Easter egger questions

[Chickensarecool123]

Here’s our 3 EEs in April 2023 and then July 2023. They all lay greenish eggs (every once in a while one will be more blue).

Omg the wheaten color looks so cute! ( they all look cute)

 

[Chickensarecool123]

Why? What are your goals? Is it the blue or green eggs? How many chickens do you want? Do you want only pullets or would you be happy if some or most are males? There may be other easier options.


For the most part. You can never say never but generally if the down does not have black then the adult plumage will not be black. If you have the choice get chicks with white, yellow, red, brown, or buff down. If you know both parents and neither one is either solid white or solid black you are almost assured of not getting a black chick.


You never know what breeds or chicks a feed store will have unless you talk to them. They may have Ameraucanas one week and not have them again the rest of the season. For many people this is a roadblock. They are not willing to actually talk to people to get what they say they want.


Here may be a big problem. Chicks are not that cheap from a hatchery or a feed store. If the cost is too much then feed stores are a dead end.

This does not mean there is not a solution for you. If we know what you are looking for and why you want them we may be able to help.

As mentioned above EE's are not a breed. There are no breed standards. They can be any color or pattern, have any type of comb, any color of legs, any color of earlobes, be any size, there is just no way to limit them. Ameraucana and Araucana are breeds, you can get them in specific colors/patterns. But may hatcheries and feed stores sell EE's labeled as a breed. They are not, you don't know what you are getting.

So let us know why you want them, what are you actually looking for. If you can do that we may be able to help you find what you want. Otherwise, good luck!

1. I personally think the eggs are cool, not the total reason im getting them, dont care too much if i get brown eggs from them, think their cute, and only getting two due to state law (that would make it at 3 chickens)

2. Getting it from a feed store don’t necessarily know the parents but not sure if there will be any other colors then chipmunk, only like 2-3 hatcheries in our area that aren’t like a couple hours away, TSC will never know what their getting ever, and in the chick store we’re going to we called and they said they dont have ameraucanas, only EE’s which is strange-… price doesnt matter to us just dont want it 15-40 bucks, for it to just get eaten by hawk or be a rooster possibly, Thanks for all the questions, tried my best to answer them~ but I wanted to know, are there any indicators early on for EE’s that their roosters? I mean 1-8 weeks, our orpingtons we self picked after getting a rooster from TSC, by looking at their feather development at 2 days old, and we found out or rooster was a roo from his comb getting huge and red at only 5-6 weeks, Thanks again~

 

[Chickensarecool123]

I've only ever had EE chicks from a hatchery. (Privett in New Mexico) To get the kind of variety pictured above, I think you'd need to go through a private breeder or be a breeder yourself.

I always have wanted a splash EE and tried to select chicks from the feed store offering that were lightest in color, but only managed to get EEs that ended up looking like slightly lighter old brown shoes.

Hah- I really wanted a splash ameraucana, they look so beautiful, but so expensive here and they only ship, they also might die to a hawk or be a roo, not the most experienced on the other hand as well lol

 

[Chickensarecool123]

If you pick chicks that are a lighter color/mostly yellow as a newly hatched chick you're more likely to get lighter colored adult plumage. Black, or mostly black, birds are going to be black or black and white "penguin" colored as chicks.View attachment 4201393
View attachment 4201394
View attachment 4201395View attachment 4201400View attachment 4201411View attachment 4201412These are some of my lighter colored chicks at 1 day old and what they matured to.
View attachment 4201414View attachment 4201415View attachment 4201417View attachment 4201416
And two of the darker chicks.

Thanks for all the pictures they all look beautiful, are they noisy if so can you pick ones that aren’t? Dont wanna disturb my neighbors beauty sleep

 

[Rooski456]

I didn’t get them until they were 3/4 weeks old so no baby fluff ball pictures but these are mine. My darker one ended up a cockerel

EDIT: they are not laying yet but just started squatting so I will update with egg color later

 

[coach723]

I have NEVER seen Ameraucana's at Tractor Supply, just EE's, often called Americana's. Where I am, they don't last long, sell out fast. EE's can take a little longer to sex sometimes, they tend to mature a bit slower than some other breeds. Comb redness can be a clue, as well as red shoulder feathers when they get to that point in feathering. Some of my males have been slower to feather on their backs. I've been fooled more than once, so sometimes you have to wait til they lay, or crow. They are mixes, and mixes make their own rules for maturing. I don't find them to be particularly noisy, I have MUCH noisier breeds (like Fayoumi's which hardly ever shut up). But any bird can be noisy sometimes. I think EE's are really nice birds, easy keepers for the most part. They generally get along pretty well with other birds, not a lot of problems.

 

[Chickensarecool123]

I didn’t get them until they were 3/4 weeks old so no baby fluff ball pictures but these are mine. My darker one ended up a cockerel

EDIT: they are not laying yet but just started squatting so I will update with egg color later

They’re all beautiful~! Got any younger picks of the wheaten girl? It’s a girl right?? (how ever young) im hoping they have some wheaten at my store and i can identify some) thanks again

 

[Chickensarecool123]

I have NEVER seen Ameraucana's at Tractor Supply, just EE's, often called Americana's. Where I am, they don't last long, sell out fast. EE's can take a little longer to sex sometimes, they tend to mature a bit slower than some other breeds. Comb redness can be a clue, as well as red shoulder feathers when they get to that point in feathering. Some of my males have been slower to feather on their backs. I've been fooled more than once, so sometimes you have to wait til they lay, or crow. They are mixes, and mixes make their own rules for maturing. I don't find them to be particularly noisy, I have MUCH noisier breeds (like Fayoumi's which hardly ever shut up). But any bird can be noisy sometimes. I think EE's are really nice birds, easy keepers for the most part. They generally get along pretty well with other birds, not a lot of problems.

My chick stores are stocked up with over 50+ EE’s every 2 weeks, and it’s a smaller store, guess it’s super popular? Hope they have the wheaten or buff color for me lol

 

[Altairsky]

They’re all beautiful~! Got any younger picks of the wheaten girl? It’s a girl right?? (how ever young) im hoping they have some wheaten at my store and i can identify some) thanks again

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/update-on-favaucana-pullet.1635724/
First Pic of the linked topic shows all the growth stages of my weathen EE.
Weathen EEs are mostly yellow as chicks, with a few black spots here and there. The one EE in the pic lays pink so you want to look for a pea comb.

 

[Chocolate Silkie Queen]

These are my EE currently!!! I have another group I’ll need to get pictures of!

This one is definitely going to be a boy

Looks like a buff with blue

Looks like a “standard” EE I say standard very lightly as they can be any color just see more of this color

This one is my favorite and the sad part is I think she(probably a boy) knows it!