My sister and I had two Easter Eggers (we called them Araucanas because the feed store probably sold them as such) when we were kids and both hens were great pets (one was buff orange, the other brown with gold neck feathers). We let our chickens free range then and my EE hatched out a batch of chicks once or twice. I recall one time when a large hawk landed on a fence post to check them out. We heard a ruckus and came running outside to find the hen jumping up at the hawk to scare it away. The babies were nowhere to be found, but after the hawk left momma chicken called them out from the shrubs where she'd told them to hide. She'd also allow us to hold them and play with them without a fuss. Great mother hen. Now I have two Easter Eggers who are about 3 months old. One is gold and brown and she will let me hold her but prefers to just hang out around me or sit on my shoulder. The other one is mostly white with some rusty-dusted feathers and smoky gray neck feathers (really neat color) and she will come up to me and ''whine'' until I pick her up and give her snuggles. So very different personalities, but both very tame and comfortable with me. The only reason I state the roosters are aggressive is because we adopted one from some friends of ours and he was always terrorizing us as kids, and the other was a street chicken on my block who terrorized the neighbors (but I was older at the time and simply picked him up to show him I wasn't afraid of him. After that, he was reluctant to attack me). Things might have turned out differently if I had been the one to raise either of the boys from eggs (most of the roosters I've raised since eggs or day-old have turned out great).
Some of the best Birds I have had they lay better than my Rode island Reds, are so sweet and gentle, they forage well over a large area I love this breed.
I absolutely love my EEs! They are sweet and smart. They have learned tricks for treats and were easily trained to go into the coop as raised them in the house as chicks. I had 11 and would lay up to 9 eggs a day most days. My girls lay pink, blue, green, and "taupe" colored eggs. I recently lost 5 of my flock due to a bobcat attack and am currently incubating more. I would love to introduce a roo to my flock because I would be devastated if I lost any more of my "originals" and want to carry on that bloodline as they are all sisters. They are great with my niece and nephew. I think they are a must for any flock.
Great description. We wanted to have colored eggs in our breed selection we picked the Ameraucana to our growing flock we got 43 40 Hens 2 Roosters and a tiny little one who we say is a surprise as we cant tell yet at 11 weeks we do hear someone in the coop trying to crow and we think it is our little surprise. this is our primary set up. our Main Hen house holds 100 Hens side coop holds 20 and we have separated coop/runs for each breeds roosters.
I have two of those and I love their personality. They are my favorite breed and I love the colorful eggs!
I have to say Easter Eggers are probably my favorite "breed", I love all of the randomness of the colors and how much each chick is a surprise as to what it'll look like. I had 3 Easter Eggers in my original flock of 10 (which sadly had to be rehomed when we moved), and now have 7 more EE chicks out of 21 total. Of the original 3, 2 were the friendliest of the flock and were happy to be handled, and the other one was the least friendly of the entire flock and would scream and run if you ever managed to get close enough to touch her. That's what I mean about variability, it's lovely in the colors of the birds and the eggs, but if you want consistency then this is not the breed for you. The new chicks are still too young to assess but no one has the same color pattern.
Cons - Ours don't lay very many eggs, usually you can barely tell their eggs are blue, ours are all skittish.
Ours are very pretty birds, but ours egg colors aren't my favorite, and ours don't lay very often. Ours our very very skittish. Some like to free range, most like to stay in the barn and barnyard...
Their eggs are large and have green shells. Everybody I sell eggs to LOVES getting the green ones. The eggs almost cannot fit in the carton! I wish I had gotten more Easter Eggers! Everyone loves Eleanor! She's so friendly too! She comes right up on my lap as soon as sit down. She also lays her eggs very quick! I saw her sit down and come right back out and there was a nice green egg right there in the nesting box. I've heard they sometimes can suffer from a cleft pallet. Eleanor did not have that problem but it's common in Easter Eggers.
