Easter Egger club!

[ochochicas]

Pros:
Beautiful colors - seems like no two are alike
Not too big and not too small.
Entertaining
Beautiful, shiny eggs
Good egg production (5 - 6 per week from mine)
100% hatch rate in the incubator!
Hardy babies
Good in all types of weather



Cons:
Can be flighty
Will lay eggs where they aren't supposed to
Will roost where they aren't supposed to
When they molt they stop laying for months
Hard to sell chicks because you want to keep ALL of them.

 

[gypsyroseplus6]

Pretty sure this an easter egger isa brown mix

 

[Tamcowam74]

Hi Im getting 2 EEs that are coming October 13th!! Im super excited!!

Can you tell me some pros and cons?? Anyone? They seem like great birds!

I have older ones, and ones I raised from chicks that are now almost 7 weeks. The older ones are around 27 weeks or so (I think) and they are mellow, pretty birds but not incredible friendly to me; because they don't let me get very close. They hide and run when I enter their area. But I can tell you the ones I raised from chicks are very friendly, loving and sweet. When I go into their coop area they just come running up to me wanting attention to be held and loved up. They share a coop with some Black Copper Marans that are around the same age, and the way they react to me is making the Marans very intrigued by me. They're super cute, it's been fun watching them grow and get little personalities of their own.

 

[Tamcowam74]

Looking for expert opinions - is my new EE a pullet or cockerel? S/he is about 10/11 weeks old. Some have said cockerel based upon the coloring and comb but I'm still holding out hope for a pullet since I can't keep a roo. No crowing yet. Thanks for the feedback.

What does His/Her tail look like, it's hard to see completely from the picture. I'm no expert, but the comb looks like my cockerel (that was supposed to be a pullet) but I'd have to see the tail. My pullets tails fan out, and the cockerel has a longer taller non fanning tail than the girls. I noticed he was not like them early on based just on the tail before I even noticed his comb.

 

[cluckcluck3499]

...

If the comb has 3 rows it's a cockerel, one row is a pullet. I can't tell from the pics but I'd say pullet.

 

[cluckcluck3499]

My last post quoted wrong. I meant to quote kprsmom. Lol

 

[Sylvester017]

Pros:
Beautiful colors - seems like no two are alike
Not too big and not too small.
Entertaining
Beautiful, shiny eggs
Good egg production (5 - 6 per week from mine)
100% hatch rate in the incubator!
Hardy babies
Good in all types of weather



Cons:
Can be flighty
Will lay eggs where they aren't supposed to
Will roost where they aren't supposed to
When they molt they stop laying for months
Hard to sell chicks because you want to keep ALL of them.

Hi - I have a Blue Wheaten Ameraucana (my avatar when 5 mos old - not an EE) and she was a champ at laying sky blue eggs as a pullet - sometimes 8 days in a row! Then after her first adult molt it was months before she gave us 3 eggs, stopped laying, and now is molting again. (By the way Amer's molt sporadically from what I've learned on talking with the BYC Ameraucana breeders.) At this rate we'll never get any more eggs from her -

. I understand pea-combed Russian Orloffs are also poor 2nd year layers - wonder if it's a pea-comb characteristic or what? The only reason I haven't re-homed our Amer is because she is such a sweet kind flockmate in spite of all her kooky spooky jittery jumpy characteristics - she's a very wary flock sentinel/guardian - chasing out stray cats or Mourning Doves that get too close to her favourite foods. Molting stresses and depresses hens when molting and they seem to get quieter, less active, don't have a good appetite, etc, so with our girl in sporadic molts 2-3 times a year she seldom is her chipper self like she was as a pullet. We have a routine health maintenance for worming, lice/mite control, fecal tests, etc, so I can't attribute her weird molting pattern to any health issue. This year both our broody 3 and 4 yr old Silkies out-produced our younger Amer.

So I thought maybe to get an EE next time around for better egg-laying but from your post above an EE isn't any more promising as a layer than my Ameraucana. I absolutely adore our girl and other than her being an SOP bird my friend and I don't see much difference between Amer's and EE's other than maybe the EE's can appear a little larger. My friend's EE also stopped laying eggs after her first molt and more than a year later still hasn't layed an egg. Other than being a sweet bird and a kind flockmate our birds haven't been much use in the egg department. Our friend's son had 5 chickens and their dog got into the chicken pen and killed 3 birds yet somehow the self-preservationist and alert EE and Amer managed to avoid capture!!!

Do you find all EEs are sporadic 2nd-year layers or is it hit-or-miss from individual to individual? I was thinking of a Cream Legbar for colored eggs but with Leghorn history CL's might be too aggressive a breed around shy non-combative Silkies, Ameraucana, and Breda. Any opinion/experience welcome.

 

[chick rookie]

Hi - I have a Blue Wheaten Ameraucana (my avatar when 5 mos old - not an EE) and she was a champ at laying sky blue eggs as a pullet - sometimes 8 days in a row! Then after her first adult molt it was months before she gave us 3 eggs, stopped laying, and now is molting again. (By the way Amer's molt sporadically from what I've learned on talking with the BYC Ameraucana breeders.) At this rate we'll never get any more eggs from her -

. I understand pea-combed Russian Orloffs are also poor 2nd year layers - wonder if it's a pea-comb characteristic or what? The only reason I haven't re-homed our Amer is because she is such a sweet kind flockmate in spite of all her kooky spooky jittery jumpy characteristics - she's a very wary flock sentinel/guardian - chasing out stray cats or Mourning Doves that get too close to her favourite foods. Molting stresses and depresses hens when molting and they seem to get quieter, less active, don't have a good appetite, etc, so with our girl in sporadic molts 2-3 times a year she seldom is her chipper self like she was as a pullet. We have a routine health maintenance for worming, lice/mite control, fecal tests, etc, so I can't attribute her weird molting pattern to any health issue. This year both our broody 3 and 4 yr old Silkies out-produced our younger Amer.

So I thought maybe to get an EE next time around for better egg-laying but from your post above an EE isn't any more promising as a layer than my Ameraucana. I absolutely adore our girl and other than her being an SOP bird my friend and I don't see much difference between Amer's and EE's other than maybe the EE's can appear a little larger. My friend's EE also stopped laying eggs after her first molt and more than a year later still hasn't layed an egg. Other than being a sweet bird and a kind flockmate our birds haven't been much use in the egg department. Our friend's son had 5 chickens and their dog got into the chicken pen and killed 3 birds yet somehow the self-preservationist and alert EE and Amer managed to avoid capture!!!

Do you find all EEs are sporadic 2nd-year layers or is it hit-or-miss from individual to individual? I was thinking of a Cream Legbar for colored eggs but with Leghorn history CL's might be too aggressive a breed around shy non-combative Silkies, Ameraucana, and Breda. Any opinion/experience welcome.

I have 5 EE and 2 AM's that I just got.4 EE are 2, 1 is 4 and the rest are started pullets. The EE's went through a molt just last mth. 1 is still molting. But up until last week I still got eggs ( at least 3 a day ) last week I got 1 a day, so far this week they are all laying again. so maybe it just depends on the birds.

 

[EmeraldRuby]

Thanks for all the help! I forgot to mention that 1 buff Orpington is coming in the order with the 2 easter eggers. Would they get along? And I will of course send pictures of them when they get here. Also will my full-grown chickens get along with them (2 RIRS and 1 BR)?

 

[LeiaLayers5]

Yesterday, my fiancee found these in our coop. The usual three from our GCs and one small cream egg. We have two EEs that are close to laying and then two Cuckoo Marans and they are still too young. We think it was one of the EEs who has become very red in face lately. This is just the first egg. Her eggs can still be blue green right? My fiancee and I are worried that since it is not with the first one that she may not lay those based on this egg. Need advice!