I've been noticing a lot of posts lately in which people are asking about the gender of their 3 month old Easter Eggers. There is a misconception that curved tail feathers at that age indicate a cockerel. This is simply not true! At the age of 11 to 14 weeks, the birds are not sexually mature, nor do they have the correct feathering of a mature bird. Let me share some examples from my own birds.

First we have a 12 week old Easter Egger pullet. Please notice the top tail feathers curving downward, and the absence of any other tail feathers below the curved ones. This is because her tail is not complete! She will continue to grow in the tail feathers over the course of the next few weeks.

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Here is her flock mate, also 12 weeks old. It is easy to see that their tails are not completely grown in yet.

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Just to compare another breed I am including this photo of one of my Buckeye pullets, also 12 weeks old. Some might see "cockerel" just based on those curved tail feathers. Again, her tail is not complete! And it won't be for a few more weeks.

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Here are some of my 18 week old pullets. Note the tails on these two. They are no longer curved, but now are blunt and look like a hen's tail feathers. These girls are not quite at POL but are very close. They have complete tails now.

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Another photo of the same 18 week old pullets.

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A front angle of the 18 week old pullet comb; notice it is cherry red which is what it should be. You can't always judge sex by comb color! Pullets almost to POL have very bright cherry red combs!

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Now, to address the issue of hackle feathers. Going back to my 12 week old pullets, you can see penciling on the hackle feathers, which look pointed. Again some would say "cockerel", but no! The penciling creates the illusion of pointed hackle feathers. Upon close inspection you will notice that the hackle feathers have a light red edge to them that is definitely rounded. You have to look closely--don't be fooled by the penciling. Those hackle feathers are round.

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You can also use feather color to determine sex. Males carry the silver gene. Here is a shot of a cockerel at 11 weeks. Notice there are no sickle feathers in his tail and his comb is NOT very bright red. His sickles started coming in 2 weeks later. Look at all the silver on him as well as the emerging duck wing pattern on his wing feathers and small patches of red on his shoulders. Only males can have those colors in those locations.

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Here is the same cockerel shown below at 8 weeks. The duck wing pattern on his wings is not visible yet. Also, cockerel tails come in much slower than pullet tails, and this is often an indicator of gender in as young as a few days! I have successfully sexed my own EE chicks at two days old. I look for the silver (white) color that only the males can have in certain areas.

I also look at the size of the shanks (legs) as males are typically much bigger boned than females.

The last thing I look for is how much space is available for the comb at the very top of the head where the feathers part. The males have a larger open featherless area where their combs will fill in. The pullets have almost no space available for a comb and some appear to have no combs at all at one day of age. Unfortunately I don't have photos to show to help explain what I look for.

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Here’s my EE cockerel Sage at 33 days. Notice the size of his shanks! His unmistakable cockerel comb is easy to see. His tail is non-existent at this age. But look at all the silver in his wings and neck along with splotches of black and an emerging duck wing pattern. He’s going to be a huge rooster. He weighs 19.9 ounces at 33 days!

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I'm hoping this helps answer some questions! I know it is very frustrating to try to sex Easter Eggers. Pay attention to things like size and body carriage and make notes of what you notice on day one, then update your notes as the chicks grow. You will be surprised how easy it is to sex them if you pay very close attention and watch them each day as they grow.

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Update on the 12 week old pullets shown at the beginning:

At 18 weeks, the first group of EE pullets have now finished growing out their tails. Here’s a photo of the one with the black head feathers shown at the beginning.

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She now looks like a pullet with the blunt tails feathers. Here’s a photo of her flock mate, the red head (also at 18 weeks).

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Her tail feathers are grown out nicely as well. Note the penciling in her hackles—still very pointed looking, but the edges are indeed round