Are Easter Egger's poor layers?

[Jajika]

Are you serious????? Trim her cheek feathers???

Wow----now I've heard everything.

Never occurred to me. I had another EE, although I didn't know it. I lost her two years ago to my sudden hawk attacks. She also had those fluffy cheeks, but
she was not at all skittish. In fact, she was pretty much in charge.

I have to tell you, you have made my day. Maybe trimming cheek feathers is common knowledge to those who are a lot
more sophisticated and knowledgeable on this board, but this is a first for me.

Thank you for this.

 

[so lucky]

No, I'm not very knowledgeable or sophisticated--I live in Missouri, for heaven's sake!

But if a chicken can't see well, she can't compete with the others for food, to avoid danger, avoid pecks from others, etc. She is always at a disadvantage, so would not be performing at the top of her egg-laying ability, or any other activity. Trimming her cheek muffs is not difficult. Just takes two people and sharp scissors. She will thank you.

 

[they'reHISchickens]

We started with 4 EEs three years ago. Blackie laid pink softshelled eggs every now and then. She found another home as a bug eater. Spreckles laid pretty blue eggs early and fairly regularly altho she molted for 4 months last year. I hatched some of her eggs this year to continue the blue eggs. Cleo'sFriend laid lovely blue eggs. I think she laid 10 this year. ( Yes, you read that right). Neither of these ladies are now with us. With limited space they have to produce or find another home.
The fourth hen Goldie found a wonderful home with a friend's flock last year. While she was with us she was a regular producer of large green eggs. Her molts were short and we hatched batches of her chicks and gave them to friends who are very happy with the resulting layers.
4 hens, 4 very different laying patterns.
Even within other breeds, we are finding very different laying patterns. It helps to lay out your eggs and look for the similar ones( size/shape/shade) to get an idea how many are laying and how often. Some are not economically worth keeping and some definitely should not reproduce.

 

[Jajika]

If you can, you can see pictures of Edwina in my earlier posts. It looks like she can see OK?

What do you think?

 

[so lucky]

Yeah, when I went back and looked at the photos, I didn't see an obvious problem. My girls' muff feathers are/were more prominant. So.....?? I don't know what else to suggest. My runtiest, lowest order EE is not laying at all yet.

 

[Jajika]

Thanks...

She really is sweet and very pretty.

I'm just a softy. I love all my girls and don't need to have them lay as I'm not a commercial operation.

They are just my pets so whatever they do or don't do, I just enjoy them.

I do miss her pretty eggs. We'll just have to see what happens. Strange, though. She was laying really well for a while.

 

[Ogress]

My first 2 EE's that I got from MPC are fantastic layers - they started laying at 18 weeks and each will lay a large green-blue egg every day for sometimes more than 3 weeks in a row, right through the winter, no added heat and no added light (and I am pretty far north and up in the mountains, had a week last winter that get over 13 degrees). The white EE went broody in Feb - no breaking her of it and no fooling her with other chicks. I finally got some fertile eggs for her to hatch and in June she had 4 chicks - best mom for 6 weeks, then walked out on them and started laying again - she gave a big egg every day for nearly a month! Now she takes a break about every 10th day. The other EE was aklso very reliable, but now she is molting, so her production has slowed to maybe 2 eggs per week.

I was so impressed by these 2 that I bought 4 more from a local feed store because I did not want to pay outrageous shipping fees. These girls are bigger, more beautiful EE's with fluffy faces, but they are 6 months old now and I have yet to see a single egg - one of them is starting to get a red comb and has been accepted into the group of other laying hens (they ostracize the pullets while free-ranging), so maybe soon....

Had I read the comments here before shopping for chicks, I would have been wiser and purchased only from my byc buddies.

 

[kmerkley01]

We have 2 EE's. One is the brown and blue/grey color, and she started laying about 2 weeks ago. The other one, who is a gorgeous gold and white, still hasn't laid anything. All 13 of out girls were hatched the first week of April, and all the other varieties have been laying since the end of August/first week of September.

The brown and blue/grey one, Rocky, lays eggs that are the same color as all the others! Pale brown/beige. Flock-wise, she is kind of toward the bottom of the pack. Maybe that plays a roll in it. She is much more shy than most of the others, and a lot quieter. My son is able to handle her, but she prefers to not be handled by anyone else.

HotLips, the gold and white girl, is extremely shy. She is the lowest member of the flock. When the girls are getting treats, she will stand way back and we have to make an effort to toss some to her or she will get none. When we are able to catch her in the coop, she will sit on my lap and quietly chirp/peep, while I pet her. She is too high-strung to feel comfortable being in a nesting box if a human is in the building. So, it will be interesting to see if she produces. I'm sure she will, but she may not end up being a high producing gal. Oh well, she is a sweet, sweet bird so she will have a comfortable life with us no matter what.

Kasey

 

[OldChurchEggery1]

The EEs I have gotten in the past were good layers and that's why I'll put my Wheaten Ameraucana cockerel over them this spring. They might not fit any breed standard, but I'm not going to argue with 4-5 large green eggs every week! By comparison, I bought a lovely pair of exhibition Australorps only to find out the hen put out one small egg a week. That micro-egg would have made for weak chicks, so she didn't stick around long. I used the rooster over my production-grade hens to bring up the size and looks but not totally lose out on the production abilities. There's no point in keeping something around that doesn't pull its weight.

 

[Jajika]

So it sounds to me like EE'ers are like all other chickens...some good layers, others not. Just depends.

Well, so far Edwina started out like gangbusters and has now slowed down.

I'm wondering if over time she became intimidated by the other chickens whereas she
was not before.

Who knows?