So you think, "Gee golly Bob, wouldn't it be neat if we could have some chickens that laid colored eggs, how cool would that be?!" Well let me tell yah...maybe it isn't all that "cool/neat" in actual practice to have those colored Easter-egger eggs depending upon how many chickens you can keep and what you need.
We have had a total of 4 EE's in our time: 2 were cockerels and 2 are hens. My husband and I hatched out a batch of EE's and sold most of them. We also purchased some EE's from a hatchery a couple months later as well. The cockerels became food once they revealed their gender, but what is important to note is that one of our hatchery EE's and one of our hatched from a farm EE's both had mild scissor beak that became apparent around 3-4wks of age. It isn't bad, but I did read EE's can tend to suffer this sort of issue more often.
Our EE hen named Freckles with mild scissor beak (hatchery stock) is a total ding-dong and lowest on the pecking order. I thought she was a roo for the longest time as a pullet because she is the gangliest darn bird I ever saw. I think her slight scissor beak gave her cross eye vision because that silly bird can't aim at a small sized treat she wants to pick up to save her life...always takes a few tries. Freckles is super gentle though and when you pick her up she would never even think of flapping her wings in your face and isn't ever rough or pushy. She is the quintessential nerd back in school that wears glasses but has a sweet personality and can be secretively clever at times. She doesn't lay super well, but lays MUCH better than our other EE hen named Midge. I would say Freckles gives us an average of 3 eggs a week, maybe 4 on a good week (and this is during spring time laying/peak). It is hard not to love her sweet demeanor. She could almost be considered an olive egger with the color of her eggs. Freckles was 30 weeks old before she began to lay.
Our second EE Midge we hatched and she is sooo beautiful and petite. She has lavender feathering with buff lacing and a dark grey head. She is one of the smartest chickens and hands down our most cuddly! We can carry and cuddle and pet her whenever and she will talk to us about her day. She doesn't really "boc, boc" like most chickens. She is quiet but when talking to us makes a "squeaky, squeaky, sqweh, squeeeaaakk" kind of conversational chatter. Don't let Midge's smaller size and extra snuggly nature fool you though, she is quite a brute underneath. If any of the other girls tries to dominate her she beats them up good till they learned their lesson. She goes on the hunt for blood and will eat huge slugs. I accidently got a baby quail in her path once and it was attacked and chewed up for dinner so quickly it was too late by the time I blinked my eyes. Midge is a horrible, horrible layer though. She laid for a month about 3 days a week then stopped for two months. She lays probably 2 eggs a week. May need to cull her before this winter, but for now her charming personality and awesome foraging skills combined with her smaller size are keeping her in good favor.
Due to the laying issues with our EE's and how long they can take to even begin laying (begin to lay on average at a much older age than many breeds) we won't get more again unless we know that their main use is to lend their sweet & goofy personality more than to be a productive bird.
We have had a total of 4 EE's in our time: 2 were cockerels and 2 are hens. My husband and I hatched out a batch of EE's and sold most of them. We also purchased some EE's from a hatchery a couple months later as well. The cockerels became food once they revealed their gender, but what is important to note is that one of our hatchery EE's and one of our hatched from a farm EE's both had mild scissor beak that became apparent around 3-4wks of age. It isn't bad, but I did read EE's can tend to suffer this sort of issue more often.
Our EE hen named Freckles with mild scissor beak (hatchery stock) is a total ding-dong and lowest on the pecking order. I thought she was a roo for the longest time as a pullet because she is the gangliest darn bird I ever saw. I think her slight scissor beak gave her cross eye vision because that silly bird can't aim at a small sized treat she wants to pick up to save her life...always takes a few tries. Freckles is super gentle though and when you pick her up she would never even think of flapping her wings in your face and isn't ever rough or pushy. She is the quintessential nerd back in school that wears glasses but has a sweet personality and can be secretively clever at times. She doesn't lay super well, but lays MUCH better than our other EE hen named Midge. I would say Freckles gives us an average of 3 eggs a week, maybe 4 on a good week (and this is during spring time laying/peak). It is hard not to love her sweet demeanor. She could almost be considered an olive egger with the color of her eggs. Freckles was 30 weeks old before she began to lay.
Our second EE Midge we hatched and she is sooo beautiful and petite. She has lavender feathering with buff lacing and a dark grey head. She is one of the smartest chickens and hands down our most cuddly! We can carry and cuddle and pet her whenever and she will talk to us about her day. She doesn't really "boc, boc" like most chickens. She is quiet but when talking to us makes a "squeaky, squeaky, sqweh, squeeeaaakk" kind of conversational chatter. Don't let Midge's smaller size and extra snuggly nature fool you though, she is quite a brute underneath. If any of the other girls tries to dominate her she beats them up good till they learned their lesson. She goes on the hunt for blood and will eat huge slugs. I accidently got a baby quail in her path once and it was attacked and chewed up for dinner so quickly it was too late by the time I blinked my eyes. Midge is a horrible, horrible layer though. She laid for a month about 3 days a week then stopped for two months. She lays probably 2 eggs a week. May need to cull her before this winter, but for now her charming personality and awesome foraging skills combined with her smaller size are keeping her in good favor.
Due to the laying issues with our EE's and how long they can take to even begin laying (begin to lay on average at a much older age than many breeds) we won't get more again unless we know that their main use is to lend their sweet & goofy personality more than to be a productive bird.
