The EE braggers thread!!!

[draye]

Quote:
She looks like she's going to be a silver. Look up a brown leghorn hen and you can kind of get a picture of the color.

 

[debid]

Except for the white chest. I'm not sure causes that genetically yet but the last one I saw like this was male.

 

[debid]

(Duplicate post)

 

[NotableNancy]

Except for the white chest. I'm not sure causes that genetically yet but the last one I saw like this was male.

Thanks everyone... I guess I just have to be patient.
Maybe I'll post pics to ask gender in a month or so if I still can't tell

 

[OldChurchEggery1]

Hi folks! I was just stopping in to share some pictures of my EE hatch from the 24/25 March. I have 8 right now, though 4 are not pictured as they're just plain black. I think I have a total of 3 females and 5 males. Each of the "interesting" colored chicks is pictured twice above. I think the first two are females and the second two are males. The two I think are females are two of the three largest in the hatch (the first male is also in that group). I believe they are out of my EE that is half Jersey Giant. The first chick pictured had a mix of black and reddish-brown down, with the ruddy stuff making a stripe down the back and some markings on the head (which you can still see a little). The second and third chicks were completely reddish-brown at hatch and you can still see a lot of the down color on the one I think is a cockerel. The last chick was chipmunk-striped and from my Silver Ameraucana hen. The father of all these chicks is my white EE.

 

[ChickNmamma]

Hi folks! I was just stopping in to share some pictures of my EE hatch from the 24/25 March. I have 8 right now, though 4 are not pictured as they're just plain black. I think I have a total of 3 females and 5 males. Each of the "interesting" colored chicks is pictured twice above. I think the first two are females and the second two are males. The two I think are females are two of the three largest in the hatch (the first male is also in that group). I believe they are out of my EE that is half Jersey Giant. The first chick pictured had a mix of black and reddish-brown down, with the ruddy stuff making a stripe down the back and some markings on the head (which you can still see a little). The second and third chicks were completely reddish-brown at hatch and you can still see a lot of the down color on the one I think is a cockerel. The last chick was chipmunk-striped and from my Silver Ameraucana hen. The father of all these chicks is my white EE.

So you are finding that the white chicks are male too? All the EEs I have ever had - the white chicks turned out to be roosters. The one with almost no feathering I would guess has the slow feathering gene - usually my EEs with slow feathering turned out to be roosters too - but my Gold Laced Wyandottes both had the slow feathering genes and they were both hens!

I so wish I could get some of those white patterned EE hens, the feathers are really pretty. Its probably why I want Silver Ameraucana hens...

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

So you are finding that the white chicks are male too? All the EEs I have ever had - the white chicks turned out to be roosters. The one with almost no feathering I would guess has the slow feathering gene - usually my EEs with slow feathering turned out to be roosters too - but my Gold Laced Wyandottes both had the slow feathering genes and they were both hens!

I so wish I could get some of those white patterned EE hens, the feathers are really pretty. Its probably why I want Silver Ameraucana hens...

We have, I think, three white/mostly white EE hens. One is completely white and has no beard, one is completely white has a beard (the broody Nelson posted photos of above), one with a bit of gray on her head who is the fluffiest. The two black & white EE we had were both roosters (one was bought as a male, the other was a surprise).

 

[debid]

I have to wonder what the hatcheries use in their EE breeding programs. Did they start with Ameraucanas and then cross them with other breeds? Or did they start with EEs and now maintain the egg color at a high percentage green/blue by only hatching the green/blue eggs? Just how soupy is their genetic pool?

 

[ChickNmamma]

Quote:
Its the black and white ones I wish I could get, not white ones: Spangled, Mottled, Penciled, Speckled

Mostly white is easy to make. Recessive white only needs two copies and poof - you have a white bird. Like paint - it covers almost all colors.

All of the most beautiful black and white feathered EE chicks I have ever had turned into mostly white roosters!

 

[ChickNmamma]

I have to wonder what the hatcheries use in their EE breeding programs. Did they start with Ameraucanas and then cross them with other breeds? Or did they start with EEs and now maintain the egg color at a high percentage green/blue by only hatching the green/blue eggs? Just how soupy is their genetic pool?

The rest of the story is mostly here : http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/issues/2/2-3/John_W_Blehm.html

Short version as I understand it: Original blue egg laying fluffy faced birds brought over long time ago. Breeders got them and bred them - to whatever they liked (tail-less, tufted, tailed, fluffy faced, etc). In the 70s they worked to get their birds recognized by the APA as Auracanas and the hatcheries got interested, bought a bunch of birds and bred them all together in a big mix, added their usual (leghorn for more eggs, something else for the brown egg genes that give us green (probably their "Rhode Island Reds")) and started selling them. The rumpless ones soon disappeared because they have fertility problems, the tufted ones disappeared because the tufts double inherited kill all the chicks so pretty soon they had what we now get - with a few more generations of leghorn etc thrown in to keep them going ... tah dah: Easter Eggers! Some hatcheries have even managed to loose the blue egg gene - so now you get brown eggs. Some hatcheries are buying Ameraucanas and putting them in with their birds to make some of the interesting colors we are getting now. Some are probably buying Ameraucanas in all colors and putting them together in a mixed flock.. still Easter Eggers - no standard colors. A few hatcheries are actually starting to sell Ameraucanas in accepted colors (black/blue/splash).. but they will be hatchery quality because they do not ever remove birds that don't meet the standards, so the lines deteriorate. They will probably still add their go-to breed for more eggs, Leghorns. Leghorns have yellow skin - and in two generations they are at green legs again instead of the correct slate/blue.

Well I guess that wasn't a very short version...