Which Breeds Should I go with?

[What_TheDuck]

I see that you have one EE and the rest are light brown egg layers. I would get at least one dark chocolate layer (Meyer’s white French marans are beautiful and rare). I would also get either a white egg layer or a cream Legbar (sky blue eggs).

The chicken colors are always great, but your next stop will be egg colors and you don’t have enough variety. Trust me!

We have an ameraucana, and I was planning on getting some EE in the summer sometime (4 seems like a good number), and the rainbow layer assortment from Meyer. I love the green eggs we get from ours, Taco, hence why I'll be ordering a few more. I mainly went for the more exotic ones you guys mentioned, like the Polish and the mottled houdan. We are raising a six-week-old green queen and are expected to get some green eggs from her, along with some chocolate-colored eggs from our six-week-old Cuckoo Marans. Exotics were my main focus, and the next stop is some green/blue eggs!

How are the EE, to any EE owners out there? Have heard a lot of great things about them

 

[What_TheDuck]

Maybe some more experienced people here will be able to comment on this, but I would say if you ever want to have polish or crested breeds with non crested chickens I would recommend beginning your flock with them. We have a flock we started without them and we had so much trouble integrating one later that I rolled the polish into a different flock that I started with a mix of crested and non crested. I had read it was difficult to impossible for some birds to accept a polish because of the crest and I admit having her in with my girls who were raised with a Houdan and polish from the start was ridiculously easy. It took a whole two days to bring her into my flock, vs. 6 months with the other one not raised with any crested girls. That being said, our Houdan is a joy of a bird to own. I applaud that choice, even with the idea all chickens are their own little beings. I love crested birds and have a white crested black, buff laced, two Tolbunt polishes as well as our Houdan and a cream crested legbar. I agree with a lot of the other posters, it is hard to go wrong in your situation. And I made a wish list of sorts for later. Here is a picture of my view right now:

That Houdan looks super pretty! It's going to be hard to wait 3 months lol.

 

[Allthefloofs]

We have 4 EE girls. They can be sweet and also a bit spicy in some ways. All of them were sort of feisty in their teenage weeks, our oldest one is the boss of the flock, but is a lap chicken, gets a bit jealous of the other girls if I hold them. Our younger girls are following suit as bossy lap chickens as well.

 

[Allthefloofs]

That Houdan looks super pretty! It's going to be hard to wait 3 months lol.

She has been a good surprise. I have way more pictures of her sleeping on my lap than I have of her doing anything else. She trills and purrs at me constantly. We have quite the love affair going on .

 

[Ridgerunner]

, and the rainbow layer assortment from Meyer.

This is copied from Meyer's website. Rainbow refers to feather colors, not egg shell colors.

All Female Rainbow Layer Assortment Day Old Chicks
Rainbow refers to variety of chicks, not egg color. You are not guaranteed a variety of egg colors with this assortment.


How are the EE, to any EE owners out there?

I personally have not had any EE from Meyer. People often think that EE's are a breed. They are not. There is no standard (SOP) that defines an EE. We can't agree on a definition for what actually makes an EE. They can be any color, shape, or size. They can lay any color of an egg. They might or might not have muffs, tuffs or beards. They can have any type of comb and any color of legs. There are no typical behaviors. Since there are no standards asking the general question what are EE's like is similar to asking what chickens are like without specifying breed.

Meyer has its own flock of EE's. That specific flock will have tendencies. If you can find someone who has had EE's from Meyer their answers will be meaningful to you. But if people got their EE's from Cackle, McMurray, Ideal, or some other hatchery or from people that made their own EE's the answers are not going to apply to the Meyer EE's any more than they will to chickens in general.

This is not a rant against EE's. I made my own by breeding for certain traits. Mine all laid blue or green eggs. They were all mottled. Practically every one went broody. They laid a lot of eggs. None of his applies to EE's in general because most EE's don't have these traits.

 

[Allthefloofs]

@Ridgerunner makes a really important point. There is no standard for EEs, it's just a mutt of a chicken that may or may not lay blue or green or rose or brown eggs. Our EEs are from MPC, which shares flocks with Meyer so they may or may not be similar mixes. That being said, two of our EEs are specific coloration EEs, one a snowy and one a blue, and our blue is a second generation blue, meaning it has about 100% chance for green eggs, not the 95% of most EEs. Our standard run of the mill EE from MPC was our first ever EE and she likes to sunbathe on my lap. We like the pretty green eggs and the chickens have been friendly so far, it is reasonable that you would have a similar experience as we have had ordering from Meyer.

 

[cmom]

Hi I am ordering about 10 chicks to come in in March and wanted to narrow it down to 8 (order minimum) from Meyer Hatchery. I placed an order for 1 Mottled Houdan, 1 Blue Polish, 1 Golden lace Polish, 2 Swedish Flower, 1 Barnevelder, 1 Buff Brahma, 1 Olive Egger, 1 Red lace Blue Wyandotte, and 1 silver penciled rock. I wanted to get some opinions on which ones I should leave out. I can order more in the summer I just wanted to order some of the more rare and more docile ones as they sell out quickly after the restock. The original included 2 Barnvelder, but the Swedish flower hens are just so unique unless I should go back to 2 Barnevelder? I'm lost on which ones that I should repeal from the order. Please help lol

Personally, I would get what I really want. As you said you can get others at another time and you may want to explore other breeds in the future. It appears you have no intention of breeding just looking for a colorful egg basket. In the future you may want to concentrate on certain breeds. Good luck and have fun...

 

[What_TheDuck]

This is copied from Meyer's website. Rainbow refers to feather colors, not egg shell colors.

All Female Rainbow Layer Assortment Day Old Chicks
Rainbow refers to variety of chicks, not egg color. You are not guaranteed a variety of egg colors with this assortment.


How are the EE, to any EE owners out there?

I personally have not had any EE from Meyer. People often think that EE's are a breed. They are not. There is no standard (SOP) that defines an EE. We can't agree on a definition for what actually makes an EE. They can be any color, shape, or size. They can lay any color of an egg. They might or might not have muffs, tuffs or beards. They can have any type of comb and any color of legs. There are no typical behaviors. Since there are no standards asking the general question what are EE's like is similar to asking what chickens are like without specifying breed.

Meyer has its own flock of EE's. That specific flock will have tendencies. If you can find someone who has had EE's from Meyer their answers will be meaningful to you. But if people got their EE's from Cackle, McMurray, Ideal, or some other hatchery or from people that made their own EE's the answers are not going to apply to the Meyer EE's any more than they will to chickens in general.

This is not a rant against EE's. I made my own by breeding for certain traits. Mine all laid blue or green eggs. They were all mottled. Practically every one went broody. They laid a lot of eggs. None of his applies to EE's in general because most EE's don't have these traits.


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So basically what you're saying is that EE are a very very very big variety? Looking forward to them even more now. I like the idea of a mystery assortment or really diverse breeds like the EE because you really don't know what you're going to end up with!

We're going to need a bigger coop.......

 

[What_TheDuck]

Not too interested in breeding at the moment, as I'm a junior in high school, but I would really like to explore that aspect of poultry after I finish college.

 

[What_TheDuck]

@Ridgerunner makes a really important point. There is no standard for EEs, it's just a mutt of a chicken that may or may not lay blue or green or rose or brown eggs. Our EEs are from MPC, which shares flocks with Meyer so they may or may not be similar mixes. That being said, two of our EEs are specific coloration EEs, one a snowy and one a blue, and our blue is a second generation blue, meaning it has about 100% chance for green eggs, not the 95% of most EEs. Our standard run of the mill EE from MPC was our first ever EE and she likes to sunbathe on my lap. We like the pretty green eggs and the chickens have been friendly so far, it is reasonable that you would have a similar experience as we have had ordering from Meyer.

I love how some of these breeds act more like a dog than a chicken