Easter Egger club!

[mamatink7]

Some breeds do seem to get along better than others. I've been reading the Bielefelder thread and those big dual purpose birds seem to have a good disposition. The Bielies are just a bit too heavy and big to keep in my tiny backyard. Some owners swear their Brahmas are gentle giants but again not for my tiny backyard. My reason to have chickens is to have pets first, eggs second. I cycled through 14 chickens in 5 years to get down to the gentle 4 hens I have now. The jittery jumpy nature of EEs or Amers never seems to go away -- they are ever-watchful and overly-cautious -- they do get tamer around humans but sudden movements or sounds will still upset them. Being skittish is just their nature. I discovered when I had the heavier dual purpose or assertive layer breeds my Amer would not come up for treats with the group. After I re-homed the assertive heavier breeds into a friend's laying flock, my Amer started to approach for treats with the other gentle chickens. Even gentle breeds have to establish pecking order for smooth flock politics but in my case when the bigger heavier breeds matured by 2 or 3 yrs old their temptation was to harshly bully the smaller breeds -- I didn't want 7-lb chickens bullying smaller gentler 2-lb or 4-lb birds so I eventually had to re-home all the production and dual-purpose breeds. I don't mind the smaller or medium eggs in order to have a peaceful backyard. Before we re-homed the bigger breeds our Blue Wheaten Amer would never come this close at treats time! Here she is hearing her name to get her treat. The birds know to wait til they hear their name to reach for their treat. (it takes time & patience). This Buff Leghorn turned out overly aggressive toward our Silkies and Ameraucana chasing and pulling out crests and beards so she was re-homed at one-year-old. This White Leghorn was a gentle flock leader for 3 years but then she turned too assertive toward her flockmates. I choose to re-home aggressive birds before any injuries happen. My yard isn't big enough to divide big birds from my smaller gentler breeds. This Cuckoo Marans was my only experience with Marans. My friend had several Cuckoos and BCMs and we re-homed all of them -- big bullies and a bit more stand-offish compared to other large breeds. These are good hens to keep in heavier breed flocks but not with bantams IMO. This is what the 7-lb Cuckoo Marans did to our 2.5-lb Silkie on the roost at night before we realized she was NOT moulting - poor thing! I was new at backyard chickens 5 yrs ago and this incident made me aware of watching out for injurious bullies.

that kind you, definitely given me some things to think about. Our BCM, turned out to be a rooster. As of right now, he's safe.

 

[jenniferlamar70]

Poor Nero, my nearly buttless beauty! He's down to two main sickle feathers. Luckily it looks like he's in for a long molt rather than a fast and furious one. Anyone have any terrible EE molters?

Yes our oldest girl is molting something fierce right now. I freaked out thinking something got a chicken because there were so many feathers lol. Nope just blue hahaha..

that kind you, definitely given me some things to think about. Our BCM, turned out to be a rooster. As of right now, he's safe.

Our bcm rooster is the sweetest rooster out of them all. He loves snuggles and actually gives hugs. He is just a big baby. Definitely worth waiting to see if they stay sweet. I've actually has really good luck with all my marans. I have 2 cuckoo marans, a few olive egger roosters, black copper maran father and a bcm. All sweethearts so far. I keep mine in a mixed flock of about 40 chickens. They even got along with our polish bantams. We've always made sure they have lots of space though. I don't think they would do good in a small coop together.

 

[mamatink7]

Yes our oldest girl is molting something fierce right now. I freaked out thinking something got a chicken because there were so many feathers lol. Nope just blue hahaha..
Our bcm rooster is the sweetest rooster out of them all. He loves snuggles and actually gives hugs. He is just a big baby. Definitely worth waiting to see if they stay sweet. I've actually has really good luck with all my marans. I have 2 cuckoo marans, a few olive egger roosters, black copper maran father and a bcm. All sweethearts so far. I keep mine in a mixed flock of about 40 chickens. They even got along with our polish bantams. We've always made sure they have lots of space though. I don't think they would do good in a small coop together.

I agree. He's the sweetest and loves attention. 19wks tomorrow and starting little aggression but that's jealousy I believe. Boy he sure don't like bright colored shirts!! Ran straight into hubby other day.

 

[jenniferlamar70]

I agree. He's the sweetest and loves attention. 19wks tomorrow and starting little aggression but that's jealousy I believe. Boy he sure don't like bright colored shirts!! Ran straight into hubby other day.

That's funny you say that. My polish freaked out when he saw the red feed scooper lol. We carry ours around for awhile if they show any aggression. It seems to help alot. It doesn't last forever but it's kept it from escalating to where we would have to get rid of them..

 

[mamatink7]

That's funny you say that. My polish freaked out when he saw the red feed scooper lol. We carry ours around for awhile if they show any aggression. It seems to help alot. It doesn't last forever but it's kept it from escalating to where we would have to get rid of them..

lol definitely not the only one. We do it too.

 

[Sylvester017]

that kind you, definitely given me some things to think about. Our BCM, turned out to be a rooster. As of right now, he's safe.

When chickens are young they don't seem as badly aggressive as when they get older established personalities and start realizing they can push their weight around. Our Cuckoo hen was just ornery, lazy, sneaky, and not people-friendly although she was raised/handled from hatch by a 4H student . The Cuckoo tried to usurp the White Leghorn alpha's authority but the little spunky thing put the Cuckoo in her place. When the Cuckoo couldn't defeat the Leghorn she decided to chew on the Partridge Silkie and the Silkie was scared to death of the Cuckoo -- during foraging the Silkie stayed next to the Leghorn where she felt safe. When we added a second Silkie juvenile and noticed she was losing feathers too we just chalked it up to juvenile molt. In hindsight we realized the Cuckoo was chewing on BOTH Silkies on the roost. When the Cuckoo outright viciously attacked the 6-month pullet Silkie until it screamed that's when we realized what an obnoxiously dangerous hen the heavy Cuckoo was. She was about 2 yrs old at the time and we immediately re-homed her into an egg-layer flock with other Cuckoos and BCMs.

Our yard is too small to divide gentle breeds from assertive dual purpose so we decided to keep just the gentle smaller breeds. We found the Breda and Ameraucana to be gentle birds around the smaller Silkies and are expecting a new Breda pullet this week. Just when I ordered the Breda a couple months ago the vet had to put down our ill Ameraucana girl so now I'm sadly down to 2 Silkies and 2 Breda. My friend wants to re-home an Ameraucana hen who was the healthy lone survivor of a coop dog attack but I can't handle quarantine for 2 different birds right now. I have waited so long for my new Breda pullet that all my energy will go into socializing her and getting a vet visit done and learning her diet preferences - Breda are a bit fussy about their diet and seem to prefer seed or dry rather than produce or wet food. It's a good thing my flat tire happened today and not tomorrow when I'll need the car early for picking up the pullet at the post office!

Anyway, that's my story and just passing on info that might be similar to someone else's situation

. We all have different area space, breeds, numbers of birds, so circumstances will be different from story to story.

 

[Elemes]

I'm just going to leave some pictures of my cute (but unknown mixed breed) chick right here.

Just turned 2 weeks old!

 

[cmccullough1390]

I'm just going to leave some pictures of my cute (but unknown mixed breed) chick right here.

Just turned 2 weeks old!

Looks an awful lot like an australorp

 

[Sylvester017]

Has anyone ever created an easter egger leghorn mix? I'm curious how well they would lay...

What I wonder is which temperament the chicks will inherit -- the sweet cautious nature of the gentle EE or the assertive hyper personality of the Mediterranean class Leghorn. And will the offspring inherit the slow production of the EE or the high production of the Leg? Both birds are naturally skittery but EEs are mostly gentle and non-combative where a Leghorn is not so easily intimidated and faces challengers. An interesting mix to say the least! I love both breeds but could never mix my flock with aggressive Leghorns along with our gentle Blue Wheaten Ameraucana. Bred together they could give you the worst of both breeds or the best of both breeds! GL!

 

[jenniferlamar70]

Looks an awful lot like an australorp

X2

What I wonder is which temperament the chicks will inherit -- the sweet cautious nature of the gentle EE or the assertive hyper personality of the Mediterranean class Leghorn.  And will the offspring inherit the slow production of the EE or the high production of the Leg?  Both birds are naturally skittery but EEs are mostly gentle and non-combative where a Leghorn is not so easily intimidated and faces challengers.  An interesting mix to say the least!  I love both breeds but could never mix my flock with aggressive Leghorns along with our gentle Blue Wheaten Ameraucana.  Bred together they could give you the worst of both breeds or the best of both breeds!  GL!

Our leghorn is very mild mannered and our head easter egger is the leader of our flock lol. The only hens in our flock that seem jittery at all is our australorp and our jubilee's. Our oldest ee doesn't lay anymore. The ee under her are much moreid mannered. Not so dominant. Our ee roosters are pretty sweet so far. Only time will tell with the boys. If they follow the pattern that we have seen so far the chicks should have gentle temperaments with great egg laying capabilities. This is just with our personal hens though. Someone else's might not have as good a disposition..