Has anyone had DNA sexing be wrong? Pullet with large peacomb

[Painted Calls]

Yep, that's what I thought I might be seeing. Those are pointed saddle feathers... That's a cockerel-only trait. Since he was DNA tested, I would be very curious as to what is going on. I definitely never go around telling people that their birds could be intersex or have a hormone problem but in this case... I wonder what the accuracy is of those tests?

I would assume that some samples got mixed up. It's happened to me before for other reasons. I imagine it could happen for DNA testing as well.

 

[Trisseh]

With feathers or egg shells I could see contamination or a mixup being more likely than the testing being inaccurate. I sent blood for my silkie pullet when I tested her.

personally I would just wait and see because you have a bunch of conflicting attributes in this bird. I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions and rehome just yet. These EE are tricky, and there’s been a couple of posts I’ve seen on here with some that look pretty boyish, that turn out to be pullets.

I have a Legbar pullet (she’s the special child around here as it is) that had some really weird feathers coming in that wound up being mostly normal once they were fully out. She was a very obvious pullet from her down color to her actual feather pattern when she feathered in, but she had (and still has) some very shiny, funny feathers. Her hackles especially throw me off, shiny, pointy... her saddles are normal now but they were shiny and looked pointy when they were coming in.

 

[peachini44]

I can't take the suspense and just ordered another blood sample to send off today. I was very careful with the feather collection, but I do feel more confident in the blood sample being free of contamination. The thought of if intersex was a possibility did actually cross my mind too as I was just reading a nursing article about the topic last night. There has to be some intersex chickens out there, I know there are with dogs. Hopefully she is just developing early and has some funky feathering. I have noticed from digging through old threads the female EEs can get some pretty long tail and saddles.

Trisseh, your pullet gives me hope! I've seen several old threads of similar instances and I am hoping mine will be the same. I am brand new to easter eggers so I don't have much to compare to.

I appreciate all the responses and will come back with the results! Fingers crossed for us she's a pullet, please

 

[NatJ]

this easter egger (opal legbar x a "blue egg layer")

No, the other cockerel in the photos is not related, only hatched the same time. He is the only frame of reference I have for peacombs and hard-feathered roosters.

Pea combs come in a variety of sizes, but in general a chicken with two copies of the pea comb gene will have a smaller comb than a chicken with only one copy of the pea comb gene.

The "pullet" in question has a pea comb, so she's clearly got at least one gene for pea comb. But Legbars have a single comb, so she must have gotten a copy of the not-pea gene from the legbar parent.

That means the "pullet" is likely to have a large pea comb, at least as compared with chickens that have two copies of the pea comb gene.

This might explain how one pullet can have a larger pea comb than a different pullet, or even a pullet have as large a comb as an unrelated cockerel, but of course it doesn't explain anything about comb color or feather shape

 

[rascal66]

Here are the hackle area feathers coming in, some of them do look pointy, but mostly it's the ones still in the casing

Yes, those feathers seem very pointed and would indicate cockerel, sorry about that at best, you can still wait a while longer to make sure those are indeed long, tapered pointy saddles.
I have a pullet currently that had me guessing for a long while because her comb was really red and popped a bit at her age
But she's now 2 1/2 months and she's very much a pullet thankfully.
Time will solidify your answer!

 

[EmmaRainboe]

Throw my vote down for boy. Male saddles.

 

[peachini44]

Yes, those feathers indicate cockerel, sorry about that I had hope, but its clear now.

Probably doesn't make a difference but I meant saddle, not hackle. I could not find any suspicious feathers in the hackles. Some of the saddle feathers further along and more opened up are rounded on the ends then those fresh ones coming in.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Here are the saddle area feathers coming in, some of them do look pointy, but mostly it's the ones still in the casing

*edited, saddle not hackle, no hackle feathers coming in yet

That confirms it. He is a cockerel.

 

[jolenesdad]

Eeeek. That first pic you posted she looks like a boy now!

I’ve had hackle and tail feathers lie lots of times. I’m afraid I’ve never seen saddle feathers like that on a developing pullet.

 

[ColtHandorf]

I decided cockerel from the first pictures and scrolling through confirms my assumption.