UPDATE: 11 Week Old EE Gender Check *PICS ADDED*

[debid]

Pictures make all of the difference!

Hootie definitely DOES have a beard & muffs. Those feathers come in after the head feathers and I can see his/hers just starting to emerge under the eye -- looks like a charcoal gray beard is on its way. It's less obvious on Clover but she may have a small beard as well once the emerging face feathers come in.

ETA: and I'd say boy on Hootie, girl on Clover.

 

[hokankai]

Quote:
I hate to disagree, but you can actually pretty accurately tell an EE's gender by how they are colored. For example: Ivy is a red female, and Hootie is a red male.

You can tell by the wing bow. If you look, you can see that Hootie's coloration is very different, even though they are both 'red' EEs. Hootie has red that is leaking into patches on his wing-bow. If we could see his chest, it would be the same color as that leaking rust.

Now Ivy, however, only has the red on her head and chest, while the rest of her body is a tidy wild-type pattern. She will not have any splotches of red leaking onto the wing.

It is true that EEs are very mixed, and that you can have coloration sexing break down if there is too much mixing, but hatcheries tend to keep within 1 to 2 generations close to the EE 'ideal' ( ie muffs, willow legs, blue-green eggs, pea comb).

I hope that helps clear things up a bit.

Thanks! My only qualm with this is that Clover and Hootie are not hatchery birds, they were hatched from sky blue colored eggs by a broody hen from some older guy in the next town over, which is why they've been throwing me off. Hootie's chest feathers are the same black laced reddish brown feathers, you can see them in the picture of his/her face

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

They're at an awkward age to try to determine sex, and even beards/muffs. Pure Ameraucanas tend to almost completely lose their face fluff while they go through their gawky adolescent stage, and then grow big full beards/muffs that you never would've guessed they would have. That being said, if they are clean faced as fluffy chicks, then that doesn't hold true, clean faced fuzzy chicks = clean faced adults. I would guess roo on Hootie right now due to comb color alone, but the feathering has nothing to do with it for me. Give it a few weeks and repost pics, you might get completely different answers...

 

[hokankai]

Haha, will do! Even if Hootie turns out to be a roo, we have room for a boy! Big Baby won't be staying, but if we do get a roo he can stay

 

[hokankai]

UPDATE on the first post, with new pics

 

[Happy Chooks]

Pullet, pullet, roo.

 

[hokankai]

Quote:
This would make me very happy!

 

[hokankai]

Any other opinions? I'd LOVE for Hootie to be a female, but I don't want to get my hopes up either :S

 

[BrownSheep]

From what I've learned three rows on the comb means roo and one row means hen

 

[hokankai]

Quote:
I read that you can't really depend on the 3 row rule as there are exceptions. It should also be stated that these were bred with someone's backyard flock rather than the standard hatchery mixes...which is why I need a little help.