Easter Egger roo?

[Jekajo80]

About what age do Easter Eggers start crowing and showing signs of being roos. My one and only Easter egger was crowing today (at 7 weeks) and I've never had an Easter egger before, so I don't want to compare him to my year old barred rock rooster, who matured very late (didn't crow till almost full grown). No wattles, but a very red and pronounced pea comb, but about the same size as my other pullets who are rocks. I will try to get a good picture later. I would love to have a pretty roo, but I really wanted colored eggs!

 

[kstaven]

Is the ancestry of your roo ameraucana or araucana? If it is ameraucana that is nothing unusual at all. If araucana it is early.

Now all you need to do is get chicks from him and his ladies so you can get lots of green or blue/green eggs when the chicks grow up.

 

[Jekajo80]

I got him from the feedstore, so I'm just calling him an Easter Egger because I'm not really exactly how to distinguish between the Americauna/Araucana breeds. But from pictures, I'm leaning towards Americauna because he has a tail, and big old muffs beard. When I ordered my chicks, I was just going to try a couple EE's with my rocks. The one died the next day (she looked runted) and he was the only EE left. If he was crossed with my barred and white rocks, could we have colored egg chickens? On some of the other boards, they have also said that Americaunas/Araucanas tend to be really aggressive? Please tell me some good things, because I think if he tried anything, my two other roosters (barred rock and brahma) would put him in his place.

By the way, I took a picture and I will try to upload it onto here later.

 

[hencackle]

Jekajo80--my 1st EE roo crowed at 7 weeks too. Most likely your roo has Ameraucana ancestry since true Araucanas are far less common. There's no guarantee that an EE will have 1 blue egg gene either.

I will have to say that my EE did try to test me. He was one to hold a grudge and chickens have excellent memories. Don't kick or hit him. Don't stamp your feet on the ground...DH did this and the roo considered it a challenge and went after my DH's legs.

If you haven't already started doing so, now is the time to carry your roo under one arm, football-style. His head should be below your armpit and his feet will be in front of your body. Walk around a few minutes, toss some feed to your other chickens, but still hold onto him. My roo likes to rest in legs in my palm and he will just relax into a trance-like state. You can even massage an area between the roos shoulders that will help him relax and be more submissive.

Another thing I did to assert my dominance--whenever my rooster mounted a hen in my presence, I'd say "NO!", then I would pick him up and put him in the football position. After a few times, all I had to do was tell him "NO!"
Stephanie

 

[silkhope]

I have two americauna roosters. As far as the aggression, I have not had an ounce of aggression from them, even towards my small daughter who likes to play around in their coop and pick them up. The red one dodges her (and me, and his shadow) and the other one actually lets me pet him and he eats out of my hand very gently.

They actually cower to one of my hens... she is top dog

 

[kstaven]

Never had aggression issues from ameraucana or araucana roosters. If you ee rooster has a beard muffs and a peacomb then he is most likely ameraucana ancestry. The peacomb and genes for blue eggs go together. If single comb he will not be passing on blue egg genetics to offspring.

If you where up here in canada I could give you a good ameraucana roo. Have too many at the moment. All mine are gentle and can be picked up.

 

[Jekajo80]

My easter Egg chicken. Thanks for all the replies. Will he get very big?

 

[dangerouschicken]

Oh my he's cute!