How Many Eggs Did You Get Today?

[karenerwin]

7 eggs today. Looking for possible snow this weekend.

 

[pennyJo1960]

3 eggs from 3 hens.

Welcome to our wonderful bragging thread

 

[Spartan22]

22 Today - roosters survived another day, since I run out of time today. Maybe Sunday afternoon the road to freezer camp will be paved, when my kids are at grammas for a visit.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Might be best time too then that I understand

 

[PouleChick]

Sure, you can cross any breed with another. That cross should help keep the blue egg genes in the line.

So 'easter eggers' don't need to be any specific breed as the tan layer? So any of my chooks with my Araucana roo would be OK?

"it can be any combination of tail or tailless, muffs, beards, ear tufts Araucana

That - yep sir William is one fine bird but not muffy and tufty enough for you Americans He is tailess though

OK, spill the beans!

I'm super excited and had a final phone interview with the UK boss last evening so it is all a go! It is a job I managed to get through my friend who has worked with the company for years and thought I'd be good for the position. It is working for a really luxurious travel company being the on the ground person for the guests so they have someone to call for anything really, help, advise, to make a booking, ask what to do on a rainy day etc. Also lots of pre and post emails / phone calls, sorting out the bookings with the owners / caretakers. I have 25 houses I'll need to be looking out for, mainly around me but do have 6 over on the coast and 3 way up in the Vendee (about a 3.5 hour drive). There will be quite a bit of travel in the first couple of months as I try to see all the properties, meet the caretakers etc (yay get to be a grown up and meet people !) but once the season starts it is more admin with the emails / bookings / calls and all from home so I can still be here with the chooks / garden / kids most of the time as long as I have the mobile on me to take calls!. I'm a bit sad I've not been able to get my midwifery qualifications sorted out here but also very excited getting back into the travel industry with such a flexible job!
.

Maybe Sunday afternoon the road to freezer camp will be paved, when my kids are at grammas for a visit.

Thanks to you and the others, I think as sad as I am about loosing King Louis I've made my choice so yeah need to work out when. R back at school next week so think that may be better too - he is only 4 dont' want him traumatised as he loves our chooks. Can anyone point me to a good 'how to'? My neighbour and her mother are going to help me with this first batch but would like to have an idea of what equipment I need / what I need to do!

 

[PouleChick]

@PouleChick yes you can just know even though may start a olive egger it is a mixed breed but lot's of fun eggs,

Thanks for that chart! So the olive eggers bred with other olive eggers is where it starts getting really fun

 

[bruceha2000]

So 'easter eggers' don't need to be any specific breed as the tan layer? So any of my chooks with my Araucana roo would be OK?

Easter Eggers are not a recognized breed. At least here in the states one would expect a EE hen to lay blue or green but it is not guaranteed. The US Aracuana and Ameraucana APA breeds were developed from birds that in the past had been bred with chickens brought in from South America that carried the blue egg gene. The result after many years was birds that may or may not have:

• muffs
• beards
• ear tufts (2 of this gene is lethal to the chick which is why US APA Araucana are so hard to do)
• tails

And were commonly called Araucana or Easter egger.

One group of people in the 70's wanted to get a breed that had tufts, was tailless and laid blue eggs. The other wanted muffs, beards, tails and laid blue eggs. After much work they both succeeded, the first was allowed to call their new breed Araucana (which I think is mighty confusing), the second group succeeded later and had to come up with a name and they chose Ameraucana. There are other requirements for each breed
https://www.fresheggsdaily.com/2013/12/ameraucana-vs-araucana-vs-easter-egger.html

So what we in the US call an Easter Egger is really the starting point for the Ameraucana and Araucana breeds. At this point, given those birds exist, the easiest way to get a bearded, muffed, tailed bird that lays blue or green eggs is to have one parent be an APA Ameraucana. You can cross EE to EE but the odds of ending up with a bearded, muffed, tailed bird that lays blue or green is diminished because you don't know what recessive genes are in the mix. You really never know what color an EE will be because of that mix. Araucana and Ameraucana must be of specific colors.

 

[Cryss]

So 'easter eggers' don't need to be any specific breed as the tan layer? So any of my chooks with my Araucana roo would be OK?

That - yep sir William is one fine bird but not muffy and tufty enough for you Americans He is tailess though

I'm super excited and had a final phone interview with the UK boss last evening so it is all a go! It is a job I managed to get through my friend who has worked with the company for years and thought I'd be good for the position. It is working for a really luxurious travel company being the on the ground person for the guests so they have someone to call for anything really, help, advise, to make a booking, ask what to do on a rainy day etc. Also lots of pre and post emails / phone calls, sorting out the bookings with the owners / caretakers. I have 25 houses I'll need to be looking out for, mainly around me but do have 6 over on the coast and 3 way up in the Vendee (about a 3.5 hour drive). There will be quite a bit of travel in the first couple of months as I try to see all the properties, meet the caretakers etc (yay get to be a grown up and meet people !) but once the season starts it is more admin with the emails / bookings / calls and all from home so I can still be here with the chooks / garden / kids most of the time as long as I have the mobile on me to take calls!. I'm a bit sad I've not been able to get my midwifery qualifications sorted out here but also very excited getting back into the travel industry with such a flexible job!
.

Thanks to you and the others, I think as sad as I am about loosing King Louis I've made my choice so yeah need to work out when. R back at school next week so think that may be better too - he is only 4 dont' want him traumatised as he loves our chooks. Can anyone point me to a good 'how to'? My neighbour and her mother are going to help me with this first batch but would like to have an idea of what equipment I need / what I need to do!

Justin Rhodes always is a great source for info.

 

[karenerwin]

Only 4 eggs today. Had the day off school again, due to sleet and freezing rain. Still calling for snow Sunday night. I found a very good, detailed, graphic, "how to butcher chickens" video on here years ago but have no idea where it was located or who made it. That being said, my advise is to have a REALLY sharp knife. It really helps. I kill mine by slitting the jugular vein and letting them bleed out while hanging upside down.

 

[karenerwin]

@PouleChick the above video that Cryss linked does a good job of showing and talking about what to do. It is different from the one I watched years ago, but it does a great job showing you what you need to do.