How can I sex Easter Eggers?

[BarrettG]

I have Amerucana/Easter Eggers that are 2 months old. I sell them as straight run but I would sell more as pullets. The problem is the Pe Combs are small regardless if it's male or female so it's hard to tell. How can I sex them now and at birth? The roo is a Lavender Amerucana and the hen is a White Amerucana.

 

[Pork Pie]

Dunno about sexing at birth, but if you can take a photo of each bird (head and side on shot focusing on tail feathering) then the gender gurus should be able to help out at 8 weeks.

Cheers
CT

 

[WyandotteIndeed]

Well, if you just wanted to sell them as EE pullets, and so didn't need them to be a true Ameraucana Breeders Association color, you could create your own sexlinks by covering a silver hen with a brown red roo and you would essentially have red sex links. Otherwise, you would need to try becoming an expert on feather sexing at hatch, or wait until 7 or 8 weeks and closely scrutinize the comb and wattles for size and color development. Good Luck.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Feather sexing only works on breeds that are bred for that trait. If you wanted to sex EEs at hatch, they'd need to be vent sexed. With my EEs and OEs, their combs give them away usually. Even though they stay small, the males will pink up early. Since yours are black (very typical of birds that are split to lav), I'd also look for leakage on the boys. You could keep a couple of pullets, breed them back to dad and make more lavs.

 

[BarrettG]

Feather sexing only works on breeds that are bred for that trait. If you wanted to sex EEs at hatch, they'd need to be vent sexed. With my EEs and OEs, their combs give them away usually. Even though they stay small, the males will pink up early. Since yours are black (very typical of birds that are split to lav), I'd also look for leakage on the boys. You could keep a couple of pullets, breed them back to dad and make more lavs.

When you say look for leakage what color do I look for? I saw light specs of brown on one and don't know how it got there. Could be that the mother is not my Ameraucana but my other easter egger. As I said earlier, the dad is pure Lavender with no leakage

 

[donrae]

See where the cockerel in the front has red on his wings? that would be leakage. This bird had a ton and it was very easy to see. It usually starts out smaller patches on the wings and spreads as they age. I call them the Red Patches of Death

. Some birds don't get them until after three months or so depending on the genetics involved.

With your birds, you should be able to sex them at 2 months by the comb. A triple row and red color is male, a single row and fleshy pink still is female. I'm thinking I can see some cockerels from the amount of red, but you could post close up shots of each bird and we could help you out.

 

[drumstick diva]

BTW Handsome EE rooster