Easter Egger club!

[summerb123]

The Breda turned out a pleasant surprise around our gentler smaller and timid breeds - Ameraucana and Silkies. Smaller birds are not the best egg-layers so we were surprised at what good layers the Breda are. The bright white eggs don't quite reach LG size but almost. We wouldn't want a large egg from a smaller breed anyway to avoid eggbound or prolapse. What was the real surprise is how outgoing, friendly, curious, unafraid this breed is. We had a Breda cockerel shipped to us by mistake and had to re-home him but he was every bit as curious and outgoing as the Breda pullets we got from a different breeder. They are active, funny, treat-driven, child and visitor-friendly, gentle to flockmates, and easy on the feed bill because of their smaller size - 6 lbs cockerels, 4 lbs pullets. While other breeds kept their distance, our Blue Breda walked nose to beak following a chainlink fence with our neighbor's Chow Chow. These birds are totally unafraid to explore new people or animals. In-house our girl jumped up on a bench with a visitor/friend and sat next to him as if she'd known him for years! Under the table she'd nibble toes or shoe strings. Breda like any chicken will spook at a sudden noise or movement but immediately calm down to survey the source, whereas my spooked Ameraucana would keep on running until she ran into a barrier! Breda have very curious unafraid personalities, whereas our sweet but aloof Leghorns were turned off to any kind of human touch except for treats. One thing I don't recommend is to let out feather-footed breeds into muddy ground. I have Silkies so am accustomed to feather-footed breeds so on excessively rainy days do not allow feather-foots to forage. Light sprinkles ok but not in heavy muddy soil. My understanding is that Mottleds have the best body conformation, Cuckoos are more shy, and the Blue/Black/Splash seem to have the smallest size. Don't know if it's true but my Blue girl is very big and looks like the Cuckoo girl will be a good size too. Maybe a good diet has something to do with it or maybe it's good sunny Calif weather or who knows?

While other breeds are foraging normally on the ground our Blue Breda straddles a container pot for new weed sprouts. She cracks me up!




This 41/2 month re-homed cockerel always walked up to the camera to check out the "other" chicken in the lens!



When other chickens run from my camera our Blue Breda girl comes in for close-ups! I swear she'd smile if she had teeth!

what cuties!thanks for that also! my leghorns are very human friendly one always hops on the coop door waiting on me and when i come in they hop on my shoulder arm or even head it was one until she tought others that is was fun and oh lord all of my chickens are trying to fly on me

 

[theuglychick]

My daughter Auti and our EE pullet Stormy.

 

[Catandherchicks]

My daughter Auti and our EE pullet Stormy.

Cute pic. Hey! Your chicken matches your dog.

 

[summerb123]

x2!

 

[theuglychick]

Cute pic. Hey! Your chicken matches your dog.

Hah! Thank you! Yes, she does!

 

[cmccullough1390]

Update of Jon Snow

 

[jenniferlamar70]

Update of Jon Snow

Rooster love lol

 

[cmccullough1390]

Rooster love lol

I do love my roo roo he loves me too

 

[Sylvester017]

what cuties!thanks for that also! my leghorns are very human friendly one always hops on the coop door waiting on me and when i come in they hop on my shoulder arm or even head it was one until she tought others that is was fun and oh lord all of my chickens are trying to fly on me

My White Leghorn was a really sweet chicken for a Leghorn and she was smarter than I thought chickens should be. She was raised by a homeschooler teenager so she was already accustomed to handling. First day I got her as a juvenile she flew to the coop roof. I took her down gently and put her on the ground - she never flew onto the rooftop again. Then she flew over my 2-foot tall raised garden bed barrier and I opened it up and gently waved her out - she never flew over the barrier again. She got it right off the bat! Handing out treats she would jump onto my chair arm or onto my lap to be first for treats. She came to humans on her own terms. But an outstretched petting or human touch is not naturally in a Leghorn's nature. Maybe if I got her as a chick it would've been a different bonding but she was still an incredible hen. A gentle flock alpha toward the Silkies and Ameraucana until she went bonkers after 3 yrs old. She was so aggressive toward flockmates that after a couple weeks of giving her a chance to settle down I decided it best to re-home her to a layer flock. She quickly got to alpha status there -- it was best for her and there were other equal status White Legs in the flock too. When reaching alpha status birds don't want weak flockmates and will chase them off or peck them to death if they hang around. Crows, parakeets, most flock birds, will abandon weak, sick, or even their own young to preserve a vibrant flock. We humans want all our poultry to get along like people but chickens are flock mentality and we forget that sometimes -- trying to humanize them.

As for our Buff Leghorn, she turned overly aggressive at one year and was chasing and pulling out beards and crests of timid breeds out of dominance. We immediately re-homed her into the same layer flock as the White and she got put in her place as there were no timid or smaller breeds for her to bully. The White Leg was a gentler soul but the Buff Leghorn was insane -- I got her at 10 weeks and socialized her indoors first but she was a big bird and her nature too aggressive - it always made me wonder what other Buff history breed was crossed with the Leghorn to get the Buff color - I suspected Buff Orp since she had a cushion/tail that looked suspiciously like an Orp shape; however, her Buff Leg hatchmate had the correct body shape and tail for a Leghorn. Histories in genes can rear up from time to time to give you all the wrong qualities when trying to improve genetics.

I love Leghorns for so-o-o many reasons since my folks raised them but I learned quickly in my small cottage backyard not to mix the Mediterranean class chickens with smaller timid docile breeds - not enough room for the gentles to hide from the assertive ones. All breeds seem to get along as youngsters and pullets but somewhere around 18 months to 3 yrs the bigger birds can be tempted to bully the gentles and discover they can get away with it. Pecking order has to be established even in gentle breeds but outright vicious or bully behavior that could cause injury I won't tolerate. Since we've had our gentler smaller breeds the pecking order is less brutal.

 

[Elemes]

Here's Murphy, 3 weeks old: