Easter egger question

Those of you with Easter eggers...Noodle just started laying about 3 weeks ago at 22 weeks old, layed sporadically for 2 weeks (I think 5 eggs total) and now we haven't seen an egg from her in a week . Is this just normal new layer do you suppose? Or is it because the days are shortening up? Nothing has changed I can think of, and my other 4 (rir, br, wr, dixie rainbow) are laying just fine... I want more pretty blue eggs!! Thanks in advance!

I tihnk it may be because the days are shortening, and maybe she's molting.

Well, she's definitely not molting. She just went through her last juvenile molt right before she started laying. And there are no feathers floating around the coop...
I know I've noticed the shorter days, so maybe she's just sensitive. Do most Easter eggers stop laying all winter?

Easter Eggers generally are not your most prolific layer, and mine didn't lay a whole lot their first winter.

They also take longer to mature...so I think the shortening days hit her wrong...it takes 12 hours to initiate laying but 14 hours of daylight for continuous laying.

If you want eggs through the winter, you will need to add artificial lighting now to extend light to 14 hours. It will take a few weeks to catch up as you would have had to start when the days dropped below 14 hours to keep laying continuous for those breeds who are less prolific through winter.

Your RIR's and Rocks will probably lay throughout the winter without lighting, slowing some but still doing a fairly good job of it.

I've found EE's are just a big more finicky with laying....comes with trying to get color rather than productivity.

LofMc

EE's are hit or miss, I've had some that only layed 1-2 eggs a week and the 3 i have now are laying 5. You never know until they start laying, they do seem to take longer to get leveled out tho .LofMc is right about the light If you want your girls to lay all winter you will need to give them extra light in the am. By Jan I will getting the girls up at 4:30. I don't give them light in the pm because if they are feeding when the light goes out they can't see well enough to roost up and will probably spend the night on the floor instead of cuddled up with their Friends on the roost.

EEs are a crap shoot, but mine were great. I had some in 4 flocks & they laid by 20 weeks & were consistent & some of my best layers. My last group were some of the best layers I have ever had molting for only a month & laying all winter with lights. Give the girl a chance to get regular!

Oh, everyone is so right about EEs and their inconsistencies, even within the same flock. I have 8 EEs - my original 4 from last year and 4 from this year. 3 of last year's flock started laying at about 20 weeks and were amazingly productive. Agatha stopped for a couple of months when she went broody during the late fall, and Daphne stopped about mid-November. Agatha started back up after her chick and was wonderful all through the rest of the winter. Daphne never did pick up again. Sometimes I don't know why she's still out there with the others. <sigh> Out of the latest 4, every one of them is laying very well....nice blue eggs, clean inside and out. Nothing seems to slow them down. Go figger - silly chickens!

What are the characteristics and traits of an Easter Egger? For some people they need to have the blue egg gene, but for others they simply need to have a blue or green egg layer in their ancestry. That is it. There are no physical characteristics required to be an EE. They can be any color or pattern, any size, any body conformation, any leg color, any comb type, any eye color, any ear lobe color, any anything as long as they may or may not have the blue egg gene.

The same is true of their behaviors and productivity traits. They may be passive or aggressive, may or may not go broody, may lay large or small eggs, may lay many or few eggs, may molt fast or slowly, may be at the top, middle, or bottom of the pecking order, may or may not be good winter layers, may or may not be flighty, may or may not be good foragers; there is no telling how they will act or produce just by them being EE’s.

EE’s are not a breed. There are no recognized standards for what makes an EE. I’ll attach a comparison of what makes an Araucana, Ameraucana, and an EE put out by the Ameraucana Breeders Club. I’ll also include a link to the history of the development of the Ameraucana breed from the ABC site. That history cleared up a lot of my misconceptions about EE’s and how breeds in general are developed. For instance, many people think EE’s are made from Ameraucanas. The opposite is true, EE’s were around long before the Ameraucana breed was developed and EE’s were used to create the Ameraucana breed.

EE/Ameraucana/Araucana comparison
http://apa-abayouthpoultryclub.org/Edu_Material/Easter Eggers vs.pdf

Ameraucana History
http://www.ameraucana.org/history.html

Eleaserek, you probably got your EE from a hatchery. If you can tell us what hatchery you got her from others that got EE’s from that hatchery can tell you how their specific EE’s performed. Each major hatchery has had their own EE flock for quite a while and those flocks develop certain traits. For example, Cackle has had their colored egg laying flock from before the Ameraucana breed was even recognized. Over the decades they have developed traits different from the other major hatcheries flocks so they have their own strain of EE’s. That still won’t help you much. Each chicken is an individual. The flock may have certain general trends but each individual hen can vary quite a bit from those trends. You have to have enough hens for the averages to mean anything. One individual hen does not give you enough for the averages to really mean anything, though if you know that specific flock’s traits you can make a guess.

When a pullet first starts top lay you can get about anything. There are a lot of different parts to her internal egg making factory. Sometimes a pullet has to work out some kinks before she gets everything right. It’s kind of surprising how many get everything right to start with. Just be patient.

There are different triggers to tell a pullet or hen to release an egg yolk to start its journey through that internal egg making factory to become an egg. Different hens are affected differently by those different triggers. One of those triggers is light. It could be when the light starts in the morning or it could be the length of the day. That’s part of what determines if a hen is a good winter layer or not. The days getting shorter could have stopped her from laying.

Some pullets will lay through their first winter whether you add lights or not. Some but not all. This is an inherited trait so flock trends can give you some clues to what might happen. As others said, it is a crap shoot. You just don’t know what any individual pullet will do, even from production breeds.

One thing I suggest. Since she just started laying and all of a sudden stopped, you might want to look for a hidden nest. Other than the molt or shorter days, this is probably the biggest cause of a pullet or hen to suddenly stop laying. Since she is your only blue egg layer it is pretty obvious you are not getting her eggs. Other than a hidden nest I think patience is your best approach. Not what you wanted to hear I’m sure. Good luck!

With the addition of single combed breeds of chickens that lay blue and green eggs, eventually we will have clean faced, yellow legged single combed Easter eggers. So the only thing all of the different varieties of Easter eggers will have in common is colored eggs.

This is the rooster I will be using this spring. He is a Cream Legbar/Brown Leghorn cross.

Thank you all for your replies!! I got her from my local Shiptons, so I'm not sure where she came from :/ I suppose I will just have to wait and see what happens. She's always been my flightiest bird, so I guess it doesn't surprise me that she'd also be my most finicky layer
I'm glad to hear that she might just need some time to work things out yet. And if she doesn't end up being a prolific layer, oh well she's pretty to look at!