Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[saysfaa]

Do you know of anyone offering black-feathered Easter Eggers? Also beardless? The muffs of the Ameraucana were a compromise for me; I like the plain feathering patterns better. I know there are some black Easter Eggers because they come in nearly every color pattern but I don't know how to pick one out of a bin even if I went where I could pick a chick out. Is there a way?

Cuckoo is also a compromise - the darkest, plainest color I could find and still be different than black or black with red leakage. Do French Marans ever have clean legs? I care more about clean legs than darker eggs. I will think about it more maybe as little leg feathering as they have would better than something else

My first choice would be each bird all black with pea comb, rose comb, cushion comb, walnut comb, and small single comb. Or red and white earlobes combined with different types of combs. Sandhill offers some of these but not knowing when the chicks are coming until they are on the way just doesn't for me work this year. And there are some of these options in the breeds that I think would be too flighty - sumatra, dark cornish, maybe others.

 

[Folly's place]

Didn't understand! So you want all black birds with some variation?! Look at Henderson's breed chart for ideas...
Mary

 

[1muttsfan]

Sex links, either black or red, are likely to give you large to extra large eggs, especially after the first year.

 

[1muttsfan]

Speckled Sussex are calm, friendly, handle confinement well, and are decent layers of generally medium sized brown eggs. I have not had trouble with frostbite with the hens I have had. They are very easy to tell apart. They are also one of my favorites, and I always have a few in my flock. They aren't black though.

 

[fuzzi]

Speckled Sussex are calm, friendly, handle confinement well, and are decent layers of generally medium sized brown eggs. I have not had trouble with frostbite with the hens I have had. They are very easy to tell apart. They are also one of my favorites, and I always have a few in my flock. They aren't black though.

Complicated list!
Cuckoo Marans are clean legged, not French Marans, and here the cuckoo birds produced eggs barely a shade darker than all the other brown egglayers. If you like the cuckoo color, consider a French Marans that color from Cackle, who will have chocolate colored eggs.
How about Easter Eggers instead of a black Ameraucana? Or a blue Ameraucana?
Three straight run birds won't give you a great chance of many pullets...
How about Speckled Sussex? The speckles will vary, so not hard to tell them apart. Favorite birds of mine, always!
I do like to order straight run, but in larger numbers, so pullets are more likely.
Mary

I'm also recommending Speckled Sussex. Nice, friendly, confines well, clean-legged.

I can tell mine apart even without the leg rings.

L>R: Rahab, Hannah, Martha. Samuel is in the back, he's obvious...

I also like my Dominiques (sexed, from Cackle) but they're harder to individually identify. Their personalities tend to help.

 

[Sally PB]

I need to see the face or comb to tell my Black Australorps apart. Then it's obvious, to me. Hubby can't tell.

 

[saysfaa]

Yep, I could tell Spice and Nutmeg (leghorns) apart instantly by their behavior. I can tell the australorps apart if I watch them for awhile - as long as I watch them long enough often enough. Otherwise, I pretty much need to take a picture of their combs. The differences in the combs are too subtle to see easily.

I didn't allow for how much their behavior would change as their rate of lay changed and/or place in the picking order. And expected more variation in behavior, like the leghorns.

 

[saysfaa]

I've got another month and a half at least to think about it. I'll think a lot about the speckled sussex. The cuckoo color grew on me, maybe the speckles will too.

 

[Folly's place]

SS are beautiful!!!

 

[fuzzi]

I've got another month and a half at least to think about it. I'll think a lot about the speckled sussex. The cuckoo color grew on me, maybe the speckles will too.

This is an example of the breed standard (not my hen).

I have read that the speckles act as camouflage, especially for birds of prey.