ISO Easter Egger, Arizona

[EmmaDonovan]

Looking for a young, smallish, sweet tempered laying hen who looks like this. Can be an Easter Egger or an Ameraucana or a mixed breed. One year old or younger and laying regularly. The egg color doesn't matter but her appearance and temperament do.

She must look like this and be non-aggressive, friendly, and maybe even a little submissive towards other hens. We should be able to pick her up and gently hold her, at least briefly, without any struggle.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Oh, I sense a story behind this, Emma. Come in, fill us in!

 

[EmmaDonovan]

Oh, I sense a story behind this, Emma. Come in, fill us in!

Oh, it's not that interesting, I'm afraid. We have an EE who looks like that. She was being bullied so badly no one would let her eat and she was losing weight.

We put her in a pen by herself until she gained the weight back but she was utterly miserable alone. She was adjacent to a pen with three hens but she cried every night and she paced back and forth on that side of the pen, wanting to roost with them.

She's the only one in our flock who looks like that (our two other EEs are wheatish/golden). I thought maybe if there were another hen who looked like her, she might be bullied less, and maybe she would have a friend.

As it is, we were able to integrate her into the group of three hens who were next to her. She ranks 2nd or 3rd and is doing well with them. The alpha will pick on her a bit if she gets the chance, but the EE is good at staying out of her reach. They all cuddle up together on the roost at night.

I've never seen the EE so happy. She is courageous and friendly and runs to us to squat and ask to be picked up (although she kicks if you don't hold her feet just right).

I still wouldn't mind having another young hen in the flock who looks like her, though. Pretty soon we'll be trying to integrate her group of four with a group of five. (My blood pressure goes up just thinking about that!) I don't want to see her bullied and end up on the bottom again.

 

[EmmaDonovan]

This is her. Her beak has never quite closed all the way and I've never been able to figure out what exactly the problem is. When I examine it, it looks like it should close just fine.

Sometimes she has trouble grabbing at something to eat but she gets it in a few tries. You can see the scratch all around her on the ground and she eats that without any problems. She has trouble sometimes with blades of grass that are thin and can slip through that gap. If she can't grab it in a few tries she just moves on to something else. She is larger than she looks in this photo (that's the alpha in the back with the blue leg band).

She doesn't lay any more. She was the last to start laying, and then she took a break for a few months, then laid a few more eggs, then stopped. It's a shame because she laid beautiful blue eggs and she was our only blue egger (the other two EEs lay green eggs). We've decided she's a pet and will stay with us for the rest of her life, anyway. She's so cute and energetic and friendly. She loves running over the boxes and tipping them over. If we set them upright, she'll run over them again and tip them over again, but she runs on top and slowly tips it, like when a person runs up on top of a chair and slowly tips it over. I think she did it by accident once and then decided it was fun!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I could be wrong here, but ... it shouldn't really matter if you get a chicken that looks like her or not to integrate her with. I say that because animals really have no concept of what they themselves look like. They can't see themselves. Even if you get them a mirror, they don't realize the image in the mirror is a reflection of themselves, they think it's another animal. What method are you using for integrating?

 

[EmmaDonovan]

I was thinking of the other chickens, not her. She might be a target because she looks different from everyone else. I've heard of flocks that single out a hen for looking different. If there were another hen who looked like her, maybe she would be less likely to be a target.

We have a new run with all new clutter and new feed and water stations. New everything. It will be new for everyone. We plan to release the less aggressive group of four into the new run first. Then we'll let in the group of five and hope for the best.

For the last couple of weeks, they've been spending at least an hour every afternoon in adjoining pens with 1/2" hardware cloth diving them. Most of the time they ignore each other but we're still seeing some aggression: posturing, chest bumping, flared cape feathers, clawing, etc. Sometimes the other hens respond the same way, most of the time they stare for a few moments then when they realize they can't get to them through the hardware cloth, they just ignore them.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I was thinking of the other chickens, not her. She might be a target because she looks different from everyone else. I've heard of flocks that single out a hen for looking different. If there were another hen who looked like her, maybe she would be less likely to be a target.

Oh I see, I misunderstood. They might be picking on her for her beak weakness, not for her appearance. I don't know if she is mildly cross-beaked or what could be causing her beak "deformity" for lack of a better word, but birds will always spot weakness and attack it.

We have a new run with all new clutter and new feed and water stations. New everything. It will be new for everyone. We plan to release the less aggressive group of four into the new run first. Then we'll let in the group of five and hope for the best.

And where will she be in this mix?

For the last couple of weeks, they've been spending at least an hour every afternoon in adjoining pens with 1/2" hardware cloth diving them. Most of the time they ignore each other but we're still seeing some aggression: posturing, chest bumping, flared cape feathers, clawing, etc. Sometimes the other hens respond the same way, most of the time they stare for a few moments then when they realize they can't get to them through the hardware cloth, they just ignore them.

Have you tried sprinkling treats on both sides of the barrier, so they have to eat goodies together? That often helps them feel neighborly toward each other IME too.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Sorry my dog bumped me so I hit Post before I was done, I edited my response.