Easter Egger club!

[Gryphon]

This is my second year of owning hens, and my EE's are still outperforming my Buff Orphington, Black Australorp, and Light Brahma. My EE's, Archaeopteryx and Salem, lay a blue egg and cream egg, and both are always the biggest at around 65 g. or higher. The BO lays close to that size sometimes, but her eggs are uh, "special" (usually torpedo shaped and the last one was flattened!) but infrequently. The BA lays about 60 g. eggs but not as often as the EE's, and the LB lays as often as the EE's, but she lays the smallest eggs! (and she's of course the biggest of the lot too!) Today was a five egg day so I got a pic of all the eggs.

By the way, some time back I saw mention of breeding RIR to EE's to make olive eggers...That won't work so much. Sure, you'll get olive-ish eggs, but more in a murky kind of way. The way the best olive eggs come about is by breeding excellent blue color to copper marans that have as dark a color egg as possible, since they'll be lightened up by crossing with as light an egg color as blue anyway. Depending on how dark a brown your RIR lays, you might just end up with a muddyish brown egg.

By the way, my one EE is proof that while the blue egg gene and the pea comb are really close so they nearly always travel together, there IS a bit of drift (15% I think?) which is why every now and again you get an EE with muffs, beard, and pea comb but they lay a cream colored egg like my Salem. (or why you end up with a beardless straight comb hen that lays blue eggs)

 

[lizardandchicks]

I had an Easter Egger. She was so sweet. She would lay green eggs, even if she would always try to lay them in her own self-made nest. She just passed away last Saturday (the 4th) due to our stupid neighbors dog that got under the fence. Her name was Duckie since she looked like a duck when she was a chick. She was a tailess, muffles, wadless, rosecomb easter egger. I miss her so much.
Because we lost her and several other hens due to the stupid dog, We decided to get chicks and give them to our broody. We got another Easter egger since we like our Duckie so much. We decided to name her sugar (at least it better be a her!). She has muffs and a tail. If I can, I will have to put a picture up of her later. Duckie has her picture featured as my avatar. She is the one that is farthest back, closest to the recycling can.

 

[spree56]

I had an Easter Egger. She was so sweet. She would lay green eggs, even if she would always try to lay them in her own self-made nest. She just passed away last Saturday (the 4th) due to our stupid neighbors dog that got under the fence. Her name was Duckie since she looked like a duck when she was a chick. She was a tailess, muffles, wadless, rosecomb easter egger. I miss her so much.
Because we lost her and several other hens due to the stupid dog, We decided to get chicks and give them to our broody. We got another Easter egger since we like our Duckie so much. We decided to name her sugar (at least it better be a her!). She has muffs and a tail. If I can, I will have to put a picture up of her later. Duckie has her picture featured as my avatar. She is the one that is farthest back, closest to the recycling can.

So sorry for your losses. We do our best to protect them, but sometimes ther's not much more we can do. Good luck with your new babies.

 

[itstartedwith2]

This is my second year of owning hens, and my EE's are still outperforming my Buff Orphington, Black Australorp, and Light Brahma. My EE's, Archaeopteryx and Salem, lay a blue egg and cream egg, and both are always the biggest at around 65 g. or higher. The BO lays close to that size sometimes, but her eggs are uh, "special" (usually torpedo shaped and the last one was flattened!) but infrequently. The BA lays about 60 g. eggs but not as often as the EE's, and the LB lays as often as the EE's, but she lays the smallest eggs! (and she's of course the biggest of the lot too!) Today was a five egg day so I got a pic of all the eggs.

By the way, some time back I saw mention of breeding RIR to EE's to make olive eggers...That won't work so much. Sure, you'll get olive-ish eggs, but more in a murky kind of way. The way the best olive eggs come about is by breeding excellent blue color to copper marans that have as dark a color egg as possible, since they'll be lightened up by crossing with as light an egg color as blue anyway. Depending on how dark a brown your RIR lays, you might just end up with a muddyish brown egg.

By the way, my one EE is proof that while the blue egg gene and the pea comb are really close so they nearly always travel together, there IS a bit of drift (15% I think?) which is why every now and again you get an EE with muffs, beard, and pea comb but they lay a cream colored egg like my Salem. (or why you end up with a beardless straight comb hen that lays blue eggs)

Thank you I was one looking into breeding for olive eggers that's good to know

 

[lightchick]

Got my second EE Pippi! She's a week younger then Cessy (the lighter/bigger one). She's now a week old these pics are when I got her.

 

[flyladyrocks]

Hi I there! I'm the proud momma of EEs that I don't have yet! They have just been hatched (& still hatching) by a friend. So I'll post pics when we have them. There is at least one feather footed Olive Egger too.
Wondering what kind of dog Cooper is. I absolutely love the pics. Your description of him eagerly anticipating his new friends sounds just like our dog Judah, a giant Schnauzer. His best buddy was our Legbar roo who passed away this winter. Judah was depressed for a week at least. The hens just won't pal around with him like Sven did! So he is eagerly anticipating having some new buddies.
We really lucked out with him. He was 18 months old when we got him. He had been abused. He loves and is very protective of his girls and is our honorary roo. The neighborhood hawk found us. When he heard his girls danger call he about took off the back door. He now chases off every bird. He guards the brooders and knows their different cheeps and behavior and comes to get us if he thinks something is not right. The one brooder got over 100 with a couple panting chicks and he probably saved them by getting us. He'll also ask to see them (while we hold them) and has his favorite chick.
Hopefully Cooper is as good with yours!

This latest batch of chicks seems to be growing much faster than last ye ars, Chiana developed slowly, these chicks seem to be on a much faster track

Some more pics, just fooling around down cellar...



Don't worry, Cooper is very trustworthy around chickens, he was just in a staring contest with them...... They won!

More in the next post

 

[Brooke78]

I have had some people suggest that my EE Fiona is a roo what do you all think i just dont see it !!

 

[Texas4T]

I am sure mine is a roo. Tail feathers are a dead give away! Also the comb.

 

[Texas4T]

Oops! My photo didn't post! I had better go read more.

 

[birdman55]

hello havnt been on in a while..thought i would share some things....first hatched out a bunch of ee for the hatch along...
batch of eggs for the last two days....over four dozen

tek trol is awesome....every wonder if you should wash eggs...now they have a product out that is for sanitizing the eggs before setting...it kills all diseases...even hiv..check it out
http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_library...e0778d-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5&showText=1
can buy it here
http://cutlersupply.com/zen_new51/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_82&products_id=386



most in here are ee.....

batch before the last...more ee



tek trol is great...i now use it....i would recommend it for anyone setting eggs that are dirty...you can use it to clean incubators, brooders, coops....everything...well hope this is useful to people...have a great day