Illinois...

[megpie021]

Sorry Peaches is my all white one! The one you marked is an EE. And s/he is the one I am most worried about now. How does everyone else look then?

 

[jnckids]

Sorry Peaches is my all white one! The one you marked is an EE. And s/he is the one I am most worried about now. How does everyone else look then?

Not positive but the EE and the SLW looks suspect. I'm relatively certain that the EE is a cockrel continue to watch the saddle and hackle feathers for thinner pointer feathers than the others. The buff looks like a hen and the peaches I'm not certain.

 

[megpie021]

Not positive but the EE and the SLW looks suspect. I'm relatively certain that the EE is a cockrel continue to watch the saddle and hackle feathers for thinner pointer feathers than the others. The buff looks like a hen and the peaches I'm not certain.

We have been watching Pepper (SLW) for about 2 weeks now lol. She turned the red she has about then but hasnt changed since then really. I am going to try to remain very hopeful for Pepper as she is my favorite. I asked in the wyandotte thread and they said she could go either way since she hasnt gotten a lot of silver on her yet, the idea being cockrels have more lacing soonee I think? Her wattles havent grown any more either. And she barely has any silver on her body. If theres an argument to be made the other please go ahead

The EE just suddenly looked really pink to me today when I went to see them first thing this morning. Licorice has also gone from our friendliest sweetest one to the most flighty and least likely to let you touch. It better not be that they both are boys. I wouldnt even have extra chickens then. I would be down chickens again.

 

[jnckids]

We had that happen to us last year... Then we thought it EE was going to be a cockrel as well but held out hope... Fortunately she was a she lol

 

[Faraday40]

EEs can be tricky to sex when 1st starting out. Take a close look at the ;pea comb. If you have a narrow, single row of "peas" it's a female. If there are 3 rows across, then you have a good chance of being male.(Not 100% but usually true.) Males tend to get a hint of pink@ 4-5 weeks. If most of the time you see no color but once & a while see pink, it could be the temp. (An excited or overheated chick can have a touch of pink, but males will have it all the time.)

Try to get a good close up pic of the comb. If you secure him/her in one arm next to your body, you can use your free hand to take a close up. If I have more time later, I'll find some past chick pics to show you the diff.

 

[Faraday40]

We had that happen to us last year... Then we thought it EE was going to be a cockrel as well but held out hope... FortuStnately she was a she lol

4 years ago I also had an EE that looked & acted like a male. Tyrion ended up laying an egg before she crowed. Still have her today

 

[avocadoeggs]

Hi all! I'm in need of some advice...
We have a six hen limit and I currently have four 2 yr old hens in our coop. I wanted to add two more, so I picked up two chicks at F&F. Only a few weeks in I began to see strong signs that one is a cockerel. Not wanting to be left with only one newbie to add to the coop, I went back and got two more chicks last week, figuring I'd introduce the two littlest to the slightly older one after confirming that the second older is a boy, then add all three to the existing flock. Well, last night one of the two tiny baby chicks passed away (she'd been acting a little off ever since coming home). So now I am left with the month-old boy and girl in one bin, and the one week-old chick who is not happy by herself. What to do???

I could go out and get two more chicks to put in with her, but since we have new neighbors and the ordinance is for six hens, I'd like to stick as close to six as I can... (plus my coop is sized for only 6-7). I'm just trying to figure out what my next move should be to try to keep them all happy, especially the tiny new one by herself, or if I should just wait a bit longer to confirm the one is a boy and then slowly introduce the two new girls to each other and then to the outside girls? Gah!

Thanks for any advice!

 

[megpie021]

I just went through the getting friends for the lone chick thing and ended up with extra chicks. Though depending on what Pepper and Licorice do to me it may not be extra. Unless the new neighbors are really going to have problems with it, we didnt see how it would make that much of a difference. We are new to the area, but are pretty sure our neighbors are pretty relaxed about things and they would have a hard time seeing the chickens to count anyway. But now I have 6 week old chicks and week old ones I have to figure out how to get them integrated. I think also you will find these guys to be a bunch of enablers

Not that I dont like that about you all! But just because I gave in to chicken math and listened to the enablers doesnt mean you should. Are you McHenry county then?

@Faraday40 I will get a picture of Licorice's comb shortly they are going to get another outside adventure.

 

[jnckids]

We do our introductions during free ranging and have had no issues. We do however sit outside while they are all playing too make sure we can break up rough pecking order disputes. They eventually all get along.

Also, I wouldn't worry about the number either. Most people don't know the ordnance and don't care to look. I am limited to 12 and no roosters. I have 21 and 2 roosters. Our neighbors are aware of the rooster and we told them to please let us know if he's an issue. But it's been 7 months and they say they've never heard him.

 

[Faraday40]

On Sexing EEs

Here are a few examples of males:
Pics were taken on a hot day, so the comb color was easy to see.

When these 2 golden boys got older, they developed small patches of brick red feathers



This dark one was screaming "I'm a boy!" From day 1 he was always 1st to run up to my hand & was always holding his head up high.



Here are some EE females:




The black female had a wider base by the nostrils & her comb would turn pinkish when hot, however, she clearly had a single row pea comb.



Below is "Omelet" (full sister to the dark male above). Hers was another strange comb because she had a wider top. It looked like an exclamation point.









Omelet started as s a jumbo pink egg in the fridge. DD thought she might get twins, so she she slipped it into the incubator. Instead of breakfast, we got this strange chick. Even weirder is that this ugly chick came from 2 beautiful golden chickens. When she matured, she laid unique dark green eggs.