The EE braggers thread!!!

[wclawrence]

Quote:
I have a few that are like that. The beard and muff doesn't effect the egg color. However, it is best to stick with pea combed birds.

 

[GwenDellAnno]

What wclawrence is saying is that the blue color gene is closely linked with the pea comb. So... to get a pink egg, you'd want to cross say a leghorn (white egg) with something that lays a brown egg... say like a barred rock or RIR. (Your EE's with a single comb will likely either be brown or white layers).

So... if your EE has white egg genes (like leghorn) and you cross it with a brown egg layer you'll get a pale brown/pink egg. And... if your EE has brown egg genes (like barred rock) and you cross it with a white layer (like leghorn) you will also get pale brown/pink eggs.

If you cross a brown layer with a blue layer, then you get green or olive eggs (if your blue layer carries the blue gene, ie. has a pea comb).

This is a very rudimentary explanation of egg color genetics and I'm sure you'll find exceptions to each of these generalizations.

 

[GrandmaAnn]

What a fun thread! It took me several days to read, but I have looked at every picture and read every post. The birds are so interesting and beautiful.

My birds were ordered from Murray McMurray as Americaunas. They are actually EE. Although I am having Silver Spangled Hamburgs for main main egg-laying flock, I also bought some other breeds for my 9 grandchildren to pick from to have as pets. Of the 5 "Americaunas" I ordered, all 5 were immediately chosen because they were such cute chicks. 4 turned out to be pullets and one is a cockerel. He is very pretty, so I am going to mate him with 3 of the girls. (1 of the girls just isn't very strong, so I won't use her for breeding.) All of the birds are 10 weeks old now. They all have deep willow colored legs and pea combs.

Here is Star, the cockerel. He belongs to one of my 3 year old granddaughters.

Here is a good picture of his back:

This is Angel (the white one) and Marshie in the background. Angel is keeping Marshie company while she recovers from a leg injury. I have figured out, however, that she just doesn't have very good legs. She is the one I will not breed.

This is Suzy. She doesn't have a muff yet, but she has very interesting coloring.

''

I couldn't get a picture of Buttercup because she just would not hold still. She has a lot of golden penciling and looks similar to several others that are posted here.

 

[Shellyb]

I will be ordering 25 EE pullet chicks from Meyer's very soon. I am only going to keep 8 girls and 1 roo. I really want a colorful egg basket so that is why I am going for this "breed". But, now I'm wondering if I should get an EE roo or a differnt breed to continue the blue egg gene??? What do you all think? Anyone have Meyer EE's? Thanks, Shelly

 

[Carpe DiHen]

GrandmaAnn, those are pretty birds!

 

[wclawrence]

one thing I really love about "Easter Eggers"....
is that you can breed anything to an easter egger or araucana or americana and still get easter eggers.
which means that the possibilities are endless.

 

[GrandmaAnn]

Quote:
Thank you, I will let the grandkids know. They are very much in love with their birds, and we shoud get some interesting colors. This is a great "breed" to help get kids interested.

 

[Qi Chicken]

My beautiful EE Lulu layed a beautiful...............Brown.....................egg.

I just read the post a few pages back and think I understand that the blue egg gene has been diluted too much. She does have a pea comb by the way.... SO out of our 5 EE one was a roo (white and with black feathers in the tail --very pretty) and one lays brown egg. Only 3 left!

Not for mine particularly but are brown laying ee becoming more common? Out of 10 how many might on average lay a brown egg?

BTW: Lulu has a heck of a time laying an egg. She gets VERY agitated, running around back and forth to the nest boxes. Today I watched as she layed it and she was STANDING UP! I saw it fall right out! She was making this strange grunting/squeeking sound on every breath. It was like lamaze. Do you think she might have egg laying problems in the future or is she just nervous?

 

[kathyinmo]

My broody EE hatched her own 2 eggs. Daddy is a Delaware. She sat on her eggs in the Layers Coop. Today she kicked everyone out of the coop and brought her babies out. First inside the coop checking things out, then came outside ..... Believe me, she is a fierce one, and everyone stayed away! The 2 roosters watched over her and the babies, as well.

 

[vegaschick]

Here's the youngest bunch of mine. Uno (bottom left in first pic) was the only one that hatched out of a bunch I set. I had to find a companion for the poor lonely chick so I bought Sunshine from a local lady. Sunshine is at least 2 wks older but they get on famously. I hated the idea of raising just 2 so got 4 more chicks 2 weeks later (the soonest I could find any), 3 of which are EE's. Here's a good pic in which you can see the size difference between them. Sunshine is a full month older than the little one's (a week old here) but is really great with them - they treat her kinda like a mom. It's very sweet to watch.

I also have a group of 6 that I gotta get pics of. They are 13 wks today.