Sexing Easter Eggers

[Iluveggers]

Number 1 is for sure a cockerel. Numbers 2, 3, and 4 are also looking like cockerels. Number 6 looks like it may be a slower developing cockerel, but I'm on the fence. Both numbers 5, and 7 are pullets.

Post updated pics of 2, 3, 4, and 6 in two more weeks.

Agreed. The red on the feathers of #1 is a dead giveaway. Glad 5 & 7 are girls for you!

 

[ThePhoebeFive]

Yikes! This is bad! I really hope all of this is wrong, but I trust y'all's opinions. We wanted 20 laying hens. I've got four adults, these seven chicks, one deformed chick that I took in for a friend, and eight I got from my feed and seed. I guess now I'm down by for sure one, probably four, possibly five! Not good!

 

[Iluveggers]

Yikes! This is bad! I really hope all of this is wrong, but I trust y'all's opinions. We wanted 20 laying hens. I've got four adults, these seven chicks, one deformed chick that I took in for a friend, and eight I got from my feed and seed. I guess now I'm down by for sure one, probably four, possibly five! Not good!

I’m sorry. Ideal poultry will ship small orders for $7 (7 chick is usually the minimum), and does a good job with sexing if you want to risk it with another batch of chicks.

 

[ThePhoebeFive]

I’m sorry. Ideal poultry will ship small orders for $7 (7 chick is usually the minimum), and does a good job with sexing if you want to risk it with another batch of chicks.

My feed and seed will probably sell me sexed chicks for 4 to 5 dollars apiece. I really don't like the idea of shipping, just because it makes me nervous.

 

[ThePhoebeFive]

Ok, one more question, though. Statistically, hen-incubated chicks have a higher girl rate than boy. These seven were hen-incubated. (There were four other viable eggs that failed because I staggered my hatch, which I shouldn't have done with a hen. It was kinda dumb on my part. ) Shouldn't more of these have turned out to be girls, statistically?

 

[ThePhoebeFive]

Ok, one more question, though. Statistically, hen-incubated chicks have a higher girl rate than boy. These seven were hen-incubated. (There were four other viable eggs that failed because I staggered my hatch, which I shouldn't have done with a hen. It was kinda dumb on my part. ) Shouldn't more of these have turned out to be girls, statistically?

The reason why I mentioned the four that didn't make it was because I guess those could have all been girls.

 

[Painted Calls]

Ok, one more question, though. Statistically, hen-incubated chicks have a higher girl rate than boy. These seven were hen-incubated. (There were four other viable eggs that failed because I staggered my hatch, which I shouldn't have done with a hen. It was kinda dumb on my part. ) Shouldn't more of these have turned out to be girls, statistically?

I've never heard this before. Where did you hear this?

 

[ThePhoebeFive]

I've never heard this before. Where did you hear this?

It was sort of one of those internet finds, but when I started asking more experienced people I know, they agreed. (One of them raises and sells chicks and she uses both an incubator and hens, so she's gotten to kind of experiment with both.) I think it is the temperature specifically that determines the chicks sex.

 

[NatJ]

Ok, one more question, though. Statistically, hen-incubated chicks have a higher girl rate than boy.

The sex of each chick is determined before the egg is laid.
Neither a hen nor an incubator is going to change the sex of the chick as it incubates.

We KNOW that chicken sex is determined by genes, not incubation temperature, because of all the sexlinked crosses. The Z and W chromosomes determine the sex, and carry some of the color genes.

(There were four other viable eggs that failed because I staggered my hatch, which I shouldn't have done with a hen. It was kinda dumb on my part. ) Shouldn't more of these have turned out to be girls, statistically?

The reason why I mentioned the four that didn't make it was because I guess those could have all been girls.

That is a possibility, but not guaranteed.
A 50% chance of each gender can still give you very uneven amounts sometimes, especially with small numbers.

 

[NatJ]

She has her daddy's comb. The chart I looked at called it a buttercup comb, but it is very similar. It is three ridges, the middle is largest. It is hard to see in the picture, but I just looked at it closely.

Three ridges is pea comb. Three ridges with the middle being highest is definitely pea comb.
Easter Eggers often have pea combs.

Buttercup comb would have a tall ridge on each side, and be low in the middle.
Someone could breed an Easter Egger with a buttercup comb, but I've never heard of it happening.

If you found a chart showing a buttercup comb having three ridges, with the middle one being highest, then the chart is wrong.