Easter Egger club!

[junebuggena]

Hmmm, cool never heard of that.

Same thing as the typical gold partridge of most Easter Eggers, but with the silver base color instead of red/gold.

 

[chickluvinfreak]

So is this a gold partridge?

 

[Sylvester017]

Thanks, I love theit fluffy cheeks so hearing they don't all have beards is a little dissapointing. My only other EE is a bantam and she lays light green eggs. But this one won't lay for another 2-3 months so I'll be waiting to find the colour out for awhile. Another question I had about the breed is their hardieness. I purchased 4 chicks on 2 seperate occasions. And each time 1 died at less than a week and the other one is fine. The same thing happened with RIR with 2 out of 4 dying at point of lay. Is it a coincidense that I have bad luck with these 2 breeds? Or is this normal?Because I stopped getting RIR but I love EE too much to not get a few more.

I haven't had luck with my Blue Ameraucana or Blue Wheaten Ameraucanas being hardy. They were from different breeders from different States so I can't say it was a breeder's fault. I lost two as pullets and the one Blue Wheaten survivor (my avatar pic) only made it to 3-yrs before we had to put her down at the vet's office from unknown causes - he tried to save her as he tried with my other two Ameraucanas but I haven't had luck with them. I lost a feed store Dominique chick at 3-weeks-old a couple years ago. Bad luck? Bad climate? Bad breed? Bad source? Who knows?

I talked with a Midwest breeder who has an Ameraucana breeder friend who has problems with hardiness. Don't know if it's from limited gene pool, too much line inbreeding, or that these birds just plain ole don't do well in hot climates or some other issues? One breeder processed an Ameraucana roo and found his internal organs unusually fatty which is not good for birds living in very hot climates. My Ameraucana never liked our SoCal humid summers yet she thrived in cool or rainy winters. Unfortunately most of our Calif days are hot and sunny almost year-round so I won't get any more Ameraucanas or Easter Eggers to suffer in our climate - they are just too heavily under-fluffed to be comfortable here.

I've talked with many owners/breeders over the years and there are so many variables where Easter Eggers or purebred Ameraucanas are concerned. Chicks/juveniles in general of any breed are "iffy" health-wise and you never know if they'll all make it to adulthood - barring any obvious health issues like worms, cocci, parasites, injuries, etc, that might interfere with their development. I lost my feed store Dom chick at 3-weeks-old and it was just a fluke seizure - maybe an internal injury I might not've been aware of? Who knows? But that wouldn't stop me from getting another Dom in the future.

My personal luck has been in having Silkies and Bredas health-wise and docile temperament-wise. I also loved our Ameraucana's sweet and non-combative temperament around our Silkies and Breda but I won't have another heavily-downed breed again to suffer in our humid climate. Silkies are fluffy but not heavily under-downed so they do great in our climate. The Breda we like because it is a lightweight large fowl with docile temperament around our Silkies and the egg-production from Breda was a pleasant surprise so we ordered another one when we put down our Ameraucana. We like to keep our little backyard flock at 4 birds exactly ~ 2 birds is not enough and 3 birds always leaves one-man-out, so we found 4 birds the best number for our flock. We are zoned for 5 hens but found 5 birds more than we needed for eggs.

At first 5 years ago I went for a colorful egg-basket with dark brown, bantam, white, and blue eggs. But I found production or dual-purpose breeds too tempted to bully our gentler docile breeds so I re-homed all our dual-purpose or layer breeds and kept only the bantams and docile breeds - but now I've lost our sweet blue-egg Ameraucana. I don't have a colorful egg basket anymore but have a peaceful backyard flock and enough eggs for just the two of us. Our Silkies and Breda are fun birds and very docile and tame. In future I may still try another Dom pullet again as they are a lighter-weight personable fun bird too ~ but that will be a long way off since our current chicken breeds have a lengthy lifespan if there'll be no health issues to interfere with longevity.

I would love an Olive Egger but the birds are crosses with fluffy Ameraucanas or Easter Eggers and I won't subject the under-downed crossed-birds to our climate conditions. Enjoy your Easter Eggers for me! They are such sweet and lovely birds!

 

[junebuggena]

So is this a gold partridge?

Yes. Gold describes the base color. Partridge describes the pattern. She would be wild type partridge since there is patterning across the chest.

 

[chickluvinfreak]

-Sylvester017- Thank you for all that information and your personal experience. I live in Arizona so I know what you mean by hot weather. I lost 11 chickens last summer, only 3 survived. And I really wanted out of the chicken owing buissness. But it's hard to leave so I started from scratch this year. I never thought of EE as a heavy feathered breed and chose them becsuse I thought they would do well in the heat. 1 of the 3 who survived was a bantam EE. But California is more humid so that could be the problem with them their. What is a Breda? Im sure it's a abbreviation, just not sure what breed.

 

[junebuggena]

-Sylvester017- Thank you for all that information and your personal experience. I live in Arizona so I know what you mean by hot weather. I lost 11 chickens last summer, only 3 survived. And I really wanted out of the chicken owing buissness. But it's hard to leave so I started from scratch this year. I never thought of EE as a heavy feathered breed and chose them becsuse I thought they would do well in the heat. 1 of the 3 who survived was a bantam EE. But California is more humid so that could be the problem with them their. What is a Breda? Im sure it's a abbreviation, just not sure what breed.

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/Breda/BRKBreda.html
It's a Dutch breed.

 

[chickluvinfreak]

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/Breda/BRKBreda.html
It's a Dutch breed.

Very pretty. I haven't seen them before.

 

[theuglychick]

I just got a trio of cream legbars to put with my hatchery stock "ameraucanas" / easter eggers.

 

[lovechicks1293]

hey guys/girls, this spring I am going to get chickens for the first time from our local farm store, and I am almost completely sure I want EE's. Can you guys give me tips and facts about them and why you like them? I have already checked the breed forum here but i want more information, I am a book nerd so I like to know all the facts I can!

I will take pics of them once I get them. my other three siblings are getting different types but I'm getting EE's. Two of them hopefully, if my mom will allow....lol. Thanks!

 

[chickluvinfreak]

hey guys/girls, this spring I am going to get chickens for the first time from our local farm store, and I am almost completely sure I want EE's.  Can you guys give me tips and facts about them and why you like them?  I have already checked the breed forum here but i want more information, I am a book nerd so I like to know all the facts I can!e I will take pics of them once I get them.  my other three siblings are getting different types but I'm getting EE's. Two of them hopefully, if my mom will allow....lol.  Thanks!

Glad you decided to get chickens. What did you want to know about them? I wouldn't get 2 chicks though, you should get at least 3 incase you lose one. Chickens are very social and need a buddy if something happened to the other one. If you had 2 and lost one the chick would be all by itself.