Easter Egger club!

[chick rookie]

Thanks for all the help! I forgot to mention that 1 buff Orpington is coming in the order with the 2 easter eggers. Would they get along? And I will of course send pictures of them when they get here. Also will my full-grown chickens get along with them (2 RIRS and 1 BR)?

I wouldn't put the chicks with adults until they are at least 1/2 the sz of the adults. Not allot of adults will put up with a chick that don't belong to them. If you have a chick proof lg run, it might be ok to have them out with the adults during the warm part of the day but I wouldn't even do that if they are too young. How old of chicks are you getting?
once they get fully feathered and are old enough to be in the coop with the adults, you will see the normal " I'm the boss " battles, but that should be it. You shouldn't have any real problems mixing up the breeds that you keep in the same coop. Unless you try to put smaller breeds in with bigger breeds ... that don't always work out the best.

Yesterday, my fiancee found these in our coop. The usual three from our GCs and one small cream egg. We have two EEs that are close to laying and then two Cuckoo Marans and they are still too young. We think it was one of the EEs who has become very red in face lately. This is just the first egg. Her eggs can still be blue green right? My fiancee and I are worried that since it is not with the first one that she may not lay those based on this egg. Need advice!

Sorry hun but you got what ya got. They don't change colors, they can very in shade as they get older but the basic color will be the same.

So happy! At 25 weeks we finally got our first coloured egg!

I thought the day was never going to come

Congrats!!!! always fun finding new eggs, especially blues, greens and pinks...

 

[chick rookie]

Sorry, but nope. You have a cream egg layer, just like one of my EEs. Someone outbred her too often so she lost the blue egg gene even though she kept the beard and pea comb (in my hen's case, anyway). I would have been a lot more upset about my EE girl laying non blue eggs, except they're a beautiful porcelain color, they're huge (extra large every time), and she lays like crazy.

Sorry I didn't see that you already answered until I threw my 2 cents in... lol

 

[cgmaster]

 

[Gryphon]

No worries Chick Rookie, I'd rather someone get information from more than one place.

 

[lightchick]

Pullets would have dark legs, and the males would have the same color legs as the mother. But this only works if the rooster is the Silkie, not the hen; and the hen can't have slate or willow legs, they must be either white or yellow.

OK. Well I just read that it works the other way around too. Meaning my chick would be male, but since the dad had grey legs it wouldn't work right?
If so then I'm happy because I live in town and can't have a roo.
Just had to get rid of the father of the chick.

 

[Sylvester017]

I have 5 EE and 2 AM's that I just got.4 EE are 2, 1 is 4 and the rest are started pullets. The EE's went through a molt just last mth. 1 is still molting. But up until last week I still got eggs ( at least 3 a day ) last week I got 1 a day, so far this week they are all laying again. so maybe it just depends on the birds.

Yep, I always get "it depends on the birds" statements so I must have a "lemon" girl. My 3-yr-old Silkie started laying again today. Still waiting on the Am who looks like she's got her full fluff back but no red pea comb yet. The pea-comb birds seem to like cooler climates - our Am hates heatwaves - so maybe with El Nino weather threats this winter she might lay in winter? Or maybe not since there's less daylight hours. I'm stumped. Since our friend's 2nd year EE stopped laying too we're thinking pea-combs just don't do well in our SoCal humidity drifting from all the Baja Gulf tropical heat/storms blowing our way. The Silkies are little troopers trudging along in any kind of weather we get, but the Am has been a no-egg-laying prima dona! I love pea-comb breeds as they all seem to be more docile and non-combative than the common dual purpose single-comb breeds and I re-homed all our dual purpose because they bullied the littles too much. We added a gentle quirky Breda to the flock and she's doing great in our heatwave. Hope she does better at egg-laying.

Yesterday, my fiancee found these in our coop. The usual three from our GCs and one small cream egg. We have two EEs that are close to laying and then two Cuckoo Marans and they are still too young. We think it was one of the EEs who has become very red in face lately. This is just the first egg. Her eggs can still be blue green right? My fiancee and I are worried that since it is not with the first one that she may not lay those based on this egg. Need advice!

Whatever egg color an EE or Amer lay the first time is the color all the eggs will be - if blue then always blue, if blue-green then always blue-green, if pink then always pink. So you think the white egg is from an EE? I've heard it's possible for an EE to lay white but never actually saw one before. I think that is very unique!

 

[Sylvester017]

In my experience, the Legbars are horrible layers. I would not recommend them to anyone. Some of them lay huge eggs, but the egg quality is poor and if you plan to breed/hatch them the hatch rates are not good. My legbar eggs are very rough shelled. I prefer a smooth,shiny shell like I get from the majority of my other hens (EEs included). I crossed my legbars with other breeds to get EE chicks. The eggs the pullets lay are rough and have a matte finish to them. Some eggs are even bumpy (just like their grandma's eggs) so the egg characteristics are clearly passed down through the generations to the offspring.

My legbars are molting now, and I don't expect to see eggs from them again until March or April. They lay about 5 months out of the year and I get 4 - 5 eggs per week from each of them. My EEs and Ameraucanas also molt and take a break, but they lay about 8 months out of the year and I get 6 eggs per week from them. The eggs are a bit smaller, but the are glossy and pretty to look at.

They also have a 95 - 100 % hatch rate.

If you want blue egg layers that lay year round, try getting some Araucanas. I have one tiny hen that lays XL eggs year round and they are a beautiful blue. Her sister took a couple of months off to molt when she was about 12 months old but is back to laying now. I really like the Araucanas (and all the EEs!)

Wow! Thx for the feedback! Love hearing what others go through to see if it matches things I read elsewhere. These BYC threads are so great to get first-hand stories. I passed over CLs first-time around because I don't like Leghorn breed history. I mean, I adore Legs but they are an assertive breed and sadly I had to re-home my White Leg and my Buff Leg because they terrorized our gentle breeds. So I kind of shy away from strong Leghorn breed histories. The CL egg shell quality is something I never got feedback on. Our Ameraucana lays a very light gloss egg (when she lays) but our White Leg layed XL chalk white matte eggs with less smoothness. The Buff Leg layed smooth tinted eggs with a very very slight gloss. Just never really thought about the Leghorn bumpy chalky matte finish on a Leg egg would pass down to the CLs in their cross-breeding.

You brought back something I had entertained a couple years back and I've been continuing research off-and-on on the Araucanas. Since breeders have such a challenge breeding perfect tail-less, double-tufted show birds, and since I don't breed I thought to give a home to a rejected show pullet just for the blue eggs. I have a breeder that has been trying to get me to get an Araucana but I'm not thrilled that our Am girl from her has been a poor layer. She says the Araucana get about 4-lbs, have fairly docile temperaments, and lay deeper shades of eggs than her Ameraucanas. Size of eggs is not so important to us (if it was we wouldn't have Silkies - LOL!). The only reason I shy'd away from Araucanas originally was because so many owners said they were getting more greenish rather than blue eggs. Mind if I ask you to PM me with your Araucana breeder source since you are getting blue rather than green eggs from your little hen? TY!

 

[chick rookie]

Yep, I always get "it depends on the birds" statements so I must have a "lemon" girl. My 3-yr-old Silkie started laying again today. Still waiting on the Am who looks like she's got her full fluff back but no red pea comb yet. The pea-comb birds seem to like cooler climates - our Am hates heatwaves - so maybe with El Nino weather threats this winter she might lay in winter? Or maybe not since there's less daylight hours. I'm stumped. Since our friend's 2nd year EE stopped laying too we're thinking pea-combs just don't do well in our SoCal humidity drifting from all the Baja Gulf tropical heat/storms blowing our way. The Silkies are little troopers trudging along in any kind of weather we get, but the Am has been a no-egg-laying prima dona! I love pea-comb breeds as they all seem to be more docile and non-combative than the common dual purpose single-comb breeds and I re-homed all our dual purpose because they bullied the littles too much. We added a gentle quirky Breda to the flock and she's doing great in our heatwave. Hope she does better at egg-laying.

Whatever egg color an EE or Amer lay the first time is the color all the eggs will be - if blue then always blue, if blue-green then always blue-green, if pink then always pink. So you think the white egg is from an EE? I've heard it's possible for an EE to lay white but never actually saw one before. I think that is very unique!

I also have Silkies, they don't seem to mind the heat at all. They are great layers or have been this year, Last year not so much. I'm thinking 1st year ( after they start laying ) is on and off, but this is the 2nd year of laying and they have done great, I have 4 pens, 2 have moms in them right now ( 2nd and 3rd timers this year ) They are great moms.
I give my LF egg layers light in the mornings. Set the timer for 5am goes off at 8 am. Will adjust if need be, but I make sure they have 14 hours ( is best for my girls ) To keep them laying, I sell eggs to pay for feed, so need them in winter more than summer really, higher intake of food due to lack of bugs greens ect...
I will start giving my EE and AM's light in Dec. I let them take a break if they need to. It seems to help with my hatch rate if they get a little break too.
They seem to have started their break a little bit early this year... lol I was going to start supplementing light now till Oct. but I have a batch of eggs in the bator now so I decided to let them have their break now.
So maybe if you give them light you can get them to start laying again. It normally takes about a week with the extra light and they kick it in gear.

 

[ochochicas]

You brought back something I had entertained a couple years back and I've been continuing research off-and-on on the Araucanas. Since breeders have such a challenge breeding perfect tail-less, double-tufted show birds, and since I don't breed I thought to give a home to a rejected show pullet just for the blue eggs. I have a breeder that has been trying to get me to get an Araucana but I'm not thrilled that our Am girl from her has been a poor layer. She says the Araucana get about 4-lbs, have fairly docile temperaments, and lay deeper shades of eggs than her Ameraucanas. Size of eggs is not so important to us (if it was we wouldn't have Silkies - LOL!). The only reason I shy'd away from Araucanas originally was because so many owners said they were getting more greenish rather than blue eggs. Mind if I ask you to PM me with your Araucana breeder source since you are getting blue rather than green eggs from your little hen? TY!

My Araucanas came form a very back yard breeder so I wouldn't recommend her as a place to get quality birds. I actually weighed my birds the other day. My sisters seem to be the same size when you look at them. They range from 3.5 - 4 pounds. However, there is one that is built like a block of concrete and she weighs 5.6 pounds. She is the worst layer though, go figure. I read somewhere that fat birds don't lay well, so maybe she's just a little on the chubby side.

None of mine are tufted. I don't care for the tufted birds. I know there are some breeders in California that would probably sell you some of their culls.

 

[McKennA]

One of our EE's has started laying and we are so excited with her pale blueish green egg!
She is 22 weeks old. Picture doesn't do it justice.