Help me pick the prettiest roo (Easter Egger)

[savingdogs]

Okay, so I bought sexed pullets and a cockerel, wanting to breed some Easter Eggers.

I ended up iwith THREE roos all together and now I need to pick.

One went missing this morning......I'm still hoping he returns from free ranging, but I pretty much decided he doesn't have the personality to be the resident roo with my older hens.

So here are my choices for you......

This is Scratch:

And this is Uh-Oh

Uh-Oh has not figured out mating very well yet, or crowing....he sounds like a drowned frog, but it is good for a laugh I've heard (I'm actually deaf).

But Scratch seems to be accomplishing mating with the hens and I'm not sure Uh Oh has ....perfected his technique yet.

They currently get along but I don't need two roos........

Suggestions as to which one is the better EE? My EE hens are white, white and red, a dove colored one, and two of those multi-colored ones. Scratch looks like a prettier version of my white and red one.

 

[Illia]

Both carry splash, so all your offspring are either going to be blue based our some splashes too if you have blue based hens.

Both are duckwing based, but one appears full duckwing with Columbian and the other only partially duckwing.

So if you want more gray/white colors, choose the guy on the bottom. If you want more red, orange, brown, etc in there too, choose the guy on the top.

 

[I-Have-Happy-Hens]

I

uh-oh

 

[nicalandia]

Quote:
don't know about the second boy genetics, his wing triangle seems like Er to me...

 

[Illia]

Quote:
That's my point. Duckwing x Black = bird that resembles E^R but isn't. Trust me, I've had LOADS of such crosses. I've yet to see an Easter Egger actually carry the gene, too, although Olive Eggers do - They're not so common.

 

[BrownSheep]

I'm a fan of Scratch

 

[savingdogs]

Both of these birds were sold as "Ameraucanas".....but I knew they were from a hatchery and knew I was buying Easter Eggers.

 

[KDailey]

Personally I think Uh-oh is prettier. But.... after Illia's assessment of the genetic side of things I think I would go with Scratch in order to get a wider array of colors in the chicks.

But if it were me I'd keep both until it became an issue.

 

[savingdogs]

Quote:
Well, here is the issue.......

Scratch is mating with the mature hens, not the ones his age, and crowing fine. When he crows, Uh Oh tries to join him in song and it sounds hysterical. But when Scratch mates with the hens, Uh-oh goes over and watches and tries to join THAT too, and pecks at the poor hen's neck. A few are missing most of their neck feathers now. If Uh Oh sees Scratch getting....amorous, he charges over to do his neck attacks.

I did see Uh Oh attempting to mate with a hen when he was separated from Scratch (I wanted to stop the double-teaming) and he did mate with one, but he seems more afraid of the hens unless he is with Scratch. He only mated with my lowest ranking hen.

I really hate to see "rooster wear". I have 20 hens but only 1/2 are Easter Eggers so I don't care if the older hens are laying fertile eggs or not, I don't plan to hatch any of them. My other birds are BO, RIR, Spec Sussex and orloffs so I'm not sure what kinda weird chicken I'd get crossing them with an easter egger. But I do have five Easter Egger hens that I would love to lay fertile eggs, and I would also like to have a roo again to protect the flock when free ranging. But I could keep the "keeper" rooster with the EEs in a separate area to make sure that they are getting fertilized when the time comes.

 

[Illia]

Easter Eggers are already mutts

So crossing them with other breeds is perfectly fine, in fact it will make some healthier and more vigorous crosses than with your EE hens. Also, they'll have wilder colors and neater greenish gold eggs, too.

And if you're thinking of that (I'd do it!) then again, Scratch would be even better of a choice because of his color.

His lack of dominance will get better in time. Right now there's a more dominant rooster, and two boys can't tie for the job, so, he's on the bottom. It may actually mean though that he's a better "gentleman."



If you want to keep both, build a little pen/run for one of them to live separately in, and switch them every week or so.

Make sure the fencing around the two is fine though, fine enough that they can't hurt each other in possible fence-fights.