Easter Egger club!

[AuntNomi]

here's a pretty EE cross (with Iowa Blue)

Very pretty EE you have!

 

[ChickNanny13]

As you may already know I'm not a fan of mixing non-combative gentle purebred Ameraucanas or the related EEs with heavier dual-purpose breeds like RIRs but the fact that you have more than one EE to pal around should help keep the breeds out of each other's hair in flock politics. Our Ameraucana is an only Amer in our flock because the other two died as juveniles -- she is just too docile, skittish, and careful about tip-toeing out of the way of the other breeds. She's not afraid of us humans but she bolts away from the other hens. It seems to be the nature of the breed to be wary of everything. When a dog attacked our friends' chicken coop the only 2 birds to survive the 5-bird flock were the EEs. These girls can hang onto high thin wire with those long strong toes to stay out of reach of jumping dogs. They inherently monitor potential threat and avoid danger with great agility. Not 100% of the time but often owners report their EEs/Ams are the best and quickest at escaping predator attacks. The first year we had our Amer she looked like a blur flying, running, and jumping across the yard all day. Your EEs are lovely - I bet you'll find them one of the sweetest birds. I love all chickens but was amazed at how incredibly sweet and kind these girls are. They would rather flee than fight a challenger.

Sorry for a response, ended up having to visit Urgent Care, next year I'll take the Flu Shot....Thank you for you complement on Dusk & Tawny, you are right, they are the sweetest & Hubby's favorite although he's the one that wanted RIRs. I prefer Orpingtons but due to their size decided so go 'smaller', the breeder had were RIR & AM (she swears), so got 2 of each. Dusk hangs out with Ehu & Rojo a lot, it seems Tawny's the 'lookout' or leader of the pack. For sure when it comes to food, she's the first one there . Thought of rehoming the RIR but they all seem to get along (so far) but if there's an issue, they'll be the ones to go. Think there's safety in numbers Never tried introducing new birds to what I have, heard it's not that easy so hoping there's no issue with this guys.

Thanks, Happy New Year

 

[goldie1234]

Here are the eggs from my EEs! They started laying Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. They've both laid almost everyday since. The second pic is the eggs next to my leghorn (huge eggs).

 

[newmarch2014]

Oh my, those really are huge eggs! My EE's lay a much smaller egg, you are lucky.

 

[Sylvester017]

Sorry for a response, ended up having to visit Urgent Care, next year I'll take the Flu Shot....Thank you for you complement on Dusk & Tawny, you are right, they are the sweetest & Hubby's favorite although he's the one that wanted RIRs. I prefer Orpingtons but due to their size decided so go 'smaller', the breeder had were RIR & AM (she swears), so got 2 of each. Dusk hangs out with Ehu & Rojo a lot, it seems Tawny's the 'lookout' or leader of the pack. For sure when it comes to food, she's the first one there . Thought of rehoming the RIR but they all seem to get along (so far) but if there's an issue, they'll be the ones to go. Think there's safety in numbers Never tried introducing new birds to what I have, heard it's not that easy so hoping there's no issue with this guys.

Thanks, Happy New Year

Sorry you were ill. I had a painful intestinal bug before and through the Christmas holidays so a flu shot wouldn't have helped. I don't get flu shots because invariably it never covers the viruses we happen to come down with! Last year's flu cocktail they admitted wasn't covering the strain of flu going around last year. They 2nd guess what flu will hit hardest during flu season but they don't always get the guesses right.

With your breeds you have 2 of one breed and 2 of another breed and raised together with no new additions which should work for you. You're correct about having heavier birds like Orps. Heavier birds, even gentle temperament ones, will try to bully smaller or timid breeds just because they can - it's a chicken thing. My friend's Orp and Marans were top hens in the flock and sometimes were cruel - they were both large heavy birds and the EEs stayed far away from them as possible.

Usually the true temperament of breeds don't emerge fully until their mature adulthood at about 18 months to 2 yrs old. My White Leg was 3 yrs before she started going bonkers on her flockmates and I had a Buff Leg that went bonkers at 1 yr. Our Marans was heavy and vicious to flockmates. I've re-homed all my dual-purpose and egg-layer breeds and have a more unique docile breed flock (Blue Wheaten Ameraucana, Blue Breda, and 2 Silkies).

I just decided to keep the gentler smaller breeds in our yard and have no breed over 5-lbs. I was going to add a Dominique since I've had the gentle breed before, but the current 4 birds are doing so well I will wait until I lose one before adding another bird. No dazzling egg basket of chocolate to blue egg colors any more but I'm ok with having peace in the flock. My older Silkies out-produced all my other breeds over the years and Silkies are supposedly broody which cuts into their numbers - but you couldn't prove it by my Silkies!

2.25-oz blue Ameraucana egg, 2.0-oz tinted Buff Leghorn eggs


Our Breda's first white egg which are 1.75-oz today and one of our larger 1.3-oz Silkie tinted eggs.


1st dark egg - Marans; 2nd white egg - White Leg; 3rd tinted egg - Buff Leghorn; 4th-6th tinted eggs - Silkie


Our largest eggs were from the White Leghorn consistently 2.25-oz eggs the 3 years we had her and she layed almost every day. The Marans at 18 months old layed about 2 eggs per week, sometimes 3, but she was a heavy 7-lb bird and that's not an unusual egg number for Marans - her eggs were almost 2.25-oz. The Buff Leghorn layed about 2.0-oz tinted eggs and rarely weighed more than that and her production was about 4 eggs a week. Our Ameraucana only layed for about 5 months her pullet year - pretty blue eggs at 2.25-2.3 oz eggs but then she only layed 3 eggs her 2nd year and stopped. We've had no eggs from her after those 3 eggs! Very poor unreliable layer and I won't get any more blue-egg gene breeds. Not only the unreliable egg-laying but 2 out of 3 of our Ameraucana juveniles from different breeders died rather promptly - not a hardy breed in my experience.

Our 2 Silkies have produced for 5 yrs with regular 1.25 to 1.5 oz eggs. Silkies are broody but being the largest bantam breed their eggs are also the largest bantam egg so we've been happy with them. The yolks in Silkie eggs are as large as regular egg yolks so when we use their eggs we just add a little more egg white to a recipe (egg whites we get from the store dairy section). The Silkie eggs fit perfectly in our Egg Genie egg poacher cups where Leghorn eggs would not fit and overflowed.

I love chickens but have come to realize that all breeds aren't compatible in my backyard.

 

[Sylvester017]

Here are the eggs from my EEs! They started laying Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. They've both laid almost everyday since. The second pic is the eggs next to my leghorn (huge eggs).

Gorgeous green eggs! My Blue Wheaten Ameraucana occasionally layed pretty blue eggs slightly larger than our White Leghorn and she layed often, once 8 days in a row! However, her 2nd year she only gave us 3 eggs and stopped for the year. Hope your EE track record of laying is better than my Ameraucana's!

 

[Amelia Egghart]

Goldie! Those are monster sized green eggs! Beautiful

 

[Birdsage]

I like Easter Eggers because they lay colorful eggs!

 

[boomercide]

My 2 EE lay a pale pink egg kinda looks like my Whyndotte eggs I'm hoping when I get my 6 new ones this spring I can get some colorful eggs

 

[chick rookie]

Hi pep's,

Just wanted to pop in and say HI. hope every had a great New Years day and hope the year to come is kind to all...

I have alot to catch up on here, with the barn accident and then coming down sick on top of it all I've just not got the chance to get on.