Easter Egger club!

[FlyWheel]

@Sylvester017 thanks for the heads up, I'll look out for that. Ol' Red, my Production Red hen, is constantly chasing and picking on the other birds, even the 17 week old EE cockerel who s bigger than she is. They bear no marks from this so I leave it be, it's probably just 'pecking order' stuff anyway. Now my Black Australorp rooster, he challenges ME at every opportunity! He doesn't molest the hens though, not like the last one did. In fact he is very protective of them, which is the only reason I keep him around. Now if he start in with the EE 'Roo, then there is going to be a reckoning because when it comes to breeding I would rather see the EEs genes spread around than the Aussie's.

 

[Sylvester017]

Will do. I can say as of right now, the CMs are the most skittish of all my breeds, but are slowly and grudgingly starting to come around. 2 of my EEs are tolerant of being held and pretty sociable, and 2 are less than people-oriented. But these marans act like I'm trying to eat them alive when I have to pick them up for anything. Drama queens! I got my little CMaran cockeral, that is the same age, from a separate hatchery and he is just as wild but a bit more assertive, so I think it's the nature of the beast... Or bird. I'll keep you updated.

TY! Our CM tolerated treat time from our hand but she was not a friendly sort and didn't crave human attention or touch the way our other breeds did. The teenage breeder we got her from handles all of her hatchlings into adulthood so the CM should've been accustomed to human touch. Our White Leghorn and Partridge Silkies were also raised by the teen and they were more personable than the CM. We thought our CM would lay darkish brown eggs but found she layed speckled brown or sometimes splotchy brown eggs that looked more like Welsummer eggs than the chocolate dark eggs you see in Marans photos. EEs take a long time to settle down and mature but once you hold them they are quite sweet and docile and murmur responses while you softly talk to them. Our Blue Wheaten Ameraucana girl was probably one of the sweetest gentlest hens we ever had in that she was not combative and stood down from challenges by any of the other breeds including the Silkie littles. We loved her for that and we're sad to have lost her a few weeks ago

.

 

[Sylvester017]

@Sylvester017

I have several 18 week old cuckoo Marans x Ameraucana crosses. One male is very mean to the other boys. He's been a fighter since 2 weeks old. Mr. Red, a splash Marans x Ameraucana cross, tried to attack my feet today, but I wouldn't let him. These guys were hand raised. They lived in the house until 7 weeks old. After being put outside they've been visited and picked up at LEAST four of five times a day. Over the last week or so they sort of turned mean. I don't know if it's just because they're young roosters or if it has anything to do with their breed cross. Ameraucanas are notorious for being very docile, so I know they didn't get their attitude from that half.

TY for your input! I like getting feedback from other owners about the behaviors and interactions of their breeds and sometimes I see patterns emerging. I know many breeders say it depends on the breeder's line or that an individual chicken within a breed might be a rogue but IMO there are certain characteristics in certain breeds that seem inherent no matter what kind of line or selective breeding is done. For instance, White Leghorns are notorious for cannibalism or assertive flock behavior so the poultry industry started cross-breeding them in hopes of developing gentler production layers like the California Grays, Austra Whites, Amberlinks, or California Whites.

Our CM was hatched, raised, and handled by a teen breeder who took pride in her flocks. The CM we got from her was never fond of human attention the way her Silkies and White Leghorn from her were. I mean, saying a White Leg was more personable than the CM is saying a lot since Legs are not particularly fond of human handling yet will sit on your arm or lap for treats while the CM would remain aloof. I didn't mind the CM being aloof or standoffish with us but once she started being mean and sneaky cannibalizing our Silkies and attacking them we had enough and re-homed her. She was a large hen, lazy forager, and had a huge feed appetite. Once in a while she layed a #4 solid brown on the egg chart but mostly her eggs looked like speckly or splotchy Welsummer eggs and never the solid chocolate you see in Marans photos. Marans come in beautiful varieties and my personal take is that they should be raised within their own breed or other large dual-purpose breeds to eliminate their temptation to bully smaller or docile breeds in a mixed flock. We've had other large fowl like Ameraucana and Breda that don't take advantage of our Silkie littles the way the CM and eventually the way the White Leg and Buff Legs did.

It's been quite a tap-dancing adventure for us in experimenting with different breeds - White Legs, Babcock Legs, Buff Legs, Cuckoo Marans, RIRs, BRs, Doms, NHRs, Calif Grays, Ameraucana, EEs, Breda, and Silkies. I've also had the pleasure of seeing my friend raise hybrids, sexlinks, EEs, Ameraucana, BCMs, Orps, OEs, Java, and CMs. Our teen breeder source has gone on to college and her mom has whittled down the breeding program to raise only Coronation Sussex now and I was offered a breeding pair from her with the pledge to raise and breed them but I'm not zoned for roos so reluctantly had to pass on that great free opportunity!!! She provides hatching eggs for classroom science and getting Coronation Sussex out in public is providing awareness of this rare Sussex variety.

 

[Sylvester017]

Oh and there names are:acorn(non-bearded.)indigo(bearded)and cinder(bearded)
They all are 8 and a half weeks old!!

Gotta give us pics

.

 

[smellslikechaos]

Regardless of what they are, they're beautiful birds. The one in the bottom pic looks kind of like a bald eagle. Very majestic the only way to know for sure it to wait for the eggs!

Lol it does. They're my favorite ones!

 

[cmccullough1390]

Ok got some new additions to the hen family

Also does anyone know any good ways to tell the difference between an EE and SS chick they're cute but look so close I know they look very different grown up please tell me if I miss labeled

Jamie - speckled Sussex hatchling

Claire - spekled Sussex hatchling

Fox Mulder - Buff Orpington hatchling

https://www.backyardchickens.com/content/type/61/id/7520659/width/400/height/800[IMG]

Dana Scully - Buff Orpington hatchling

[IMG]https://www.backyardchickens.com/content/type/61/id/7520660/width/400/height/800

Howl - Easter Egger hatchling, I'm extra excited about Howl because she has feathered feet I'll get pics as she grows

Unnamed - Easter Egger Hatchling

Unnamed- Easter Egger hatchling

Unnamed - Easter Egger hatchling

 

[Cluckcluck1215]

Gotta give us pics .

Well,here is acorn,I'm thinking she might be a partridge rock tho....

 

[Chicken5555]

TY for your input! I like getting feedback from other owners about the behaviors and interactions of their breeds and sometimes I see patterns emerging. I know many breeders say it depends on the breeder's line or that an individual chicken within a breed might be a rogue but IMO there are certain characteristics in certain breeds that seem inherent no matter what kind of line or selective breeding is done. For instance, White Leghorns are notorious for cannibalism or assertive flock behavior so the poultry industry started cross-breeding them in hopes of developing gentler production layers like the California Grays, Austra Whites, Amberlinks, or California Whites.

Our CM was hatched, raised, and handled by a teen breeder who took pride in her flocks. The CM we got from her was never fond of human attention the way her Silkies and White Leghorn from her were. I mean, saying a White Leg was more personable than the CM is saying a lot since Legs are not particularly fond of human handling yet will sit on your arm or lap for treats while the CM would remain aloof. I didn't mind the CM being aloof or standoffish with us but once she started being mean and sneaky cannibalizing our Silkies and attacking them we had enough and re-homed her. She was a large hen, lazy forager, and had a huge feed appetite. Once in a while she layed a #4 solid brown on the egg chart but mostly her eggs looked like speckly or splotchy Welsummer eggs and never the solid chocolate you see in Marans photos. Marans come in beautiful varieties and my personal take is that they should be raised within their own breed or other large dual-purpose breeds to eliminate their temptation to bully smaller or docile breeds in a mixed flock. We've had other large fowl like Ameraucana and Breda that don't take advantage of our Silkie littles the way the CM and eventually the way the White Leg and Buff Legs did.



It's been quite a tap-dancing adventure for us in experimenting with different breeds - White Legs, Babcock Legs, Buff Legs, Cuckoo Marans, RIRs, BRs, Doms, NHRs, Calif Grays, Ameraucana, EEs, Breda, and Silkies. I've also had the pleasure of seeing my friend raise hybrids, sexlinks, EEs, Ameraucana, BCMs, Orps, OEs, Java, and CMs. Our teen breeder source has gone on to college and her mom has whittled down the breeding program to raise only Coronation Sussex now and I was offered a breeding pair from her with the pledge to raise and breed them but I'm not zoned for roos so reluctantly had to pass on that great free opportunity!!! She provides hatching eggs for classroom science and getting Coronation Sussex out in public is providing awareness of this rare Sussex variety.

Bummer about the marans eggs not looking right. I'll be disappointed if my Marans Ameraucana F1 crosses don't lay as dark as they should. The whole point in having them is to have olive eggs. We'll see.

I too find it fascinating that some breeds, regardless of bloodline, have tendencies toward particular behaviors. My flock is still pretty young so adult behaviors are just starting to show up. The Leghorns are about 8 weeks. For now they are pretty docile and don't mind being picked up. They walk right up to us. But, again, they are still very young. Both of my Splash Marans x Ameraucana pullets are stand-off-ish but not mean. They're actually pretty low in the pecking order. Two of the three blues are quite bossy. I won't know for sure if they're pure Ameraucanas or Ameraucana x Marans crosses until they lay. My fingers are crossed in hopes that they are pure. My 8 week old silkies and Polish get along very well and, surprisingly, my 7 week old guinea keets get along with them too. Who knew, right?

Too bad you couldn't take up on her offer. That would have been so cool. Actually, I hadn't heard of Coronation Sussex before. A friend of mine has a small flock of specked sussex though.

 

[junebuggena]

My Easter Eggers' eggs. R to L; Snowy, Sweety, Tweety, and Margret.
I've got 5 more pullets that have yet to start laying.

 

[Cluckcluck1215]

My Easter Eggers' eggs. R to L; Snowy, Sweety, Tweety, and Margret. I've got 5 more pullets that have yet to start laying.

Cool!