Hoover's (Tractor Supply) Straight Run Easter Eggers-- mostly roos?

[DavidReaves]

I got six straight run Easter Eggers at Tractor Supply six weeks ago. I'm afraid the luck of the draw was against me, though. Five of the six look very similar in coloring and pattern. One is a bit different. I've included photos below. My suspicion is that 5/6 are cockerels. It is a bit harder to tell with the pea combs. Last year I could easily identify all the single comb chicks just based on the comb development.

I have a group photo, then a photo of the heads of each chick.

This is the one I suspect is a pullet, based on different feather pattern and no comb color at all.

I'm fairly certain this is a cockerel, based on the early comb color.

This one also has strong color. He was fairly active, so is out of focus-- even so, comb color is very noticeable.

The color isn't as strong on this one, and bad focus doesn't help, but comb is noticeably red and feather pattern is like others that are more strongly red.

This is the last one, it's comb isn't red, but it does have the same feather pattern/colors as the others that seem to be roos.

So, what do you think? Do I have 5 males and 1 female? Or is there hope that some of the others are female, too?

 

[AmeliaBedelia]

Tractor supply chicks come from Hoovers which has both an “americana” and “easter egger” variety. The Americana type seem to have the poofy beard and pea comb (like ameraucanas) - is that what you have? Some of them seemed to have beards and others not, so wasnt sure. If so, I have found that patchy coloring is typically a roo trait ESPECIALLY if you see any red on their shoulders. Almost every ameraucana-style easter egger cockerel I have ever seen has had deep mahogany or orange feathers in a patch on his shoulders.

If you got the other “easter egger” type, that seems to be more of a grab bag - they don’t say what’s in the mix, so feather patterns may tell you less.

 

[AmeliaBedelia]

PS - based on the red feathers and 3 rows in the pea comb, I think that first chicken is male . Maybe get better comb photos of the others?

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Easter eggers, most likely all cockerels

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Tractor supply chicks come from Hoovers which has both an “americana” and “easter egger” variety. The Americana type seem to have the poofy beard and pea comb (like ameraucanas) - is that what you have? Some of them seemed to have beards and others not, so wasnt sure. If so, I have found that patchy coloring is typically a roo trait ESPECIALLY if you see any red on their shoulders. Almost every ameraucana-style easter egger cockerel I have ever seen has had deep mahogany or orange feathers in a patch on his shoulders.

If you got the other “easter egger” type, that seems to be more of a grab bag - they don’t say what’s in the mix, so feather patterns may tell you less.

I consider the bearded Easter eggers to be “typical” EEs, while the newer unbearded ones are legbar mix EEs. Using americana to mean EE can be misleading.

 

[Little Baby Bean]

Easter eggers, most likely all cockerels

x2.

 

[DavidReaves]

Easter eggers, most likely all cockerels

Lame. I shouldn't have trusted "straight run" to be truly mixed. I would have been happy to have even two pullets. 0/6 is bad.

Is the three row comb definitive?

 

[Sammster]

I would guess that the vast majority of any straight-run batch of chicks are male. They sex a large portion of chicks ~ put the suspected females in the pullet group (more demand, slightly higher cost) and add a great number of the suspected males to the straight run group. Many of them destined for the freezer. They certainly don't make an all cockerel group - though you can order Cockerels, of course.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I would guess that the vast majority of any straight-run batch of chicks are male. They sex a large portion of chicks ~ put the suspected females in the pullet group (more demand, slightly higher cost) and add a great number of the suspected males to the straight run group. Many of them destined for the freezer. They certainly don't make an all cockerel group - though you can order Cockerels, of course.

Most male chicks are killed at the hatchery. For straight run chicks they usually don’t sex them at all.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Lame. I shouldn't have trusted "straight run" to be truly mixed. I would have been happy to have even two pullets. 0/6 is bad.

Is the three row comb definitive?

No, and I would wait to be sure that all the chicks are really cockerels. However, the 1st one is 100% a cockerel due to having a male specific coloring.