Easter Egger club!

[FlyWheel]

Ooh, what did he fight off?

Nero kicked a coyote in the face and lost half his tail in the process. But haven't seen the coyote since. He practiced his ninja moves on a stray dog yesterday, too. It ran off with its tail between its legs!

...I should really get on installing that fence...

Whatever it was it couldn't have been that big, it was small enough to get through a 2"x3" hole, and not strong enough to pull a mature hen all the way back through. A neighbor had ALL his hens killed an he said it was from a weasel. That would fit the description so unless a better theory comes along I'll go with weasel. It hasn't shown up again, so I'm assuming the 'Roo has discouraged it for now.

After I build the new coop I plan on rearranging the pen fence so I get more area (the birds will be locked inside the coop while I'm working). I also have a few rolls of 2' wide HC that I am going to install along the bottom edge with part of it buried a few inches down for better predator protection.

 

[jenniferlamar70]

My babies are growing up, they're four (weeks) now. :cd :cd :cd :cd :cd

That's exactly how my cuckoo cochin rooster looked. The bars became more noticeable as he aged.

 

[Sylvester017]

I cannot wait for that to happen:/
Of course could be how they are with the flock:
definitely not the dominating girls
Only chickens to have ever been pecked
Have big trust issues (don't know how since we've held them as the others and gets treats as the others-even more occasionally) but I've always been working thru this with them to help
Just very frustrating

It's their nature to be ultra-cautious. It has nothing to do with not liking you -- they take a long time to build trust. I think it's worth the patient wait and handling because these birds are so incredibly sweet. I personally don't mix them with common layer breeds like Leghorns, BRs, RIRs, NHRs, Wyans, Marans, etc. Common layers are usually heavier and more assertive and tend to dominate the gentler nature of the lighter-weight EEs. My Marans and Leghorns were too nasty toward our purebred Blue Wheaten Ameraucana and I re-homed the bullies. EEs and Amers are naturally jittery jumpy skittery yet gentle birds who don't need the stress of having to avoid daily conflict with more aggressive layer breeds. In our smaller backyard environment we didn't have enough space for the Ameraucana to avoid the assertive breeds so we re-homed the bullies and only kept the gentle Silkies and gentle Bredas around the Amer. It was a heavenly mix of gentle breeds. There are still pecking orders established with gentle breeds but none of the violent chasing, feather-pulling, or claw attacks like with the bigger heavier breeds. JMHO

 

[Sylvester017]

My babies are growing up, they're four (weeks) now.

And today

I'm beginning to wonder if he even is going to be a Cuckoo! The white just keeps getting thinner and thinner.

Is this normal for Cuckoos?

Regarding your question about your Cuckoo Marans coloring. My friend and I both had Cuckoo Marans a few years back. They were popular at that time to use for breeding Olive Eggers. Our Cuckoo hens were more dark than light. Personality-wise we found them standoff-ish toward humans although they would come to take hand treats, and we found them rather nasty toward gentler smaller breeds in the flock. This is what our Cuckoo did to a Silkie on the roost at night before we realized the Silkie was NOT moulting -- especially after we added another Silkie juvenile pullet who also started missing feathers and definitely too young to moult.


When we saw the Cuckoo outright claw-attack a little Silkie we re-homed the Marans the very next day - Here she is at a hefty 7-lbs and you can tell how very much darker she is compared to what you envision as a cuckoo pattern. She was very much a weighty bully and the only hen that could put her in her place was the 4.5-lb White Leghorn. My friend's and my opinion are that Cuckoo Marans are sneaky standoff-ish lazy foragers that should not be around smaller gentler breeds and best kept with their own equally-matched breed flock and/or other heavier dual-purpose breeds :


I hope you find your experience with your Cuckoo Marans a bit more pleasant than my friend's or my experience with the breed. Even though they are not typically the most people-friendly breed I still think it would be better to go for Welsummers the next time we think about dark egg layers. Our Marans had very big appetites but poor foragers for rustling up their own food. Our Marans would go foraging with the flock and watched the others so as soon as another chicken found a morsel she was right there to steal it rather than scratching for her own.

 

[AmandaMBG]

I don't think you can judge a breed by a bird or two. I have both Easter eggers and cuckoo Marrans in my flock. My top three birds are 1st Marge my favorite and a cuckoo Marans (she is a lap chicken) and 2nd is a toss up between my EE Lady and my Sicillian Buttercup and 3rd is a True Blue Whiting. All the way at the near the bottom of the pecking order is my other cuckoo marans. None of my three EE are at the bottom of the pecking order. And none of the three cuckoo Marans were aggressive either. Actually my EE that's just below Marge is one of the most aggressive females even nipping me at times.

And today I'm beginning to wonder if he even is going to be a Cuckoo! The white just keeps getting thinner and thinner. Is this normal for Cuckoos? [COLOR=0000CD]Regarding your question about your Cuckoo Marans coloring. My friend and I both had Cuckoo Marans a few years back. They were popular at that time to use for breeding Olive Eggers. Our Cuckoo hens were more dark than light. Personality-wise we found them standoff-ish toward humans although they would come to take hand treats, and we found them rather nasty toward gentler smaller breeds in the flock. This is what our Cuckoo did to a Silkie on the roost at night before we realized the Silkie was NOT moulting -- especially after we added another Silkie juvenile pullet who also started missing feathers and definitely too young to moult.[/COLOR] [COLOR=0000CD]When we saw the Cuckoo outright claw-attack a little Silkie we re-homed the Marans the very next day - Here she is at a hefty 7-lbs and you can tell how very much darker she is compared to what you envision as a cuckoo pattern. She was very much a weighty bully and the only hen that could put her in her place was the 4.5-lb White Leghorn. My friend's and my opinion are that Cuckoo Marans are sneaky standoff-ish lazy foragers that should not be around smaller gentler breeds and best kept with their own equally-matched breed flock and/or other heavier dual-purpose breeds :[/COLOR] [COLOR=0000CD]I hope you find your experience with your Cuckoo Marans a bit more pleasant than my friend's or my experience with the breed. Even though they are not typically the most people-friendly breed I still think it would be better to go for Welsummers the next time we think about dark egg layers. Our Marans had very big appetites but poor foragers for rustling up their own food. Our Marans would go foraging with the flock and watched the others so as soon as another chicken found a morsel she was right there to steal it rather than scratching for her own.[/COLOR]

 

[Sylvester017]

I don't think you can judge a breed by a bird or two. I have both Easter eggers and cuckoo Marrans in my flock. My top three birds are 1st Marge my favorite and a cuckoo Marans (she is a lap chicken) and 2nd is a toss up between my EE Lady and my Sicillian Buttercup and 3rd is a True Blue Whiting. All the way at the near the bottom of the pecking order is my other cuckoo marans. None of my three EE are at the bottom of the pecking order. And none of the three cuckoo Marans were aggressive either. Actually my EE that's just below Marge is one of the most aggressive females even nipping me at times.

Yep, supposedly you can't judge a breed by a couple birds but I had one Cuckoo and my friend had 5 of them plus BCMs in different ages and she had similar experiences to mine. They were a sneaky standoff-ish bird. My Marans only came up to people if they had treats -- otherwise she wouldn't bother to socialize. Another thing we both noticed is that as chickens mature to 2 or 3 years old they become bolder if they aren't one of the more commonly known "gentler" or timid breeds. I re-homed my heavier, dual purpose, and layer breeds, and only kept the docile timid breeds and there's been a huge difference in flock dynamics. My yard was too small to break up into dual purpose vs docile breeds so we decided to keep only the lighter-weight and calmer breeds. I have a snotty little Black Silkie but at only 2.2-lbs she can't hurt anyone should she even want to get combative. But she doesn't challenge and just pushes her way to the front of the feeding line. She's a lot different from heavier dual purpose type breeds that would've pecked and chased off the others. Not all chicken breeds are nice to each other but we found the EEs and Amers the kindest of the breeds so far and for that reason choose to classify/blend them with our other docile breeds.

 

[cabinchicky]

Nothing more depressing than having a naked butted rooster. Miss his tail! Will probably need to nab him off the roost to coat his tail stump before the Sussex see it. Now to get hubby talked into grabbing him. Fester likes to roost in the very back out of my reach, lil stinker.

Not so depressing when the naked butt is the result of fighting off a predator. Especially when the predator doesn't make any more appearances!

My Fester is in molt hence his missing tail. Glad your guy is still kicking canines! Fester hasn't had to fight any predators yet, free ranging is not anice option here. Too many hawks.

 

[jenniferlamar70]

It's their nature to be ultra-cautious.  It has nothing to do with not liking you -- they take a long time to build trust.  I think it's worth the patient wait and handling because these birds are so incredibly sweet.   I personally don't mix them with common layer breeds like Leghorns, BRs, RIRs, NHRs, Wyans, Marans, etc.  Common layers are usually heavier and more assertive and tend to dominate the gentler nature of the lighter-weight EEs.  My Marans and Leghorns were too nasty toward our purebred Blue Wheaten Ameraucana and I re-homed the bullies.  EEs and Amers are naturally jittery jumpy skittery yet gentle birds who don't need the stress of having to avoid daily conflict with more aggressive layer breeds.  In our smaller backyard environment we didn't have enough space for the Ameraucana to avoid the assertive breeds so we re-homed the bullies and only kept the gentle Silkies and gentle Bredas around the Amer.  It was a heavenly mix of gentle breeds.  There are still pecking orders established with gentle breeds but none of the violent chasing, feather-pulling, or claw attacks like with the bigger heavier breeds. JMHO

I don't think you can judge a breed by a bird or two. I have both Easter eggers and cuckoo Marrans in my flock. My top three birds are 1st Marge my favorite and a cuckoo Marans (she is a lap chicken) and 2nd is a toss up between my EE Lady and my Sicillian Buttercup and 3rd is a True Blue Whiting. All the way at the near the bottom of the pecking order is my other cuckoo marans. None of my three EE are at the bottom of the pecking order. And none of the three cuckoo Marans were aggressive either. Actually my EE that's just below Marge is one of the most aggressive females even nipping me at times.

I have to agree that some temperament is just personality and some is breeding. My cuckoo marans and leghorns are complete sweethearts and my oldest easter egger is a bit of a butt lol. My younger easter egger cockerel is very much of a sweetheart. They all have different characteristics. My friend keeps a mixed flock of about 50 birds right now even having bantams mixed with standards and never has a bully problem. We have about 40 now and they all get along quite well. We did have to rehome our 2 black sex links. They were quite the bullys. My friend took them and now they are angels. I think there are alot different factors. Free ranging. Coop. Number of chickens, breeds, etc.. I just love chickens lol I love them all!! At home they call me the crazy chicken lady hehe..

 

[AmandaMBG]

if I could legally have more birds and had the space I would def be a crazy bird lady lol

I have to agree that some temperament is just personality and some is breeding. My cuckoo marans and leghorns are complete sweethearts and my oldest easter egger is a bit of a butt lol. My younger easter egger cockerel is very much of a sweetheart. They all have different characteristics. My friend keeps a mixed flock of about 50 birds right now even having bantams mixed with standards and never has a bully problem. We have about 40 now and they all get along quite well. We did have to rehome our 2 black sex links. They were quite the bullys. My friend took them and now they are angels. I think there are alot different factors. Free ranging. Coop. Number of chickens, breeds, etc.. I just love chickens lol I love them all!! At home they call me the crazy chicken lady hehe..

 

[jenniferlamar70]

if I could legally have more birds and had the space I would def be a crazy bird lady lol

Lmao I bet alot of people here could say that. A bunch of crazies all in one place lmfao