Info. on Easter Eggers?

[windnleavesfarm]

Give me a little info. on them? Are the dual? Hardy? Good mamas? Gwt along with other breeds? Had any problems?

 

[draye]

Give me a little info. on them? Are the dual? Hardy? Good mamas? Gwt along with other breeds? Had any problems?

Depends on how you define dual purpose, they are a little smaller than most dual prupose chickens, but I use mine for eating when I need to get rid of roosters. Most thst I have had are very hardy, but there are exceptions. Never have let mine go broody, but I have one now that has tried twice, but I got her broke for now. Mine have gotten along with other breeds well. No major problems, just your normal everyday like any other breed.

I think you'll really lovethem, they are my favorite as they come in so many colors and most are friendly.

 

[Ridgerunner]

An Easter Egger is just a chicken that should have a copy of the blue egg gene so the hens lay blue or green eggs. They might be any color or pattern, have any color of legs or ear lobes. They might be tiny bantams or as big as Jersey Giants. They might go broody, they might not. They might be aggressive, they might not. An Easter Egger is just a word for a chicken that should lay a colored egg. I say should because a lot of them don’t even do that.

Easter Eggers are not a breed. They are crosses, mixes. They do not have breed characteristics. You can’t say if they are good duals or not, go broody a lot or not, lay well or not because there are no breed characteristics. Asking about EE’s is a lot like asking the general population, what is your mutt dog like. It’s going to depend on what breeds were used to make the mutt. I feel like I’m coming across as harsh but EE really doesn’t mean much.

Where are you thinking about getting them from? A certain hatchery? Each hatchery is different. If you can find someone that got EE’s from that specific hatchery they can tell you how their EE’s performed. That’s your best bet to get your questions answered.

If the hatchery mixed in Leghorns you’ll get EE’s that lay fairly well and lay decent sized eggs, but the bodies won’t be real big as far as producing meat. If they mixed in other full-sized breeds, they’ll make better dual purpose chickens.

I’ve made my own by getting some Ameraucana project birds for the blue egg gene and mixing them with fill-sized breeds, Speckled Sussex and Black Australorps. They lay well but egg size is a bit small. I’ll work on that. By selecting larger birds as my breeders, they now make a pretty good meal. But that is just my mix. I have no idea what breeds went into your mix.

 

[AxisOfBeagles]

Agree with RR - "EE" is a lousy catch-all term that simply distinguishes hybrid chickens that lay blue or olive eggs from selectively bred Ameracaunas and the like.

Having said that, our current EE's, like many others here on the forum I suspect, are similar in size and patterning to large fowl Ameracaunas (blue wheaten, brown red, silver) and are delightful birds on the farm. The roosters we've had were not particularly large as meat birds go so I wouldn't raise them specifically for meat birds but make perfectly good table fare when culling the flock.

The hens are a delight. Good layers (only our RIR's out-lay them), and great disposition - inquisitive, clever, friendly and amusing.

We got this last batch from eFowl - but who knows how consistent a source that is.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Beagles, you might want to read this. I find it fascinating. It shows that Araucanas and Ameraucanas were originally developed from EE’s, not the other way around.

Ameraucana History
http://www.ameraucana.org/history.html

It’s interesting to note that the Ameraucana were not recognized in the US of A until 1984. That’s pretty recent. I suspect some of the hatchery stock for the EE’s predated that.

 

[AxisOfBeagles]

Thx RR!