The EE braggers thread!!!

[shadow rabbit10]

Here are my 4 EE's. They are bantams and were sexed as pullets. They are pullets, right? (7 weeks old)

Tulip



Jupiter



Opal



Basil

 

[CGinJCMO]

I found eggs today!!

I bought the EE pullet knowing that she "should be laying in the next couple of weeks" and sure enough, 2 1/2 weeks after I got her, Snowy gave me these:

There is a slight bluish tint to them. I found them on the floor. Then Snowy was sitting and moving bedding around where I found one of the eggs and sure enough when I went out again an hour later, there was the third one. The two above the ruler are the found ones, and the one below is the one that came still warm. I wonder about eating the first two because we've been having 100 degree temps and they would have been laid Monday and Tuesday. Are they still good? Also, do you think there's a chance of them being fertile already? Hubby asked that and I didn't know. I have seen a roo jump on her but the back ends didn't look close enough to fertilize (IYKWIM). He was trying to dominate not procreate. I don't have an incubator so I can't try, besides, with the egg being so small, I doubt they'd be good for the chick to hatch from (like trying to hatch a double yolker - not enough room to properly grow). Hubby really didn't want to hatch anyway - don't know if he has any "funny" ideas about eating fertilized eggs. My 8 yr old son on the other hand didn't want me to fridgerate them - HE wants them to hatch. LOL Did find out that DH doesn't want to know when we're eating chicken if that chicken was previously running around in our backyard and not a store-bought one. I told him I wouldn't have to tell him because we don't buy whole chicken, we buy cut up chicken.

I put plastic eggs in the nest boxes so hopefully she'll know where I want them. She's still spending time in the "quarantine" room even though I've freed her from quarantine this weekend. She is still at the bottom of the pecking order and won't sleep up on the roost with the other chickens yet. I may shut the door with her out of the Q-room so she's forced to pick a different place to lay her eggs. If she doesn't want the roost yet, she can take a nest box until she's comfortable with the other girls. This is her:
Unfortunately, my other Easter Egger female-hopeful (the one that jumped on Snowy) proved to be a boy by crowing today.

I saw suspicious feathers on him last night and wanted to get a closer look this morning but my son let them out before I got there (late getting to them because I wanted hubby's help with something out there but I had to help him with something first - too much to get done before it get's hot). He decided to tell me himself that he's a boy. Had another (younger) one crowing for a week already. I've got 2 EE cockerels and 1 EE pullet.I have a 2 month old Barred Rock roo too so I have to decide who gets to be protector (and father) and who gets to be dinner (or rehomed). Here's the one I wasn't sure of because I never saw red shoulders (there's a couple of small red splotches but nothing major) but saw long skinny ones near the tail last night (this photo is a few weeks old): Here's the one I knew was a boy because he had the rusty/mahogany red and had started crowing a week ago:

 

[CGinJCMO]

Shadow Rabbit...I'm no expert but I think you've got pullets. Basil is the only one I'd question because the other girls are typical pullet coloring.

CG

 

[shadow rabbit10]

There are male and female colorings for EEs?

 

[Cotton42]

Here are my 4 EE's. They are bantams and were sexed as pullets. They are pullets, right? (7 weeks old)

Tulip



Jupiter



Opal



Basil

All pullets.

 

[kivi]

if EEs are "mutt" birds that don't breed true.....then how do they get EEs? What makes them EEs? Just really trying to understand this. I have 1 who is almost 5 weeks old and she is the bomb! Pretty, friendly and personality to spare.

 

[shadow rabbit10]

EEs are mutts that lay almost every color egg, and come in a bunch if random colors, they often look like Americanas, but not always.

 

[Kassaundra]

if EEs are "mutt" birds that don't breed true.....then how do they get EEs? What makes them EEs? Just really trying to understand this. I have 1 who is almost 5 weeks old and she is the bomb! Pretty, friendly and personality to spare.

Back in the 1920's a group of South American chickens called Quechua that lay blue eggs were brought into the US for a worlds fair exhibition. Over many years after that a group of breeders decided they wanted to standardize these chickens so they worked on breeding these for specific color of feathers and legs while keeping their blue egg laying, These now breed true and are called ameraucanas. They have specific colors and meet requirements in SOP.

Quechua that remained after the worlds fair in the hatcheries were bred and sold as Ameracuana before the group of breeders standardized them and took that name and started calling the other colored egg layers EE's.

The EE's today are one of a couple of catagories, the breeder stock still in the hatcheries, or any offspring of a mix of ameraucana or araucana and any other breed, or any offspring of ameraucana of a specific color that is mixed w/ a different color of ameraucana so they no longer meet the specific SOP.

The blue egg laying gene is easy to pass to offspring even in a mixed offspring this has lead to many, many mixes so people can have those pretty blue or green eggs from a chicken that looks however they imagine the perfect chicken should look, hence the many many EE.

 

[Wishing4Wings]

There are male and female colorings for EEs?

Jupiter and Opal have a classic EE pullet coloring that you will never see in a cockerel. The color pattern is fine and spread evenly. (Boys look a bit patchy). Quite sure Tulip is a pullet, but not sure if males can be colored similarly. Does anyone know if a male can ever have a solid orange breast like that?

Basil also looks like a pullet (by the comb) but not by coloring, which can be boy or girl. However, if a boy, you would start seeing patches of dark red on the upper wings. So the evidence leans toward pullet.

Very cute, all of them, especially Tulip.

 

[shadow rabbit10]

Thank you! I love Tulip's coloring the most because she looks rainbow or something.