What is this “free rare breed”?

[Brahma Chicken5000]

May I ask why everyone feels she's, without doubt, an Easter Egger? I'm just curious as to the reasoning behind it.

~Alex

Her body type and coloration are indicative of an Easter Egger.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Technically, there aren't any set standards for Easter Eggers, but I must agree that she lacks the trademark hatchery EE characteristics.

Gorgeous!

True. However, the Murray McMurray website states Whiting True Blues aren't Easter Eggers, instead their own distinct breed. I don't claim to know anything about them or genetic background, just going off available information.

~Alex

I believe whiting true blues are the result of several generations of EE x leghorn crosses. They do not breed true, so they aren't purebred, which makes them mixed breed blue egg layers. This, in my opinion, makes them EEs.

 

[Vwise507]

OPs chicken in question kind of looks like a silver gray dorking mix. This is a pic of my SGD from McMurray and the short neck and even coloring looks similar.

 

[Devonviolet2]

Well, it has been over a year since I started this thread. A LOT of water has flowed under the bridge, and our girl, whom my husband named Edith, is definitely one of the Whiting’s True Blue hens. She has a really cool personality. Sometimes the way she comes and looks up at us, she seems to be smarter than your average bird.

Last summer, I incubated 24 eggs from, these hens and the rooster. We ended up hatching out 17 birds: 10 pullets and 7 roos. We sold three pullets and lost two for no apparent reason. So we are down to five hens, from which we are getting 3 eggs a day, one of which. Is a fairly dark olive egg, so I’m thinking that Marans rooster got his genes into that hen.

I separated them, and waited a month to start collecting eggs. However, we have young hens who seem to be from different roos in our flock: a black hen, (from the Marans roo?) a red rooster, (looks like a RIR) and a buff hen, (looks a LOT like it was sired by our Buff Orpington rooster). We also have a hen, who has the same stunted looking rear end, with no tail feathers, to speak of. So I’m thinking that Hen is from Edith.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Thank you for the update. Sounds like you are having fun with hatching.

 

[KiwiandPeachthePigeons]

I have a hen that looks exactly like this. I’m trying to find out what she s too.

 

[Devonviolet2]

Thank you for the update. Sounds like you are having fun with hatching.

Yes, this was my first try at hatching eggs. I figure 17 of 24 is a good number. Although I’m not sure what happened with some of them that didn’t make it. They were fully formed In the egg, but never hatched. I think there were three of them that did that. I checked temp and humidity several times a day.

It was kinda funny, what happened when they started hatching. My husband had gone for a cardiac cath and his arteries were so bad, we went straight to the hospital, for a quadruple bypass. He was in the hospital for six days, and I stayed with him the whole time. Friends of ours were kind enough to come to the house twice a day to feed the goats, LGDs, chickens and cats (in the house). While Joe was out feeding goats and chickens, Dana was inside feeding cats. All of a sudden she heard birds, and thought a bird had gotten in the house. She went to get Joe, and together they looked for the bird. Eventually, they found the hatching eggs. I was so caught up in my husband’s recovery, I forgot about the eggs. Dana and Joe knew nothing about raising baby chicks. So, then I had to to tell Dana where to find the big tub in the barn, and all the other supplies for brooding the chicks. It took 3 days for them all to hatch. She did a great job and really enjoyed watching them every day.

 

[Devonviolet2]

I have a hen that looks exactly like this. I’m trying to find out what she s too.

If she looks like our Edith, then she is an Easter Egger. Ours are Whiting’s True Blue, but as someone said earlier, they are some sort of colored egg layer, which is selectively bred to lay blue eggs.

Here is Edith now:

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Yes, this was my first try at hatching eggs. I figure 17 of 24 is a good number. Although I’m not sure what happened with some of them that didn’t make it. They were fully formed In the egg, but never hatched. I think there were three of them that did that. I checked temp and humidity several times a day.

It was kinda funny, what happened when they started hatching. My husband had gone for a cardiac cath and his arteries were so bad, we went straight to the hospital, for a quadruple bypass. He was in the hospital for six days, and I stayed with him the whole time. Friends of ours were kind enough to come to the house twice a day to feed the goats, LGDs, chickens and cats (in the house). While Joe was out feeding goats and chickens, Dana was inside feeding cats. All of a sudden she heard birds, and thought a bird had gotten in the house. She went to get Joe, and together they looked for the bird. Eventually, they found the hatching eggs. I was so caught up in my husband’s recovery, I forgot about the eggs. Dana and Joe knew nothing about raising baby chicks. So, then I had to to tell Dana where to find the big tub in the barn, and all the other supplies for brooding the chicks. It took 3 days for them all to hatch. She did a great job and really enjoyed watching them every day.

Glad to hear you husband is okay. That definitely was a priority over hatching eggs. You have some nice friends.

 

[Love my chickens 25]

Can she be a silver Penciled rock with Easter Egger that’s what she looks like even though the tail and don’t expect it from hatchery