Easter Egger club!

[Sylvester017]

Sadly D&B Supply also sold me "Auracanas" and "Americanas" when they were really Easter Eggers. They also sold us two roos when they were to be pullets. So, our first set we ended up with an EE who lays pink eggs and has no tail (see picture). She is stunning and a bit goofy. Her feathers are so dark that you cant see her eyes so I've nicknames our beloved Anne Bolyn, Miss Maggoo. LOL

These were our first chickens and I've learned my lesson: buy from a reputable company/hatchery NOT the local farm supply store.

Ann Bolyn "Miss Magoo" is lovely and adorable even though she was sold as an Araucana -- she IS tail-less but the muffed cheeks give her away as not being a pure Araucana since Araucana are tufted rather than muffed. I know feed stores mis-label their chickens as whatever the hatchery called them when bought. I guess the misnomer for Easter Eggers, Ameraucanas, and Araucanas will continue for more decades to come as long as hatcheries, feed stores, and private breeders sell off their birds as other than what they truly are. Since the 1970's many hatcheries refuse to identify the differences when selling today but recently many more reputable hatcheries are delineating the differences when selling EEs vs Ameraucanas vs Araucanas. It's still up to the customer to research the differences before finalizing a purchase. Miss Magoo is a very unique and gorgeous bird. She is probably a very sweet hen too -- EEs as well as Amer's tend to be kind and non-combative toward flockmates which is why I prefer keeping them mixed with a timid flock rather than more assertive dual-purpose type breeds. Very nice girl!

 

[ProfNancy]

Thank you. Anne is sweet with me but man with the 2nd set of four she is the consigliari to Catherine of Aragon's rule of the run. Those two made sure the other four knew who was in charge.
My other four are EEs and three are practicing their dongs and two started squatting last week. We are hoping for colorful eggs

oh, just a question., Anne lays a pink egg. I kjow Ee are mixed so i learned there is a dpanish bird that lays pink. could she have that in her line or are the other pink egg layers?

Thiis is Latte who began squatting over a week ago. she always wants yo be picked up and held.

 

[cmccullough1390]

Update

Renegade my little Easter Egger and Bard our pretty Barred Rock

Gallina and Catalina

Me chicken Kal-El

 

[junebuggena]

Thank you. Anne is sweet with me but man with the 2nd set of four she is the consigliari to Catherine of Aragon's rule of the run. Those two made sure the other four knew who was in charge.
My other four are EEs and three are practicing their dongs and two started squatting last week. We are hoping for colorful eggs

oh, just a question., Anne lays a pink egg. I kjow Ee are mixed so i learned there is a dpanish bird that lays pink. could she have that in her line or are the other pink egg layers?


Thiis is Latte who began squatting over a week ago. she always wants yo be picked up and held.

Easter Eggers aren't really mixed breeds. They just haven't been selectively bred to meet a specific breed standard. They can lay just about any color egg.

 

[Sylvester017]

Thank you. Anne is sweet with me but man with the 2nd set of four she is the consigliari to Catherine of Aragon's rule of the run. Those two made sure the other four knew who was in charge.
My other four are EEs and three are practicing their dongs and two started squatting last week. We are hoping for colorful eggs

oh, just a question., Anne lays a pink egg. I kjow Ee are mixed so i learned there is a dpanish bird that lays pink. could she have that in her line or are the other pink egg layers?


Thiis is Latte who began squatting over a week ago. she always wants yo be picked up and held.

Pink, terra cotta, speckled, chocolate, tan, cream, tinted are all variations of brown pigmentation. What I found profoundly interesting is that crossbred chickens with the blue eggshell gene can have brown pigmentation coated to their blue shell to make the egg green or olive yet the inside of the shell will still retain the original blue color. So interesting. Brown shell eggs usually will be white inside the shell. White shell genes have the absence of pigmentation. The article explains it all in understandable detail.
Here is the link to the website explaining how all the egg shell colors are made (go to middle of page and click on A Review of Egg Color):
http://maranschickenclubusa.com/

 

[ProfNancy]

Oops wrong picture.

Anyway, thank you for the information. . Anne's pink eggs are pink inside too and not white. CAnt wsit yo see what colors the other 4 give us.

 

[Sylvester017]

Oops wrong picture.

Anyway, thank you for the information. . Anne's pink eggs are pink inside too and not white. CAnt wsit yo see what colors the other 4 give us.

I was asked once if our Silkie's pink egg shells were pink all the way through. I used a fine sanding paper and from all I could tell the color seemed pink all the way through -- but then -- it was a very light pink and don't know if my eyes were playing tricks on me -- I didn't have a microscope to verify completely. I was truly being honest to make certain I wasn't projecting my own feelings about the color but it seemed to me from my little experiment that the shell seemed truly pink throughout the shell's wall. But there's no mention of a truly solid pink/brown tint shell in the article and no one else has ever verified it to me.

 

[FlyWheel]

Quote: That's one of the downsides of getting chicks from a feed store rather than straight from the breeder/hatchery; even if the store is 100% honest they cannot (or don't bother) to monitor every single person who looks at the chicks. So unless you are the very first customer to see them when they are unloaded into their brooder boxes, their is no way to tell how many have been picked up and returned to the wrong box.

When I got my seven Easter Egger pullets last April one not only turned out to be a rooster but one wasn't even an EE, but (I think) an Australorp! So for that matter I cannot even be 100% sure the Roo is an EE.

<EDIT> Sometimes I wonder if some hatcheries don't actually use the similar names like "Americana" not to deceive, but to differentiate them from the pure breed. IOW if an Easter Egger is stated as being an Americana, it is not meant as a statement that it "is" an Ameraucana but was bred from Ameraucana stock (but is not a true Ameraucana).

 

[Sylvester017]

That's one of the downsides of getting chicks from a feed store rather than straight from the breeder/hatchery; even if the store is 100% honest they cannot (or don't bother) to monitor every single person who looks at the chicks. So unless you are the very first customer to see them when they are unloaded into their brooder boxes, their is no way to tell how many have been picked up and returned to the wrong box.

When I got my seven Easter Egger pullets last April one not only turned out to be a rooster but one wasn't even an EE, but (I think) an Australorp! So for that matter I cannot even be 100% sure the Roo is an EE.

<EDIT> Sometimes I wonder if some hatcheries don't actually use the similar names like "Americana" not to deceive, but to differentiate them from the pure breed. IOW if an Easter Egger is stated as being an Americana, it is not meant as a statement that it "is" an Ameraucana but was bred from Ameraucana stock (but is not a true Ameraucana).

Feed stores have been informed since the 1970's about the differences, and so have the hatcheries, so the mis-spellings are on purpose IMO -- especially the feed stores that have been in business for a couple decades and certainly have been informed numerously by breeder customers about the differences. As for feed store employees, most are too busy stocking shelves and handling the cash register to bother about whether chicks are mixed up in the bins. I personally follow info and pics about a lot of chicken breeds so that I can recognize the differences of chicks/juveniles when I go shopping. I've only once bought a feed store Dominique (died before she reached POL so never bought another feed store bird). I only buy from private breeders now -- most from BYC posts -- and most of the birds have been shipped to me as juveniles rather than baby chicks -- I don't like broodering chicks. I like EEs and true APA Ameraucanas but in my very humid climate they suffer so I won't add any more to my backyard as much as I love them. We've all had some kind of experience good or bad with feed stores so I say it's up to the customer to do research very well before purchasing anything.

 

[mamatink7]

Soooo...how do you get an actual, true bLue Ameracauna chicken then? Don't get me wrong, our easter eggers have totally come around since they all lay now, but would be nice to mix our next flock with EE and Ameraucana (plus a few other breeds)