Four colors of Starlight Green Eggers

[Chipmunk Chicks]

@GPican I think your pale chick may feather out like my Peep, here in the bottom rung! She's just the prettiest lil thing, IMHO

Sorry the lighting is kind of dark from the smoke in the air today.

I also have a straight up RED chick, but the jury is still out if she's really an SGE or just a RIR who jumped the bin lol so I don't have her pictured here.

 

[bterry53]

@GPican I think your pale chick may feather out like my Peep, here in the bottom rung! She's just the prettiest lil thing, IMHO
View attachment 3532489View attachment 3532490
Sorry the lighting is kind of dark from the smoke in the air today.

I also have a straight up RED chick, but the jury is still out if she's really an SGE or just a RIR who jumped the bin lol so I don't have her pictured here.

the bird on top looks like my rooster that was suppose to be a starlight green egger. what kind of bird is the top bird (white)

 

[Chipmunk Chicks]

the bird on top looks like my rooster that was suppose to be a starlight green egger. what kind of bird is the top bird (white)

Yes! Also a SGE cockerel, as far as I know. I was thinking if I keep him I might have him tested to see for sure if he is carrying the blue/green genetics.

 

[FunClucks]

I had two partridge looking SGEs (similar to yours above, but one had more gold instead of black on her neck, and the other had a red head and neck). I rehomed the one with a red head and neck because she started feather picking one of my Prairie Bluebells and we weren't able to discourage the behavior. She pulled all the feathers off of half her back in less than an hour. 50-100 feathers. She was one of the friendlier chickens, which was sad.

All the SGEs I still have are a bit neurotic, although they'll allow me to handle them. They're laying now, two greens (white chicks) and a tan egg (chipmunk chick). They're less flighty than my Prairie Bluebells and more flighty than my ISA Browns, Golden Comet, and Buff Orpingtons. One of my favorite chickens is actually an olive egger that looks like the partridge SGEs, but has a head poof. She's the most friendly of all the colored egg layers, but unfortunately she turned out to lay a brown (peachy brown) egg. I really wanted an olive egger... Just not having much luck with these partridge colored chickens, or with colored egg layers at the moment.

Interesting note - one of my SGEs is now just over a year old, and went broody (she did it twice last year but I broke her). So I let her sit on some eggs. Her chicks are 4+ weeks now, and she's done awesome with them and is a great mom! This is one of the ironies of life I think, because none of my other adult chickens, including the buff orpington, have even gone broody.

So in spite of her medium size eggs, slightly neurotic behavior, and bad feathering (rooster really tore her up, and head hen picked her, but she's been so aggressive to other chickens lately in defense of her chicks her feathers are growing back without disturbance), Sassy has earned herself a permanent place in the flock. She lets me pet her and her chicks when they're on the roost at night with little argument, and hasn't given me any trouble about touching them. She lets me change out eggs under her and accepted her last chick immediately (which I finished hatching in an incubator for 12 hrs - there was a staggered hatch so I can't really blame her for that) even before I put it under her. The chicks have picked up her avoidance of humans, but they're not actually afraid, so I can live with that.

Not directly related to SGE coloration, but if anyone else has had a SGE go broody I'd love to hear it. Since they're production colored egg layers and are not bred for broodiness, I was quite surprised.

 

[FunClucks]

I bought starlight green egger from tractor supply. They are 6 weeks old now, I am having a hard time telling them apart from my golden comets, who are the same age and also bought at tractor supply.View attachment 3518390

Not sure if you got an answer, but at this age, it's super hard to tell. I could only tell mine because I kept an eye on it as it grew and got it from a separate bin. I've had SGEs that have red laced white and one SGE where the red is kind of just muddled with no lacing. Golden comets usually have a lot more red, and they have solid red feathers where they are red, but you may have to wait until they feather into their adult coat to tell. My SGEs have a slightly larger/longer adult tail, and slightly different body type, but the two chicken breeds look VERY similar. If you see any white with red lacing, odds are good it's SGE, or if chicken is 2/3 white, then SGE, but again, that's a guideline not a hard rule, and percentage white/red can change with each juvenile molt. I haven't seen any laced golden comets, but not all SGEs in the white/red coloration are laced.

 

[NewAtThis8]

Weird question- but anyone notice their behavior compared to heritage breeds is wild? Like mine are all nice but they don’t really come when called/when I’ve got treats and run all over compared to the two heritage breed chicks I picked up a few weeks after.

 

[Chipmunk Chicks]

Weird question- but anyone notice their behavior compared to heritage breeds is wild? Like mine are all nice but they don’t really come when called/when I’ve got treats and run all over compared to the two heritage breed chicks I picked up a few weeks after.

What other breeds do you have? And where did you get them from? Some of it can come down to breed, sometimes it's down to the individual bird. A lot of production breeds have leghorn in the mix so that can make them more aloof.

 

[NewAtThis8]

What other breeds do you have? And where did you get them from? Some of it can come down to breed, sometimes it's down to the individual bird. A lot of production breeds have leghorn in the mix so that can make them more aloof.

I got the eggers from TSC and they were my first ever chickens, so I thought that was how they all are! But a friend raised buff Orpington and got Easter eggers her next year and brought up how wild hers were compared to the eggers. We actually funny enough had one of the starlights be a leghorn cockerel so rehomed him. To take his place I went to our local feed store (so still same stock.. from a hatchery) and got one barred rock and one buff orpington, and their temperament at this age compared to the eggers is wildly different! I love them all but thought it was interesting.

 

[FunClucks]

Weird question- but anyone notice their behavior compared to heritage breeds is wild? Like mine are all nice but they don’t really come when called/when I’ve got treats and run all over compared to the two heritage breed chicks I picked up a few weeks after.

Yeah, the SGEs are flighty and aloof, and so are the Prairie Bluebell Eggers. I assume it's due to the leghorn in their ancestry. Also much depends on the individual chicken.

 

[Chipmunk Chicks]

I got the eggers from TSC and they were my first ever chickens, so I thought that was how they all are! But a friend raised buff Orpington and got Easter eggers her next year and brought up how wild hers were compared to the eggers. We actually funny enough had one of the starlights be a leghorn cockerel so rehomed him. To take his place I went to our local feed store (so still same stock.. from a hatchery) and got one barred rock and one buff orpington, and their temperament at this age compared to the eggers is wildly different! I love them all but thought it was interesting.

Right? All my birds are either TSC or Cackle My Australorps have a fantastic temperament, but there's still a couple that come over to be petted or tolerate being held more than others. The Welsummers too, there's a couple that are always first to get picked up, and a couple that are always hardest to catch! Lol. I have two SLWs this year, and the one who looks seriously 'pet quality' is SO FRIENDLY AND SWEET! But her sister who has much better lacing and tail shape for the breed is actually the hardest to catch of the bunch. But you see how if you are selecting for one thing (egg color, productivity) the breed may suffer in other areas (temperament etc). There are other heritage breeds I want to try for various reasons, including temperament (Dominiques, Buckeyes, Sussex etc) and others I would be more interested in based on egg color (Marans, Legbars, Andalusian etc) and it will remain to be seen how the egg color and temperament, or ease of handling, grid may square off.

ETA and I say "suffer" loosely bc obviously for any given characteristic, i.e. flightiness, that could be an asset for someone with different preferences or style of flock management.