Lurking no more ... because I'm so excited, I just have to share!
I'm a chickens newbie, and got my chicks in late April. I was first in line when the young man at the hardware store opened the packages. He scooped out three GLWs for me, and then three EEs. As he was reaching for the final EE, I stopped him and said "no, that one," pointing to a chick with lighter coloring. I wanted variety of plumage, so that I would more easily tell them apart.
The GLWs began to lay beginning the end of September. The EEs seem to be late bloomers, and I finally got the first green egg from one of them in early December, but i began to wonder if the other two might be as barren as the Sahara Desert. My husband was threatening to rename one of them "Fricassee."
I became fascinated with the Wheaten Ameraucanas, and their astonishing blue eggs, when MPC announced that they would offer them as day-old chicks. And I noticed that my pale colored EE chick, Chicken Patty, had grown up to look a lot like a Blue Wheaten Ameraucana. Of course Patty is just an EE, a mongrel with I don't know what in the mix. But her coloring caused me to hope that she might carry a genetic profile that would give her eggs a lovely blue coloring, unlike the olive green of her sister EE, Chicken Tenders.
Well she certainly is a late bloomer; she has taken over 9-1/2 months to get around to laying. In the last week however, Patty, the most skittish of my birds, has begun to offer me a full-on squat, and allow me to touch her, so I became very hopeful. This morning after Tenders exited the coop singing her "I've just laid an egg song," I went to take a peek, and found her warm and perfect olive green egg ... and lying next to it, the most beautiful blue egg I have ever seen outside of a robin's nest!
I'm so beside myself with delight, that I just had to share with people who might be able to relate! My friends and neighbors would just think I'm off my rocker! Well, they might not be wrong about that ... ha ha.
I'm a chickens newbie, and got my chicks in late April. I was first in line when the young man at the hardware store opened the packages. He scooped out three GLWs for me, and then three EEs. As he was reaching for the final EE, I stopped him and said "no, that one," pointing to a chick with lighter coloring. I wanted variety of plumage, so that I would more easily tell them apart.
The GLWs began to lay beginning the end of September. The EEs seem to be late bloomers, and I finally got the first green egg from one of them in early December, but i began to wonder if the other two might be as barren as the Sahara Desert. My husband was threatening to rename one of them "Fricassee."
I became fascinated with the Wheaten Ameraucanas, and their astonishing blue eggs, when MPC announced that they would offer them as day-old chicks. And I noticed that my pale colored EE chick, Chicken Patty, had grown up to look a lot like a Blue Wheaten Ameraucana. Of course Patty is just an EE, a mongrel with I don't know what in the mix. But her coloring caused me to hope that she might carry a genetic profile that would give her eggs a lovely blue coloring, unlike the olive green of her sister EE, Chicken Tenders.
Well she certainly is a late bloomer; she has taken over 9-1/2 months to get around to laying. In the last week however, Patty, the most skittish of my birds, has begun to offer me a full-on squat, and allow me to touch her, so I became very hopeful. This morning after Tenders exited the coop singing her "I've just laid an egg song," I went to take a peek, and found her warm and perfect olive green egg ... and lying next to it, the most beautiful blue egg I have ever seen outside of a robin's nest!
I'm so beside myself with delight, that I just had to share with people who might be able to relate! My friends and neighbors would just think I'm off my rocker! Well, they might not be wrong about that ... ha ha.
