What are the characteristics and traits of an Easter Egger? For some people they need to have the blue egg gene, but for others they simply need to have a blue or green egg layer in their ancestry. That is it. There are no physical characteristics required to be an EE. They can be any color or pattern, any size, any body conformation, any leg color, any comb type, any eye color, any ear lobe color, any anything as long as they may or may not have the blue egg gene.
The same is true of their behaviors and productivity traits. They may be passive or aggressive, may or may not go broody, may lay large or small eggs, may lay many or few eggs, may molt fast or slowly, may be at the top, middle, or bottom of the pecking order, may or may not be good winter layers, may or may not be flighty, may or may not be good foragers; there is no telling how they will act or produce just by them being EE’s.
EE’s are not a breed. There are no recognized standards for what makes an EE. I’ll attach a comparison of what makes an Araucana, Ameraucana, and an EE put out by the Ameraucana Breeders Club. I’ll also include a link to the history of the development of the Ameraucana breed from the ABC site. That history cleared up a lot of my misconceptions about EE’s and how breeds in general are developed. For instance, many people think EE’s are made from Ameraucanas. The opposite is true, EE’s were around long before the Ameraucana breed was developed and EE’s were used to create the Ameraucana breed.
EE/Ameraucana/Araucana comparison
http://apa-abayouthpoultryclub.org/Edu_Material/Easter Eggers vs.pdf
Ameraucana History
http://www.ameraucana.org/history.html
Eleaserek, you probably got your EE from a hatchery. If you can tell us what hatchery you got her from others that got EE’s from that hatchery can tell you how their specific EE’s performed. Each major hatchery has had their own EE flock for quite a while and those flocks develop certain traits. For example, Cackle has had their colored egg laying flock from before the Ameraucana breed was even recognized. Over the decades they have developed traits different from the other major hatcheries flocks so they have their own strain of EE’s. That still won’t help you much. Each chicken is an individual. The flock may have certain general trends but each individual hen can vary quite a bit from those trends. You have to have enough hens for the averages to mean anything. One individual hen does not give you enough for the averages to really mean anything, though if you know that specific flock’s traits you can make a guess.
When a pullet first starts top lay you can get about anything. There are a lot of different parts to her internal egg making factory. Sometimes a pullet has to work out some kinks before she gets everything right. It’s kind of surprising how many get everything right to start with. Just be patient.
There are different triggers to tell a pullet or hen to release an egg yolk to start its journey through that internal egg making factory to become an egg. Different hens are affected differently by those different triggers. One of those triggers is light. It could be when the light starts in the morning or it could be the length of the day. That’s part of what determines if a hen is a good winter layer or not. The days getting shorter could have stopped her from laying.
Some pullets will lay through their first winter whether you add lights or not. Some but not all. This is an inherited trait so flock trends can give you some clues to what might happen. As others said, it is a crap shoot. You just don’t know what any individual pullet will do, even from production breeds.
One thing I suggest. Since she just started laying and all of a sudden stopped, you might want to look for a hidden nest. Other than the molt or shorter days, this is probably the biggest cause of a pullet or hen to suddenly stop laying. Since she is your only blue egg layer it is pretty obvious you are not getting her eggs. Other than a hidden nest I think patience is your best approach. Not what you wanted to hear I’m sure. Good luck!
. Is this just normal new layer do you suppose? Or is it because the days are shortening up? Nothing has changed I can think of, and my other 4 (rir, br, wr, dixie rainbow) are laying just fine... I want more pretty blue eggs!! Thanks in advance!
