Easter Egger club!

[mymilliefleur]

I think my 5.5 week old Easter Egger is a roo. It's much more aggressive with the other chicks and the physical appearance is questionable. No crowing yet. Opinions?

Hmm, I see a reddening comb and rusty red patches on it's shoulders, so I'm going to say rooster. It still early to be 100% sure, but chances are very high it's a he.

 

[Sylvester017]

I have 3 speckled Sussex in my EE dominant flock. those 3 hens are my trio of bulleys. They don't mess with the two older hens or the Brahmas though.

When I think of gentle giant Sussex I think of the light color varieties like Lt. Sussex or Coronation Sussex. I am not familiar with the darker colors like Speckled and have no idea what breed was crossed with it to get the speckling. One chickeneer once said she thinks any red color chicken is a bully as her experience was that all her red-colored breeds were mean LOL!

In observing our own Ameraucana and my friend's Amer and 3 EEs, these birds seem to avoid other breeds of chickens. My Blue Wheaten Amer girl (my avatar) approaches me for her treats and to carry on a conversation with me but the moment another chicken in the flock approaches she's gone! We've noticed at feeding times Amers/EEs will hang back until all the others have eaten first. It doesn't help to have more than one feeding station as all the aggressive birds will hoard ALL the stations from the timid Amer/EEs. Sometimes EEs will press forward if they are really hungry but easily chased off again. We can't figure out why except that it seems to be the nature of the breed to be extremely non-combative and they would rather flee than fight.

 

[chick rookie]

The Amers are hard to think about getting rid of. My friend and I each have Amers and additionally EEs and they're all duds in egg laying after year two but they are such sweet birds we don't have the heart to get rid of them. We feel sorry for them because they are such frightfully timid creatures. When she's not in the doldrums from heatwaves or molting, in her better moods our Blue Wheaten is excellent at chasing stray cats out of the yard and even the Silkies will join her in the fright-fest to scare away the felines! Sometimes the pesky Mourning Doves get driven off too.

The Ams and EEs obviously fare better in cooler climate zones so I won't torture any more of these great birds in our humid SoCalif climate. At least I got one great year of blue eggs from our girl before she quit laying. I have an older Silkie that was similar. She was a prolific egg-layer her first year and then slowed down considerably her 2nd year and now only lays a couple dozen every Spring and goes broody with no more egg-laying until the following Spring. Meanwhile we have another Silkie that is a good egg-layer throughout her 4th year which we thought was pretty good for a broody-type bantam. Our newest pullet is a Breda and she just started laying her little white eggs - very sweet temperament, calm, regal, and much more approachable and unafraid compared to the jittery jumpy Amer.

We hoped to have a colorful egg basket of chocolate, blue, white, pink, brown, green, and tinted eggs but those hopes were dashed when we had to re-home our Marans because she was a large heavy bird and a bully and had to give away the aggressive Leghorns. After seeing how bully breeds can harass each other and pick on smaller gentler breeds we decided to keep only the docile gentler breeds in the backyard and keep them at 5-lbs and under. There are gentle giants like Australorps, Brahma, Dorkings, Sussex, etc, but being so large we were afraid they would do the chicken thing and be tempted to pick on our littles. We were excited to have our Blue Wheaten because she was lightweight, a non-combative flockmate, and gave blue eggs but now she doesn't lay any more. Our Dominique died before POL. So there went our chocolate, brown, blue, and white egg layers all in one year! Having more chickens would ensure a better production but we're zoned for only 5 hens and no roos so we're getting very few eggs depending on the whim of very few hens.

Hope you can find a viable location for Shaniea. It's so stressful finding that magical solution!

I have BA's and LB also I agree on the BA's being a genital giant but my LB's are a mean bunch. But the LB's are from a hatchery, that ( I'm told ) may have something to do with it.
I just did get some BCM's and just yesterday a splash Maran pullet but none are laying yet, but am looking forward to the Chocolate eggs. my BR's all got old and the last one dies unexplained a couple mths ago, so my pink eggs are gone, will get more next spring.My SF's aren't laying yet but should be soon unless winter puts a stop to it.
So far so good with Shaniea being housed with the Juveniles, she allows them to sit almost on top of her on the perch at night, they fight to see who gets to sit next to her, she seems to enjoy being the most important one in the house... lol

Not all Marans are "bullies" I have three that are as sweet as can be. They only get bossy when they are broody. I have Ameraucanas that don't seem to like the cool climate at all. They stop laying at the first sign of fall and don't lay all winter. My EEs are much better layers.

So far mine are laying and it has been getting down in the high 30's at night. Hope it keeps up.

I have 3 speckled Sussex in my EE dominant flock. those 3 hens are my trio of bulleys. They don't mess with the two older hens or the Brahmas though.

speckled Sussex are on my wish list for spring.

I agree that the EEs don't do well in that kind of heat. We had crazy hot/humid weather in Seattle this year. My EEs would be the first ones in the coop and would just stand there on the top roost panting all afternoon. Clearly they don't understand that heat rises.

I was surprised they still laid as well as they did all summer,but they all survived and are now half naked due to the molt.

I had hens doing this summer so I put a fan on low in their window, it seemed to work for them. I got good egg production even through h hottest days, and we had quite a few 100+ days this year.

 

[chick rookie]

When I think of gentle giant Sussex I think of the light color varieties like Lt. Sussex or Coronation Sussex. I am not familiar with the darker colors like Speckled and have no idea what breed was crossed with it to get the speckling. One chickeneer once said she thinks any red color chicken is a bully as her experience was that all her red-colored breeds were mean LOL!

In observing our own Ameraucana and my friend's Amer and 3 EEs, these birds seem to avoid other breeds of chickens. My Blue Wheaten Amer girl (my avatar) approaches me for her treats and to carry on a conversation with me but the moment another chicken in the flock approaches she's gone! We've noticed at feeding times Amers/EEs will hang back until all the others have eaten first. It doesn't help to have more than one feeding station as all the aggressive birds will hoard ALL the stations from the timid Amer/EEs. Sometimes EEs will press forward if they are really hungry but easily chased off again. We can't figure out why except that it seems to be the nature of the breed to be extremely non-combative and they would rather flee than fight.

which is 1 reason ours have their own pen, that and I sell hatching eggs. Come to think about it any red bird I have ever had was MEAB also, I hated my RIR's ... I wont have 1 now.

 

[Sylvester017]

which is 1 reason ours have their own pen, that and I sell hatching eggs. Come to think about it any red bird I have ever had was MEAB also, I hated my RIR's ... I wont have 1 now.

This may have nothing to do with aggressive birds but we found all the straight comb hens were our meanest bullies - Barred Rock, RIR, NHR, Marans, Leghorns or any of the Mediterranean class, even some of the Orps. I received a lot of owner feedback also that Wyans have tendencies to be mean.

So I went in the opposite direction of having only gentle walnut, pea-combed, or no-comb breeds (Silkies, Ameraucana, Breda) but egg production is not as good with these breeds. Out of our Silkies we have one terrific layer and one that only lays a couple dozen every Spring. The Ameraucana hasn't layed in months! The Breda just started laying so time will tell how good she'll be in the long run.

Our Marans was mean, a so-so layer, and not very dark eggs. Our Leghorns were terrific layers year after year but they didn't play nice in a flock environment. We sacrificed our good egg breeds in order to have a more peaceful gentle backyard flock. It was tough to give up consistent egg layers and dual purpose LF but nice that we don't have to monitor the bully dual purpose birds any more.

 

[jerryse]

This may have nothing to do with aggressive birds but we found all the straight comb hens were our meanest bullies - Barred Rock, RIR, NHR, Marans, Leghorns or any of the Mediterranean class, even some of the Orps. I received a lot of owner feedback also that Wyans have tendencies to be mean.

So I went in the opposite direction of having only gentle walnut, pea-combed, or no-comb breeds (Silkies, Ameraucana, Breda) but egg production is not as good with these breeds. Out of our Silkies we have one terrific layer and one that only lays a couple dozen every Spring. The Ameraucana hasn't layed in months! The Breda just started laying so time will tell how good she'll be in the long run.

Our Marans was mean, a so-so layer, and not very dark eggs. Our Leghorns were terrific layers year after year but they didn't play nice in a flock environment. We sacrificed our good egg breeds in order to have a more peaceful gentle backyard flock. It was tough to give up consistent egg layers and dual purpose LF but nice that we don't have to monitor the bully dual purpose birds any more.

Faverole is a very gentle single comb breed .

 

[Sylvester017]

Faverole is a very gentle single comb breed .

Yes, I know - I seriously researched Favs but our climate is too humid to keep muffed/bearded/fluffy girls. I think the Favs are adorable!

 

[newmarch2014]

I think my 5.5 week old Easter Egger is a roo. It's much more aggressive with the other chicks and the physical appearance is questionable. No crowing yet. Opinions?

Getting spots of red very bright comb and that looks like 3 rows on the comb to me, I would be suspecting a rooster, give it a couple more weeks to see what develops.

 

[schradersl]

Mine are lazy. Only got 5 eggs out of three of them this season. Poor producers. My Red Stars lay every day.

 

[draye]

Here are my up and coming Easter Eggers:

Yes they all have Naked Necks. I took my Easter Egger hens and bred them to a Naked Neck roosters. From the offspring, two of the 7 I kept laid green eggs. I hatched out some babies from these two hens bred to a Naked Neck rooster. I'm waiting until they ( the pullets) start laying to see if the blue egg gene passed to these.

You can read about them in this thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/939680/green-egger-naked-neck-thread/180#post_15940084.

ENJOY!