EE's- any pattern/color markers associated w/sex or egg color?

[MamaHen11]

hello all you super knowledgeable backyard chicken keepers out there!

I have a pair of four week old Easter Eggers and I'm wondering if you can tell me if there's anything to expect from their patterns or coloration.

Do you just have to wait-and-see to find out whether you have hens order roosters? Do you just have to wait to see what their egg color is going to be if they are hens, when they do start laying?

 

[Arya28]

Hi!

They are all super cutie! Also they look just like ours did!

At this age, it's hard to tell based on color.. they will look identical for a few more weeks and then you will probably start noticing differences. Ours all started getting the same brown patterned feathers as yours, but at a couple months old they start getting their colored and patterned adult feathers in.

What I've noticed with ours is the boys tend to get a red/mahagony color near their shoulder area. The girls often get silver or gold penciling, but no two are ever identical! Those are just basic color markers for breeds but they aren't always 100% correct.

As for the egg color, there's no 100% way to know before they lay them.. however, if they have a pea comb there is like a 97% chance they will lay a blue or green egg, because that comes along with that gene. If they don't have a pea comb, it probably won't be blue or green. It would then most likely be a light tinted pink, white, or brown. Also, if they have beards the blue egg gene more dominant. And I can't tell from the pics what kind of comb they have. They are so cute though!

 

[FlyWheel]

Anytime I hear about a way to sex an EE by feather color, or some other method that isn't true for all chickens, I have to snicker. Because I will have at least one hen that laughs in the face of that 'rule'. Easter Eggers are not a pure breed, so they don't all have the same traits in common.

As for egg color, that IMO is one of the reasons they're called Easter Eggers; you never know what you'll get until you find it. That's part of the fun!