Hen to Rooster Ratios

[aart]

By the way, does anyone have any experience with Easter Eggers? I know they’re technically hybrids and not a standardized breed, but is there anything that I should keep in mind with them in particular?

Not hybrids really, just crosses.
I've had a bunch of them, some of my bestest bluest eggs came from EE's.
But they can be sporadic layers, because they cross them with all different breeds, and there's no guarantee they will lay blue/green tho most my hatchery birds did.

 

[Ridgerunner]

By the way, does anyone have any experience with Easter Eggers? I know they’re technically hybrids and not a standardized breed, but is there anything that I should keep in mind with them in particular?

Not really, they are just chickens. They are not necessarily hybrids, they are not necessarily crosses. In the USA it just means they don't meet our breed standards for Ameraucana or Araucana. Since the UK breed standards for Araucana are different to ours we would consider their prize-winning Araucana to be EE's. I'm pretty sure they do not recognize Ameraucana as a breed.

We can't even agree on what Easter Egger means in the USA. To some people there is a requirement that the females lay a blue or green egg. To others it means that somewhere in their ancestry there was a chicken that laid a blue or green egg. It could be several generations back.

In the USA the Ameraucana and Araucana breeds were derived from what we would call Easter Eggers. The original blue/green egg laying bird was discovered in Chile, a single combed bird. Other chickens with the muffs, tuffs, rumpless, and the pea comb was discovered in the same general area of Chile. By the time those birds made it to Europe (before coming to the USA) people thought all those traits went together. Those birds caused a lot of confusion from the start and it hasn't lessened up, people are still confused about them. Hatcheries were selling birds called Araucana before the breed was even developed in the USA.

I guess the takeaway is that EE doesn't mean anything other than colored eggs might or might not be involved. If someone tells you that their EE lay a lot of big eggs, are a certain size, are flighty, or go broody a lot it does not mean anything. Yours could be totally opposite or they may be similar.

 

[FluffTheDuck]

For breeding I typically just take the best quality rooster I have and then take the second best quality rooster too and keep them and cull the rest. Same with hens.

 

[Firefoot]

Like @Ridgerunner said, Easter Eggers are too variable to have distinct traits. But I think there are some preferred crosses from hatcheries and the like because I there do seem to be similar "colorways" of EEs. Like, I have a EE pullet that is that common chestnut-red/brown color with black and gold bits -- I see ones that look like her all over the place. And my EE cockerel is white and black with rust on his wings and a dirty gold on his hackles -- I see that frequently too. So I don't know what those crosses are, but they seem common.

So I'll chime in and say that my EE cockerel, though still young, seems really really nice. He's about 10 months old now and while he had minute in the beginning of being pretty vicious about mating, running them around and standing on them too long, it only lasted a couple weeks. Some time in with my older girls taught him how 'court', and since then he's really quite good. Unfortunately, I have lost 3 of his original 6 girls (Marek's and a fox) and the 2 (previously 3 -- one was a B****) older girls don't really let him mate them often (I've only seen him get one of them twice, and the big red only once). So, he really favors his remaining 3 and while he's pretty gentle, they have saddles on now. :/ He is getting more pullets this spring/summer.

But he's is the nicest roo I've had personally so far (out of 3): he keeps them together in the yard, tidbits them all day, doesn't aggressively mate them, has fought off a hawk, and is not aggressive with me. I can pet and pick up the girls with him there and while he gets concerned if they make a fuss, he doesn't do anything but talk to them. More than I can say for my previous roo. Plus he's really pretty. I know EEs aren't really a "breed," but he was a good purchase for me! My other two roos were an Australorp and a buff Orp. I used to work at a place with a Barred Rock roo who was horribly aggressive to people and got put down.

 

[MeganFair]

@Ridgerunner That would explain why the TSC I bought them from labeled them as Ameraucanas. When I went to research the breed a little more, I ran across a website that said that most sold in the US were actually hybrids. When I checked the hatchery TSC uses, they only had “Americaunas” or some such thing. That’s when I ran across the term Easter Egger.

I kinda decided on my own that they were probably not actual Ameraucanas because they all have some irregularities from one another (markings, some have fluffier faces that I’m guessing means tufted). I have experience with different duck breeds, and while ducklings had some variance in their looks, none had differed as wildly as these chicks do. The only thing that’s common is their pea comb. Of course, that was the judgement I made back when they were smaller. They’ve grown out their feathers a bit, and now I see that I’ve got at least two color varieties going on - a reddish brown and black variety and a silver and black variety. I still don’t think I have breed standard Ameraucanas, but I do have some pretty birds.

@Firefoot Yeah, when I looked at Hoover Hatchery (the supplier TSC uses) they mentioned that the “Americauna” thing they had was a cross with the Ameraucana and the Araucana, so I think you’re right about hatcheries having preferred strains. Plus, I think I might have the exact two color ways you’re talking about!

Still, even though they’re not a recognized breed, that does give me hope that any Roos I have will be on the nicer side of things. I’m going to have plenty of space if I have a couple of them - their run is going to be roughly 400 square feet and I bought another ten pullets. They’re also being raised with four ducklings, so they should be able to get along with my ducks, of which I have more ordered. Around my house this was the year of the bird.