Easter Egger club!

[Chicken5555]

My Marans x Ameraucana mix pullets bullied my young blue wheaten Ameraucana cockerel to death. My Marans Ameraucana cockerels killed my other young blue wheaten Ameraucana through the fence. I don't like Marans at all.

As for being a crazy chicken lady?? My husband and I built a fully wired 640 square foot run with hardwire cloth sunk into the ground and the coop is built inside of the wire enclosure. One 8x8 section is even wired with 1/2 inch hardware cloth on the floor for the bunnies to live safely and happily outside. The chicken count is over 40.

 

[jenniferlamar70]

Ya I don't think anyone here really cares either. I swear I heard a goat while walking my daughter around our area coming from someone's backyard. Still it would be nice if we didn't have to worry about if we are breaking the law or annoying neighbors.

I totally get that. I would love to buy a bigger property but we don't want to move lol.

My Marans x Ameraucana mix pullets bullied my young blue wheaten Ameraucana cockerel to death. My Marans Ameraucana cockerels killed my other young blue wheaten Ameraucana through the fence. I don't like Marans at all.

As for being a crazy chicken lady?? My husband and I built a fully wired 640 square foot run with hardwire cloth sunk into the ground and the coop is built inside of the wire enclosure. One 8x8 section is even wired with 1/2 inch hardware cloth on the floor for the bunnies to live safely and happily outside. The chicken count is over 40.

We free range. I don't think one way is better then the other but I have noticed the birds we free range get along much better then when they were in the coop. Now only the bantams stay cooped up. We do of coarse lock our standards up at night.

 

[FlyWheel]

I don't think you can judge a breed by a bird or two. I have both Easter eggers and cuckoo Marrans in my flock. My top three birds are 1st Marge my favorite and a cuckoo Marans (she is a lap chicken) and 2nd is a toss up between my EE Lady and my Sicillian Buttercup and 3rd is a True Blue Whiting. All the way at the near the bottom of the pecking order is my other cuckoo marans. None of my three EE are at the bottom of the pecking order. And none of the three cuckoo Marans were aggressive either. Actually my EE that's just below Marge is one of the most aggressive females even nipping me at times.

Yeah. It really depends a lot on the chicken. They are definitely individuals. My BA roo is mean as heck towards me,yet the (assumed) BA hen is my friendliest. Thanks for the warning about the Marans though, right now she is the flightiest of the chicks and isn't bothering anyone, but then she's only a month old.

I'll keep an eye out.

 

[FlyWheel]

I live out in the country and can have as many chickens as my 3 acres can hold, but I can still never be a crazy chicken lady.

 

[summerb123]

shoot i am a crazy chicken girl and i put as many chickens as my coop can hold and were fixing to start on another chicken coop

 

[magicstorm]

It's their nature to be ultra-cautious.  It has nothing to do with not liking you -- they take a long time to build trust.  I think it's worth the patient wait and handling because these birds are so incredibly sweet.   I personally don't mix them with common layer breeds like Leghorns, BRs, RIRs, NHRs, Wyans, Marans, etc.  Common layers are usually heavier and more assertive and tend to dominate the gentler nature of the lighter-weight EEs.  My Marans and Leghorns were too nasty toward our purebred Blue Wheaten Ameraucana and I re-homed the bullies.  EEs and Amers are naturally jittery jumpy skittery yet gentle birds who don't need the stress of having to avoid daily conflict with more aggressive layer breeds.  In our smaller backyard environment we didn't have enough space for the Ameraucana to avoid the assertive breeds so we re-homed the bullies and only kept the gentle Silkies and gentle Bredas around the Amer.  It was a heavenly mix of gentle breeds.  There are still pecking orders established with gentle breeds but none of the violent chasing, feather-pulling, or claw attacks like with the bigger heavier breeds. JMHO

I have been lucky so far. I have Ameracauna, EE, SLW, Light Brahmas and a couple of mixed breed all together and everyone does wonderfully together. It probably helps that my AM and EE were the older bunch and in the coop and run first. The Light Brahmas are the gentlest chickens of all. I had a sick one that was out of flock for 3 weeks and everyone accepted it back without even a peck.

 

[AmandaMBG]

I think it's funny to categorize a mutt "breed" as having specific characteristics. I was just watching my EE lady chasing around one of my True Blue Whitings all over. She's been doing it to her all day. Meanwhile my Marans are walking around foraging minding their own business. I have a mixed flock and like you they all get along pretty well wether heavy breed or not.

I have been lucky so far. I have Ameracauna, EE, SLW, Light Brahmas and a couple of mixed breed all together and everyone does wonderfully together. It probably helps that my AM and EE were the older bunch and in the coop and run first. The Light Brahmas are the gentlest chickens of all. I had a sick one that was out of flock for 3 weeks and everyone accepted it back without even a peck.

 

[Chicken5555]

I totally get that. I would love to buy a bigger property but we don't want to move lol.

We free range. I don't think one way is better then the other but I have noticed the birds we free range get along much better then when they were in the coop. Now only the bantams stay cooped up. We do of coarse lock our standards up at night.

I wish I could free range my birds, but there is a pack of stray dogs that passes through here regularly and at least two breeding pairs of hawks that fly overhead all the time. We've killed three huge cotton mouth snakes and ran off two red belly water snakes. The cockerels that are out and about stay close to the goats, but I just don't have enough goats for 40 chickens to hang out under. We lost one pullet to a hawk the same day we tried to free range them. We do the best we can to make sure they have toys, swings, cubbies and things for them to stay busy with.

My kids love catching bugs for the chickens and we give them kudzu or brushy weeds daily to compensate for being locked up all the time. I don't like it, but it keeps them safe.

 

[Chicken5555]

I have two new mystery layers. The lighter of the two was laid right before tropical storm Hermine and the darker of the two was laid after the storm passed. The darker egg was laid after we saw Wormy lay her egg for the day, so we know it couldn't have been hers. After the lighter one was collected we saw Lady Gray and Sassy lay their daily eggs, so it has to be a third aqua-blue layer.
The only two other mixed variety Ameraucanas I have are Renegade and Frass. The way they've been behaving gives me no clue one way or the other! lol The darker one had to be from Miss Kay, Wormy's sister.



left to right - Lady Gray, Renegade, Frass, Jay (Miss Kay and Wormy's sister)
photo bomber = Garfunkel, my Wheaten Ameraucana cockerel


Here is the younger pullet club. After some of the older pullets started laying they decided the nest boxes were a cool place to hang out. Stewball and Paint (the two buff colored ones) even lay in the nest boxes like they're pretending to lay an egg LOL. Pebbles is the Dalmatian looking Australorpington and the leghorns are unnamed.

 

[jenniferlamar70]

shoot i am a crazy chicken girl and i put as many chickens as my coop can hold and were fixing to start on another chicken coop

That's our problem. We have so many coops we are now cutting down and just building a barn lmao.

I wish I could free range my birds, but there is a pack of stray dogs that passes through here regularly and at least two breeding pairs of hawks that fly overhead all the time. We've killed three huge cotton mouth snakes and ran off two red belly water snakes. The cockerels that are out and about stay close to the goats, but I just don't have enough goats for 40 chickens to hang out under. We lost one pullet to a hawk the same day we tried to free range them. We do the best we can to make sure they have toys, swings, cubbies and things for them to stay busy with.


My kids love catching bugs for the chickens and we give them kudzu or brushy weeds daily to compensate for being locked up all the time. I don't like it, but it keeps them safe.

Hey nothing wrong with a coop if thats what keeps them safe. We have been lucky to not have to many issues with predators other then hawks and cats. The cats are the reason I don't free range my bantams. They are safer in the coop so I do what's best for them. We are lucky to have lots of hiding places for the chickens so the moment they spot a hawk the yard is cleared or so it seems lmao.. my standards used to be in a coop also but we ran out of room lol.