What do you have in your flock?

[dekel18042]

Well, not every bird will be a bad layer. It's just that I like giving a heads-up for people who find their Amer's or EE's wind up in the poor layer category. Even at their best Ameraucanas only lay about half the year or less. They certainly don't have the White Leghorn reputation for production but the blue eggs (or green) are nice for the little while you get them.

I like a colored egg basket so I have a flock with lots of breeds in it. My EE's are some of my steadiest and best layers and lay extra large eggs. In fact the only eggs I'm getting now are my greens and blues and thankfully some of my white laying pullets from last spring have started laying. I haven't seen a brown or dark egg for a while.
My marans and welsumers have been a disappointment. Beautiful eggs but not many. I'm thinking of going to the dark side and adding some production birds, maybe black sex links, to the flock next spring. And I will get more EE's in a heartbeat.
Many of the birds are coming out of a molt so I certainly hope they start laying again before the days start getting longer.

 

[Sylvester017]

I like a colored egg basket so I have a flock with lots of breeds in it. My EE's are some of my steadiest and best layers and lay extra large eggs. In fact the only eggs I'm getting now are my greens and blues and thankfully some of my white laying pullets from last spring have started laying. I haven't seen a brown or dark egg for a while.
My marans and welsumers have been a disappointment. Beautiful eggs but not many. I'm thinking of going to the dark side and adding some production birds, maybe black sex links, to the flock next spring. And I will get more EE's in a heartbeat.
Many of the birds are coming out of a molt so I certainly hope they start laying again before the days start getting longer.

Well, as I stated not every bird will be a bad layer. The really nice blue layers seem a bit iffy in production. Once you get to more greenish blue to green EE eggs they seem a little better. But overall they are not good during heatwaves. We found our Ameraucanas and EEs went on strike in the heat while the little Silkies were spitting out eggs like no tomorrow. Once it really cools down we hope our Ameraucana will give us another 3 eggs like she did several months ago LOL! Those Amer's and EE's much prefer the cooler weather; otherwise during the hotter days they sit and pant under the mister all day long. The only reason we keep our non-productive 2 y/o Amer in the flock is because she is a nice non-combative flockmate to the others and she chases stray cats out of the yard.

For ourselves we discarded the dark eggs for our basket. The dark egg breeds are meaner to our gentle smaller breeds plus the dark eggers only gave us 2 to 3 eggs per week for the voracious appetite they had - not economical for us.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Down one hen today. We lost the EE that is my avatar.
31 left now. Yes still a lot of chickens but not my little EE.

 

[sherrib0401]

We have
1 Delaware (Angel)
1 Speckled Sussex (Charlotte)
1 RIR (Rosie)
1 White Silkie (Mandy)
1 Splash Bantam Cochin Rooster (Candy)
1 Delaware Rooster (Del)
2 EE's (Haven't named yet)
1 Black Ameraucana (Flower)
2 Flower Frizzles (Delilah & Ash)
1 Swedish Flower Hen (Snow)
1 Olive Egger (Olive)
1 Buff Orpington (Sally)
2 Bantam Mixed Breeds (Alicex2)(There identical)
1 Barred Rock (Ariel)
1 Naked Neck (Nancy)
1 Buff Laced Polish (Chloe)

1 Saxony Duck (Josey)

6 Guinea Fowl


I am planning to add more chickens and ducks next summer and try raising turkeys.

 

[Sylvester017]

Down one hen today. We lost the EE that is my avatar.
31 left now. Yes still a lot of chickens but not my little EE.

How did you lose your sweet EE? How old was she? Amer's and EE's are the sweetest kindest toward flockmates.

 

[21hens-incharge]

She was just 8 months old. She had some obvious genetic issues like split wing and very slight cross beak. She died very fast from being egg bound. She was a little off at 5 am and from where the body was either did not move an inch all day or died soon after I left for work,

I am accepting that I cannot save them all and trying not to beat myself up about it to much.
I have had rotten luck with the ee's. I like them but either they lay eggs with no shell, super thin shells or die young on me. All mine have been from different places so I don't think it is from one bad breeder.

It is so disheartening to lose them like this that I think I wont get more in the future. It is just to sad for me. I had 5 and now am down to 2, none of which are over 5 years old. Elizabeth is the oldest at 5, Whitchy died at 2, Apple died at 2, Victoria is 8 months old, and the Grandma chicken died at 8 months.

They are certainly a perky and attentive type of bird to have in the flock. The one that just passed was super sweet.

 

[2karen22]

ah, sorry. What happen to her? I'm a city dweller and only have 4.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I am in the city too but have much more lenient rules here luckily.

She was eggbound. She was fine Sunday running around like normal doing what she always did then Monday she was off a bit at 5 am and gone well before 3 pm. I had heard it could take them pretty fast I just hoped not to ever have it happen to mine.

 

[Jesusfreak101]

3 white leghorns
2 delewares
4 golden sexlinks
3 rhode island reds
4 bar rock plymouths
2 americanas
2 buff orps
2 silver laced wyandottes
22 hens total.

 

[2karen22]

Your EE reminded me of my first EE. Her name was Sadie Hawk. She turned out to be a he so I had to give him away to a guy who lost most of his flock. She/he was a beautiful bird.