Easter Egger club!

[ochochicas]

Stopped by TSC today to look over the EE selection . Did not have any . Plenty of other chicks . They said one more shipment and they are done for the year .

Our stores will be done the first weekend in May (2 more weeks). Since I have two dozen chicks I've been unable to find homes for, it will be a good thing when I don't have to compete with the feed stores. They are EEs, too. I'm tired of cleaning the brooder!

 

[serama mamma]

Any other chick pictures? I am drooling over all the pretty birds that are here. I can't wait to get some.

 

[cicknmama]

This is my second year of owning hens, and my EE's are still outperforming my Buff Orphington, Black Australorp, and Light Brahma. My EE's, Archaeopteryx and Salem, lay a blue egg and cream egg, and both are always the biggest at around 65 g. or higher. The BO lays close to that size sometimes, but her eggs are uh, "special" (usually torpedo shaped and the last one was flattened!) but infrequently. The BA lays about 60 g. eggs but not as often as the EE's, and the LB lays as often as the EE's, but she lays the smallest eggs! (and she's of course the biggest of the lot too!) Today was a five egg day so I got a pic of all the eggs.

By the way, some time back I saw mention of breeding RIR to EE's to make olive eggers...That won't work so much. Sure, you'll get olive-ish eggs, but more in a murky kind of way. The way the best olive eggs come about is by breeding excellent blue color to copper marans that have as dark a color egg as possible, since they'll be lightened up by crossing with as light an egg color as blue anyway. Depending on how dark a brown your RIR lays, you might just end up with a muddyish brown egg.

By the way, my one EE is proof that while the blue egg gene and the pea comb are really close so they nearly always travel together, there IS a bit of drift (15% I think?) which is why every now and again you get an EE with muffs, beard, and pea comb but they lay a cream colored egg like my Salem. (or why you end up with a beardless straight comb hen that lays blue eggs)

I have a 6 week EE with muff to early to tell the comb? Are you saying this combo will lay a cream egg? Also have a first year hen with no beard or muff with pea comb and lays blue eggs. Love my EE's.....can hardly wait for them to lay...so fun getting colored eggs!

 

[ameliadanielle]

We started out with 3 easter egger "hens". The two I was sure were hens (beautiful lavenders) got got by an owl or hawk. The one that remains... I'm believing she may actually be a he. I haven't named it yet, I'm still hoping for a hen, it's about 8 weeks old and has had that red comb for around 3 weeks already and the tail feathers seem suspect as well.

 

[lightchick]

My two EE chicks! Cessy 2 wks 6 days (top) and Pippi 1 wk 6 days (bottom).

 

[serama mamma]

They are so cute! I love it when they are just getting their small little tails in. It is so precious. Post some pics when they are growing up so we can see how they are coming along.

 

[Gryphon]

I have a 6 week EE with muff to early to tell the comb? Are you saying this combo will lay a cream egg? Also have a first year hen with no beard or muff with pea comb and lays blue eggs. Love my EE's.....can hardly wait for them to lay...so fun getting colored eggs!

The Comb should be pretty easy to tell if it's a pea or not, especially if you compare it to chicks with standard combs. Sorry about the confusion, it's actually MORE likely that your hen will lay a blue egg if it has a pea comb. The muff/beard tend to be inherited along with the the pea comb, but they're independent of the blue egg gene. The comb however sits close on the genome for blue egg laying, so they almost always travel together. There's that "almost" part though, so people who constantly cross out a blue egg layer with a brown egg layer will end up with a pea comb hen that lays brown eggs, a regular combed hen that lays blue eggs, and mostly hens with pea combs that lay blue eggs.

 

[mymilliefleur]

@lightchick, Your chicks are so cute!

 

[vpatt]

My two EE chicks! Cessy 2 wks 6 days (top) and Pippi 1 wk 6 days (bottom).

So cute!! I really love my 8 week old EE roo Julio ....he is really sweet. The girls are not quite as friendly.

 

[duluthralphie]

My two EE chicks! Cessy 2 wks 6 days (top) and Pippi 1 wk 6 days (bottom).

I love the pictures, It appears Cessy is going to be a little trouble maker.. Is Cessy a boy? (just guessing based on the thickness of his legs)