the odds?, pretty slim I'd say, but leave it to me to be the one! Sheesh!

This also demonstrates to me how awesome it is to actually get a hen that will lay Olive eggs. Yes, I have egg envy.

 

[Flowerbh]

Well put Donna, and Thank You!
I've got a little girl with the pea comb, green legs, hatched from a blue egg and she lays BROWN eggs for me. Demonstrating that indeed sometimes the genes are NOT inherited together. What are the odds?, pretty slim I'd say, but leave it to me to be the one! Sheesh!
This also demonstrates to me how awesome it is to actually get a hen that will lay Olive eggs. Yes, I have egg envy.

Oh! I would be sooooo disappointed! And, I have 3 EE's who are 20 1/2 weeks old and have not laid any eggs yet, and I am wanting those colored eggs! I am like you and it will be my unluck to have them all lay brown!!!!