Easter Egger club!

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Sylvester017 said:
We acquired a Cuckoo Marans pullet and added her to our flock. I read how calm and easy-going Marans were and outwardly she appeared nice although rather aloof toward us humans. About 2 months after she joined the flock I noticed our Partridge Silkie was losing fluff and attributed it to molting. After 3 months of the Cuckoo joining the flock our Silkie went completely bald with missing body fluff and missing tail fluff. Dumb-bell me added a second Silkie pullet to the flock and we noticed right away that the new Silkie's feather were not very fluffy all of a sudden. When the sneaky Cuckoo viciously outright attacked the new Silkie pullet until the little bird screamed was when we realized our ignorance!



This is the ultimate damage the Cuckoo Marans did to this Silkie. It's a wonder this poor little girl survived the Cuckoo's chewing off her comb (never grew back) and chewing off her crest, beard, tail, and body feathers. The Cuckoo was calm while foraging with the flock but at night she would roost next to a Silkie and yank out its fluff and chew off its comb!


This photo shows the gradual damage the Cuckoo Marans was doing to the Silkie where we ignorantly thought it was molting. Notice the crest and beard disappearing, the thinned out body fluff and the unevenness of the chewed off tail fluff. Even her leg and toe feathers were disappearing. The poor little thing was slowly being eaten alive!



This is what our sweet little Silkie looked like at 6 months before adding the Cuckoo Marans. I will never have another Marans as long as I live. My friend had to re-home her Black Copper Marans hens because they were too large and aggressive with other breed flockmates. As a side note, we also had to re-home our White Leghorn and Buff Leghorn because they were yanking out the Silkies' and the Ameraucana's beards/muffs. We no longer meld aggressive dual-purpose or egg layer breeds with our gentle breeds. We learned the hard. Ameraucanas or Easter Eggers are so timid they get easily picked on by the heavier dual-purpose or egg-layer breeds and I won't ever trust Marans again - Marans need to be in a flock of their own after they reach maturity - as pullets they're fine in a mixed flock but they start getting too bold as they mature.
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I'm beginning to see that in my BCM's as well, I think they will be put up for rehoming soon. And I just got a OE roo to try and get me some OE hens with the BCM's. Well have to see if I can use a different breed to get them.
 
Hello! I have six chickies, three Welsummer (one a roo) and three EE's (also, one a roo)! They are about three months old now an these six are my first experience of being a chicken mommy and I am in love with all of them, but especially my EE ladies! The EE roo is a bit of a spaz, therefore impossible to catch and louder than my doggie when he howls! But I wouldn't give him away for anything, he is the most entertaining to watch and listen to. My two EE ladies are the most loveable and cuddly of my bunch. One in particular, Dinner ,aka Blondie, is the one who follows me around and will fall asleep in my arms. When I get more chickies, I will most likely only get more EE's!

Names:
Breakfast (left)
Lunch (top right)
Dinner, aka Blondie (not shown, but looks just like her sister, top middle)
Fourth Meal (to the right of Lunch)
Dale, Jr. (black and white)
Suzie (dark roo on the right)

I know, I know, horrible names, especially since they will never be consumed, but I have a bit of a dark humor streak in me. ;)

 
emily1885 said:
Hello! I have six chickies, three Welsummer (one a roo) and three EE's (also, one a roo)! They are about three months old now an these six are my first experience of being a chicken mommy and I am in love with all of them, but especially my EE ladies! The EE roo is a bit of a spaz, therefore impossible to catch and louder than my doggie when he howls! But I wouldn't give him away for anything, he is the most entertaining to watch and listen to. My two EE ladies are the most loveable and cuddly of my bunch. One in particular, Dinner ,aka Blondie, is the one who follows me around and will fall asleep in my arms. When I get more chickies, I will most likely only get more EE's!

Names:
Breakfast (left)
Lunch (top right)
Dinner, aka Blondie (not shown, but looks just like her sister, top middle)
Fourth Meal (to the right of Lunch)
Dale, Jr. (black and white)
Suzie (dark roo on the right)

I know, I know, horrible names, especially since they will never be consumed, but I have a bit of a dark humor streak in me. ;)

Click to expand...

Suzie ? A boy named Sue !
lau.gif
 
emily1885 said:
Hello! I have six chickies, three Welsummer (one a roo) and three EE's (also, one a roo)! They are about three months old now an these six are my first experience of being a chicken mommy and I am in love with all of them, but especially my EE ladies! The EE roo is a bit of a spaz, therefore impossible to catch and louder than my doggie when he howls! But I wouldn't give him away for anything, he is the most entertaining to watch and listen to. My two EE ladies are the most loveable and cuddly of my bunch. One in particular, Dinner ,aka Blondie, is the one who follows me around and will fall asleep in my arms. When I get more chickies, I will most likely only get more EE's!

I wanted to try having a dark egg layer and got a Cuckoo Marans that neither layed dark eggs nor was she a very nice flockmate to other birds. That's when I wondered if dark egg laying Welsummers might be better temperament birds but then decided I wouldn't have any more dual-purpose or egg-layer breeds and re-homed all my LF.

However, our Blue Wheaten Ameraucana was too sweet to re-home. She turned out to be a dud at laying (only 3 eggs her 2nd year) but she is such a pleasant bird and a kind flockmate to the other birds that we kept her. She is kooky, spooky, jittery, jumpy, skittish, alert, wary, but that makes her a very good sentinel/guardian since she is always aware of everything around her. She runs from noises, fluttering tarps, other chickens, but she'll come up to me for treats, petting, and let's me pick her up. But if another chicken approaches, she'll bolt. This is the most skittish breed I've ever had but also one of the sweetest, most nurturing, kindest chickens I've had.

OurFlyBabies.com says they keep Blue Wheaten Ameraucanas because they are nurturing and willingly accept orphaned chicks or injured birds into the flock without incident where other breeds are not so nice. My friend had an Ameraucana and several EEs and loved them for being non-combative birds. They aren't prolific layers like other egg layer breeds but they certainly have the best temperament of any breeds we've had. Just have to keep in mind they are probably always going to be jumpier than any other chicken - it's the nature of the breed and something we've gotten accustomed to.
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Pacha danced at Abigail. That hilarious little booty shaking, is one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life. I've never seen a Roo do that. That's normal, right? I walked in on what was apparently a private moment, between the two of them. I apologized and walked right back out. As soon as I did, the dancing started up again
1f606.png
 
ChickChuck22 said:
Congratulations! That's one of things I love about EEs, they may look the same but suddenly you'll find a green and a brown in the nestbox! Those are pretty eggs :)
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thank you! The darker egg looked like her first because of the weaker shell...she was trying to escape to the neighbors yard today to explore a nesting site so I had to lock her and her sister up in a run with a new nesting box (both are very adventurous) and finally they layed their eggs! The lighter egg laying sister started laying earlier but took a break (or was a bad girl and layed in the neighbors yard). In any case, I'm happy seeing my ee hens finally laying those pretty eggs their known for;)
 

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