Easter Egger club!

[PeepersMama]

I took some pictures of my babies today. They changed SO much over the last week!

Baby Pickles,

And pickles today. She's getting little orange splashes - makes her look like she's dirty

 

[VeggieGoneEggie]

I took some pictures of my babies today. They changed SO much over the last week!
Baby Pickles,

And pickles today. She's getting little orange splashes - makes her look like she's dirty

Wait, how old is she now???? Drop dead purdy!!!!

 

[PeepersMama]

Wait, how old is she now???? Drop dead purdy!!!!

Ooh, good question! let's see.... Dang, I don't know 4 weeks maybe? I'll have to check moms calendar.

 

[jennyf]

Curious, is there any correlation at all between color of EE and color of egg? Or does presence of beard/muffs correlate to increased likelihood of colored eggs?

 

[junebuggena]

Curious, is there any correlation at all between color of EE and color of egg? Or does presence of beard/muffs correlate to increased likelihood of colored eggs?

No correlation with plumage or muffs/bearding and egg color. There is a link between the pea comb gene and the blue egg shell gene, as they are located along the same DNA sequence and usually inherit together.

 

[PeepersMama]

Curious, is there any correlation at all between color of EE and color of egg? Or does presence of beard/muffs correlate to increased likelihood of colored eggs?

Nope. The majority of them lay blue eggs; the green egg layers have, at some point, been crossed with a brown egg laying breed, and considering that there are quite a few varieties of ameraucana, and the two egg colors, there isn't any certain color.
There are EEs that don't have muffs, but those are usually first generation crosses between ameraucanas and another breed. Not all muffed breeds lay blue eggs. Take silkies, most of them have muffs that are even FLUFFIER than EEs

 

[junebuggena]

Nope. The majority of them lay blue eggs; the green egg layers have, at some point, been crossed with a brown egg laying breed, and considering that there are quite a few varieties of ameraucana, and the two egg colors, there isn't any certain color.
There are EEs that don't have muffs, but those are usually first generation crosses between ameraucanas and another breed. Not all muffed breeds lay blue eggs. Take silkies, most of them have muffs that are even FLUFFIER than EEs

So much misinformation in this reply. The originally imported birds were not blue only layers. Those birds laid all sorts of shades of blue, green, cream, and brown. And if an Easter Egger is 50% pure Ameraucana, it would be muffed. Ameraucana have two copies of the muff/beard gene, and it's a dominant gene. Each chick, regardless of what the other parent is, would inherit a copy and have muffs and beards.

 

[PeepersMama]

So much misinformation in this reply. The originally imported birds were not blue only layers. Those birds laid all sorts of shades of blue, green, cream, and brown. And if an Easter Egger is 50% pure Ameraucana, it would be muffed. Ameraucana have two copies of the muff/beard gene, and it's a dominant gene. Each chick, regardless of what the other parent is, would inherit a copy and have muffs and beards. 

I know. I had an EE who laid white eggs, and I have seen EEs with no muffs. I don't know the genetics behind why they didn't have muffs, but they were easter eggers for sure. Maybe a game cross, I don't know.
I didn't know that muffs are a dominant gene! *adds to memory bank*

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I know. I had an EE who laid white eggs, and I have seen EEs with no muffs. I don't know the genetics behind why they didn't have muffs, but they were easter eggers for sure. Maybe a game cross, I don't know.
I didn't know that muffs are a dominant gene! *adds to memory bank*

I believe those are usually related to Araucanas, which have Tufts, not muffs, and if I understand correctly they would only have one or no tuft gene because double tuft is fatal.I swear I read that or I'm not recalling it correctly.

 

[junebuggena]

I know. I had an EE who laid white eggs, and I have seen EEs with no muffs. I don't know the genetics behind why they didn't have muffs, but they were easter eggers for sure. Maybe a game cross, I don't know.
I didn't know that muffs are a dominant gene! *adds to memory bank*

It's a very common misconception that all Easter Eggers are mixed breeds. It's not true. Hatchery sourced Easter Eggers are not mixed breeds at all, they just haven't been selectively bred to meet a specific breed standard. They are more of a landrace than a breed.