Lakeside Egger Thread

[FrostRanger]

As of yesterday the ladies are 16 weeks old! No eggs yet, but I'd rather they wait a bit anyways

First up, my reddest girl Basil

She is my loudest girl and will often greet me when I step out the door by yelling at me. I have literally been caught off guard by it before and start to head over there to see what's up and then remember "oh, it's just Basil saying hello " lol. She, my buff orpington Juniper and one of my easter eggers Ginkgo are what I call the welcome committee 'cause they're usually the first to the gate to say hi to me when I come outside. As I said previously, most my girls are in a don't touch me phase so she's not letting me pet her ATM but she's just as eager to see what i'm doing and be near me

Next up Lavender

(She's panting BTW 'cause it's 91F outside at the time of the photo and very humid)
Lavender is average on the noise scale, but like my late hen Thyme she honks rather than clucks most of the time. I somehow have wound up with 2 birds that honk and they're both blue lol. Lavender is also friendly to human and bird alike. I told this story elsewhere but a few days ago I was putting the girls up and Juniper was confused and couldn't find her way inside and Lavender came out and showed her inside!

Last but not least, Chocolate Mint

Bonus photo of Lavender (right) and Chocolate Mint (left) together with Vanilla in the back

Chocolate Mint is the most independent of the trio but she's still calm and friendly. She's the quietest bird in the whole flock as well. I meant to take a photo of her feet while I was out there but one of her back toes has grown a lot since the last time I shared a photo of her feet. I don't think it'll be problematic for her at all, but it is pretty cool

I shall update again whenever someone lays an egg or when a few weeks have passed, whichever comes first lol

 

[aquila]

What lovely chickens! It will be interesting to see the eggs when they start laying.

 

[FrostRanger]

18 week update!
So my girls are finally coming out of their skittish phase (yay!) and I can actually pet most of them most of the time now. No one is laying yet but I do see some red combs and a little bit of squatting from a few of them (Ginkgo (EE), Ginger (EE) and Juniper (BO)). Lavender has taken up Basil's habit of yelling at me. It's not constant, but if I walk out and they see me they'll yell at me "come here and look at us! We're cute! Oh, and bring treats!". Chocolate Mint is still the quietest girl in the flock. Here are some pictures of the ladies

Basil

Lavender

And Chocolate Mint

With added photos of Chocolate Mint's feet

Yes, her back toe really is just that long. She also has some brown leakage on her face which also helps to distinguish her from Lavender

 

[FrostRanger]

As of yesterday, Basil is now squatting! Won't be long now!

 

[2ndTink]

Their crests remind me of some silkie x layer crosses I hatched, that would explain the extra toe too on the one. Maybe they sprinkled silkie in the mix for some fun?

This pullet has a slight crest and the muffs, her dad is a satin and mom is EE or BA, she's about 15 weeks old now, so I'll know with the egg color soon!


I hatched out 9 of these crosses and they all have a little crest, I think they all have muffs, then they are hit and miss on 4 vs 5 toes, and feather legs or clean legs.

 

[FrostRanger]

She's pretty! I'm not entirely sure what's in this mix as Meyer is very hush-hush about what breeds they use. I do think they have cream legbar and ameraucana in there. I had suspected they used faverolles in there but silkie would make more sense as silkies don't have the brown egg gene to muddle up the blue. Other than that I have no idea lol

 

[2ndTink]

She's pretty! I'm not entirely sure what's in this mix as Meyer is very hush-hush about what breeds they use. I do think they have cream legbar and ameraucana in there. I had suspected they used faverolles in there but silkie would make more sense as silkies don't have the brown egg gene to muddle up the blue. Other than that I have no idea lol

Your's are very pretty and it is really nice to have chickens you can tell apart. Most of my layers I can tell apart, but I get to the black and splash silkies and some of them I have to check leg bands to know who they are

That's true, most silkies lay some very pale eggs. I had some that were almost white, and now I have a bunch that are a very pale cream color. I've read the brown egg genes are very complex and hard to breed out.

 

[FrostRanger]

I can't say I'm an expert in chicken genetics, but I would imagine so. Brown + blue = green so since they were going for a blue layer I would imagine that it would have been preferable to not muddle up the waters too much

 

[2ndTink]

I can't say I'm an expert in chicken genetics, but I would imagine so. Brown + blue = green so since they were going for a blue layer I would imagine that it would have been preferable to not muddle up the waters too much

Don't want to muddle the lake water's of the Lakeside Eggers!

 

[FrostRanger]

So after almost 21 long weeks, after some guidance from the ever helpful Lavender (she's such a sweetheart to human and bird alike and will often hop on my lap when I go out to sit with them) Basil is now in the nest box laying her first egg! I'll post a picture of her egg once she's done

On an unrelated note, one of my easter eggers Ginger says hi