Easter Eggers

Pretty feather colors, nice size blue egg and good layers.

These are definitely one of my top favorite breeds! They tend to have the silliest and sweetest personalities. I love the colored eggs, and they are reliable layers. My Easter Eggers don't love to be picked up and handled, but they love following me around the yard and sitting in the grass close by me. You literally can't go wrong with these birds!

For some reason, In my experience, Ameraucanas have just been more docile. Even they come from the same order, and breeding place, I've just found EEs to be more skittish. Also, people commonly mistake them for an actual breed. An Easter Egger is an Ameraucana that doesn't fit the breeding standards of Ameraucanas. For example, if your hen is an "Ameraucana", but doesn't have tufts and a beard, then it is an EE. Also, there is only a few colors that are "true Ameraucana", so if you have any different colors, then it is an EE. Here is the website to find the breed standards: http://ameraucanabreedersclub.org/standard.html

I have 8 chicks now about 10 weeks old. 4 roosters and 4 hens. They are amazingly neat for chickens. Meaning they don't poop on everything all the time like some breeds. I have a rooster and a hen which are very friendly and a few somewhat friendly and some that are really skittish. They are beautiful birds with amazing color variety.

Love my Easter Eggers, sweet, adorable, quirky birds with great personalities. Although I advise get a nipple waterer especially if you have these birds because they get their birds all wet and dirty with other waterers.

My EE gives me little room to complain about her.


PROS:

Her eggs are SO beautiful and they catch the eyes of visitors frequently, and she is quite diligent in her laying practices.

She is the most animated of my girls. Whenever I walk to the coop, she flies onto a perch on the side of the run immediately in hopes of catching the first glimpse at the morning veggie haul.

I appreciate how cold-hearty she is. I trust her beard and pea comb to shelter her from any mildly frosty weather.

She is a funny-looking girl, but in the most wonderful way. I really like how all EEs seem to have different patterns and colors. Her beard makes me laugh.
The roosters are breathtaking!


CONS

She is quite flighty and if she wanted to she could EASILY scale an 8+ foot fence. I keep an extra eye on her while she is ranging. I have trouble catching and handling her, which can be problematic. She stresses much more easily than my other birds and is always the first to run from anything scary, which can be a pro for ranging.

She is the scrawniest of my birds. She feels less hardy overall and she is somewhat smaller, although this is not reflected in her eggs.

Her beard gets muddy, especially after rain or eating something sticky, like watermelon. This is not a huge deal, but sometimes it becomes a health hazard and I need to clean it up a bit. I do not believe that most people have this problem. I just live in an area with a large quantity of precipitation, and maybe my EE is just messy.


Consensus: They are awesome birds and I would recommend them to anyone wanting to get chickens or add more girls to their flock after disclosing some of the mild problems I have with mine.

I have a couple EE's and they're so sweet and friendly! They love hanging out with humans and they're beautiful eggs make the egg carton a whole lot brighter!!! I would definitely recommend these to a friend who's new with chickens. My neighbour has a couple EE's and one of them is really aggressive but the rest are so friendly. I find that mine don't lay a whole lot but my neighbours get tons of pretty blues and greens.

EE's are not a true breed sure, but they are favorites in our household anyways! Finding out what color eggs you will get from these hens is so much fun! No way to know until they lay though. I have heard many method people use to try to predict the egg color (e.g. "ear" color, feet/leg color, etc.). None of them have ever been successful (apart form the odd coincidental correct guess lol). So don't bother trying to pick chicks that are going to lay certain colors because it they won't cooperate. =D

The only true con for me is that all the EEs that I have had tend to be a bit skittish. They don't like to be handled, petted, held. They were all raised from day old chicks and handled exactly as my other breeds were, and the others turned out to be super sociable and love to be held. But, my EEs will scatter if I try to handle them. None of them are in any way aggressive and have never tried to bite, they are just very shy.

They lay about 5-6 eggs a week, which is pretty good. Two out of three of my EEs lay large-jumbo eggs (a medium-dark brown and a mint green), but my third EE has always laid a small sized pink egg. The only reason I don't trade her in for another is because the color is so beautiful.

One of my EEs has gone broody a few times (really irritating),. We tossed her off the nest, but she kept coming back so we eventually just gave up and let her work it out of her system.

Overall, we do love our EEs, and will always have them in our flock no matter what.

We have found our Easter Eggers, Henny and Arlo, to be very good egglayers. Henny lays a delicious, mint green egg and Arlo lays a large, light brown egg. Once you catch them, they are happy to chill with you and are very friendly. Both of our EE's have been shown through 4-H and both did well behavior wise. I can trust them to not attack me or anyone else who comes in the pen with them. They are also happy to get along with our other chickens and seem to be committed brooders. They are very beautiful birds and definitely a favorite among visitors.

Unfortunately, our Easter Eggers love to fly out of their pen and visit the neighbors. Once out, they are very difficult to catch and act like little turds. They often times make hard-to-find nests where they lay their eggs, and it is definitely a time-waster to go out there and try to find their nests. We have clipped both of their wings on each chicken, but it didn't help one bit. One other con that I could think off was that the Easter Eggers can be difficult to catch no matter if they are in their pen or not. Once caught, they are fine though and act like the most social birds ever.

These are very fun birds to have around, and I would definitely recommend them to any flock owner!

I've had several of these chickens. The free rooster I got from the hatchery looks like the one in the main photo. I also have a red one. The hens are all unique. They have the same basic characteristics, but the details are different so you can tell them apart easily. I get blue, mint green and pink eggs. They seem to be fox magnets though. I have figured out best practices so I haven't lost any lately. I look forward to getting more. Pet class, here I come!

Overall I love the breed! I only have one but I had 5!
I didn't have really good luck with my Easter Eggers! I had EEs 4 die and 2 other birds that I loved also died! I hope an outbreak doesn't ever happen again! My Easter Eggers were the first to catch the disease but they were young!! But back to the positive side! I love the last little EE I have! As for me in Mississippi, it gets pretty hot! You have to make a greater effort to keep them cool! As for me I put ice cubes in her water.

My little girl, Pepper Is spoiled. She has worked her way into every bodies hearts! Pepper is very smart! I let her out a lot and I call her name and clap and what do you know...she is just a running! She never strays far from me! Not to mention her habit of getting picked up! She will get your attention! She does it by making these funny honking noise and gently pecking at my leg. If you don't pick her up she will get annoying! So you better pick her up!

She is a cuddler! she will hide her head in my arm or hand and fall asleep!

You have to be careful with what breeds you put Easter Eggers with! You should NOT put them with meaner chickens! They will just pick on them! They did that with Pepper! A good breed to but an Easter Eggers with is Polish (Crested)! My Polish rooster treats Pepper like royalty! He treats her daughter! He has never pecked her! Believe it or not he had he was never raised with chicks! I know this is not a Polish review but if don't have a Polish you should get a Polish and if you get a Polish then you should get an Easter Egger!

pics of pepper:

I have raised Easter Eggers in various climates and they have done well in all. They have been very predator aware, yet seem to remain more friendly than many others. They are consistent layers of good sized eggs, even though they are often smaller bodied than some of my other breeds. When I need to keep them confined to coop and run, they do well, and stay put, which is very important to me. When I allow them to free range, they rarely lay their eggs outside the coop. I do find it disappointing that they are often sold as other breeds by hatcheries, and you may purchase them thinking at all of your birds will lay a certain color or size of egg. As they are crossbred, you may not get the same results with birds from other hatches or hatcheries. With this in mind, I will always have these great little birds around!

If I was going to have only one breed forever, it would very likely be EE's. If I sit down outside, I've got 5 chickens trying to fit on my lap! They are one of the few chickens I let little kids hold. EE's are also very smart. We got one of those fly-screens that hangs in front of a door, and Tiger figured out how to walk through it, so she could lay eggs in the house!!! Being a true spoiler of chickens, she was made a nest in a box on the couch, and laid there almost every day till mom said "NO!" Their fluffy faces make for hilarious photo ops, too . If they look at you just right, you get two big eyes, tiny beak and muffs (aka "cuteness). The worst downside is they like things consistent. They are easily thrown off cycle by weather changes, coop switch, etc.Two of them are little wimps - one peck in the box and they go outside to provide an "Easter egg hunt." As far as roosters go, the best 3 things about them are they are easier to sex when young, they are calm/friendly (if kept low on the pecking order), and they make good meat birds. Fowler was way to rough on the hens, and he couldn't decide whether to be tough guy or pet. His good side was he would only eat out of your hand when you filled up the feeder.

This is the breed for beginner chicken keepers, especially if they want pets.


Silly Lilly, not called so without reason


Caroline, being a well-mannered house pet


And ka-poof, the mommy's girl/lap chicken

I have 3 Easter eggers. The place I got them at said Easter eggers/Ameruicanas but I was told they are Easter eggers. They are smart and always find a way into the coop when they are locked out...by flying over the fence. They are also really cute cause they have puffy cheeks and pretty feathers. We get lots of greenish blue eggs almost daily. They do good in the winter and in the summer. They are great hens.

Easter Eggers are among my favorite birds. I have at least twenty in my flock and have had many more in the past. They are beautiful and hardy birds, and the majority will produce a very beautiful blue or green egg. I've found about 5-10% will produce a tan or tinted egg instead. They make a truly wonderful addition to any backyard flock, and I would certainly recommend them. They do have a few downsides however; a notable one is their recent tendency toward flightiness. Since they are more of a type and not a true breed, they have always been variable in personality, running the gamut from lap chickens to downright unhandleable. However, in recent years they have ranged more and more on the skittish side. Not to say that they can't be tamed or you won't find a calm one, but more than half of the ones I have encountered the past three years have been quite shy. Additionally, they are harder to sex than other breeds. I can't say why, but I can say that in the batches of three or four hundred sexed pullets of various breeds I see go through my workplace every month, we always end up with four or five Easter Egger "oopsters" and yet only one or two cockerels of other breeds. They also take longer to sex accurately and are really one of the only breeds that can fool me these days. And lastly, they are a not a purebred and so are not a good choice for those interested in exhibiting their birds, but this isn't relavent to most backyard keepers.

Overall, I would recommend them to the backyard keeper, provided you are OK with a bird who may require extra handling to be so friendly as most other breeds, and have considered your options should you end up with an "oopster."

I had a Easter Egger for 7 years and she was the most friendly chicken ever! She would let me hold her, she would jump through hoops, sleep with my dogs, and go with us on vacation! But sadly she was killed by a hawk and me and my family were heart broken . The thing you need to do is be with them a lot when they are younger and then you will have a stronger bond with them and they will be very friendly!

I love my three Easter Eggers, Brownie, Cinder, and Indigo!
Cinder^^

Indigo^^

Brownie^^
They are so friendly and I just want more!they add so much color to my flock!

As with many, I bought my EE under the tag of an Araucana. It didn't take long for me to realize I bought an Easter Egger. She has by far the longest tail of all my chickens, you'd think she was a Phoenix.

Lets start positive. She has beautiful colors, she starts white at the head and gradually works toward a black tail. Additionally, she lays regularly. This summer most of the girls have slowed down because of the heat, but she's been pretty consistent.

The negative for me, may not be an issue with others. That being said, I'm not a fan of how flighty she is. I eventually just clipped her wings, she would jump two fences to get into my garden. Second, her eggs are really small. Only slightly bigger than my Silkie (which are bannies). She also isn't as friendly as you'd expect. As chicks we handled them daily. I got her with a Buff Orph, and the Orph loves to be held and will come up and jump in my lap any chance she can. The EE will eventually follow suit, but only if the Orph is there first. I think she's just making sure the Orph isn't getting food without her. She won't come to me w/o the Orph there first.

None of the comments are deal breakers, she will be part of the collection for a long time. But if I could do it over, I'd not have gotten the EE.

I have 2 EEs and they are awesome! They both are the sweetest things, and they very very goofy. Ill just be sitting outside and one of them will hop up on my lap and decide to take a nap. I was also pleasantly surprised how soft their feathers are.

Love them and most certainly recommend them.

More pros:
Have awesome beard/muffs, love cuddles and a pretty/adorable!