Chickfolk
Chirping
Four of my chicks just rounded the 18 week mark on Sunday. I purchased two of them as day-old Easter Egger pullets, and two as day-old Olive Egger pullets. There is a chance that I switched the two breeds at birth and have mixed up which-is-which.
In the picture below, the chicken on the far left (Kiki) is what I believe to be the Easter Egger pullet. The chicken on the far right (Mohawk) is what I believe to be the Olive Egger Pullet. What casts this into doubt, is that of the four, the sister of the below Olive Egger is the most developed. Her comb is large and red. None of the others are quite as mature-looking. We've assumed the OE sister would be the first to lay.
To our surprise, one of the four started laying a few weeks ago. None of the others have laid. All of them have been snooping around the laying boxes, so we can't tell who was the mystery-layer. We assumed it would be the developed Olive Egger. However, the egg was blue. See below. This casts into doubt whether the hen we assumed would lay actually laid the egg, and whether we were wrong about which were our chickens were OE's and which were our EE's.
This could mean one of three things: 1) The mature hen is actually an Easter Egger and I did switch the breeds at birth, 2) The mature hen is an Olive Egger that happens to lay blue eggs, 3) The hen that I believe is mature is not the hen that laid the egg - I was right about the breeds and wrong about who would lay first.
(side note, the LO (Pecker) which is next to the RIR (Nugget) has revealed itself as a rooster and has gone to live with a friendly farmer in the country).
(Bottom eggs are from a Maran and Australorp - top egg is from an EE or an OE which decided to favor its recessive genes).
Also, in the last few days we've noticed that Mohawk, the believed-to-be-olive-egger pictured above, has developed white earlobes (see below). I do not know if this is relevant to my above inquiry. Regardless, it also came as a surprise, as I thought that Olive Eggers would have red earlobes, as would Easter Eggers. I finally decided that I needed the help of my fellow chicken-people to see if anyone had worthwhile insight on any of my current chicken conundrums. Your opinions are welcome and appreciated!
In the picture below, the chicken on the far left (Kiki) is what I believe to be the Easter Egger pullet. The chicken on the far right (Mohawk) is what I believe to be the Olive Egger Pullet. What casts this into doubt, is that of the four, the sister of the below Olive Egger is the most developed. Her comb is large and red. None of the others are quite as mature-looking. We've assumed the OE sister would be the first to lay.
To our surprise, one of the four started laying a few weeks ago. None of the others have laid. All of them have been snooping around the laying boxes, so we can't tell who was the mystery-layer. We assumed it would be the developed Olive Egger. However, the egg was blue. See below. This casts into doubt whether the hen we assumed would lay actually laid the egg, and whether we were wrong about which were our chickens were OE's and which were our EE's.
This could mean one of three things: 1) The mature hen is actually an Easter Egger and I did switch the breeds at birth, 2) The mature hen is an Olive Egger that happens to lay blue eggs, 3) The hen that I believe is mature is not the hen that laid the egg - I was right about the breeds and wrong about who would lay first.
(side note, the LO (Pecker) which is next to the RIR (Nugget) has revealed itself as a rooster and has gone to live with a friendly farmer in the country).
(Bottom eggs are from a Maran and Australorp - top egg is from an EE or an OE which decided to favor its recessive genes).
Also, in the last few days we've noticed that Mohawk, the believed-to-be-olive-egger pictured above, has developed white earlobes (see below). I do not know if this is relevant to my above inquiry. Regardless, it also came as a surprise, as I thought that Olive Eggers would have red earlobes, as would Easter Eggers. I finally decided that I needed the help of my fellow chicken-people to see if anyone had worthwhile insight on any of my current chicken conundrums. Your opinions are welcome and appreciated!
. An Olive Egger is a first generation cross, so the preferred color is more likely, but even sister hens can have a different colored egg.
