Easter Eggers are defined by their poofy cheeks and beard.
When we started our most recent flock, I started with all brown egg layers. I didn’t give much thought to the color of the eggs, I just wanted nice, hardy chickens! As the idea of having different egg colors started to grab my attention, I decided to add a couple different breeds into our flock. The second batch of chicks I got were Easter Eggers!
They are incredibly hardy birds with great personalities. And their egg color takes them to the next level in my mind! I have four Easter Eggers and they are all a hoot. Chocolate always wants snacks. You will often find her on my social media jumping for snacks or having her head buried in the bag of treats. Ophelia is a sweetheart and keeps to herself mostly. She’s a good friend to newer chickens in the coop and is all around a great addition to the flock. Drumstick is quiet and kind. She loves to lay in the sun and dust bathe! Gladys, on the other hand, runs like the wind every time I get near her. She lays incredible eggs but doesn’t want to be in the spotlight! These girls are beautiful, kind and great egg layers. It’s safe to say, that as long as we’re raising backyard chickens, this breed will be part of our flock.
Chocolate always gets her head in a bag of treats!
Drumstick in fine form on a foggy spring morning!
What are Easter Eggers?
Easter Eggers are technically not recognized as a breed at all! They are more of a barnyard mix that has taken off. Easter Eggers are bred from an Araucana and a brown egg layer. Araucanas are known for their beautiful blue eggs. They have poofy cheeks and no tail feathers. They’re a funny little chicken but can have a lethal gene that can kill chicks while in the shell. In order to combat this lethal gene, the Ameraucana chicken was bred. These chickens still contain the blue egg genes, but not the lethal gene that kills chicks. I feel like it’s harder to find these two breeds around here, but the Easter Egger breeds have been proven to be easy to get a hold of and are super hardy to boot!
No filter needed for these beauties!
Easter Egger Features and Egg Production
Easter Eggers have unique features that mirror Araucanas and Ameraucanas. They have the cute little poofy cheeks and beards. Easter Eggers can lay multiple different egg colors such as blue, green, white, pink, tan or dark brown eggs. But one thing to keep in mind, the color eggs one chicken lays will stay that same color throughout her lifetime. Their egg colors don’t change. I have one that lays these beautiful speckled, olive colored eggs. It’s super fun when your Easter Eggers start laying to see which colors you’ll end up with! Easter Eggers can lay up to 280 eggs a year, so they’re great producers. This of course, depends on winter lighting as well.
I love the speckled egg on the left!
Easter Egger Colors
Easter Eggers can come in a wide variety of colors themselves. Picking them out as chicks is fun, because while you think you know what color you might be getting, more than likely you will still be pleasantly surprised! All three of my Easter Eggers are different colors and are not the color they started out as. Their feather patterns can be equally as different. It just depends on what chickens they’ve been bred from. If you like to name your chickens like I do, Easter Eggers are easy to tell apart! Most people are stunned that I have all 37 chickens named and know who is who. This comes from a LOT of time spent in the coop, different personalities, combs, and then of course colors and feather patterns. I can see my Easter Eggers from a mile away because they’re all very unique.
The girls are my Easter Egger chicks! Yes, I put bows in their hair! Haha!
Easter Eggers are fairly easy to find. I got mine at our local Runnings store which orders all their chickens from Hoover’s Hatchery. They have been incredibly healthy and honestly have been a family favorite. They have given us the most laughs for sure! If you’re big into heritage breeds or purebred bloodlines, these chickens are not for you. If your desire is to raise fun birds with great personalities that provide a beautiful egg basket, you will absolutely want to add Easter Eggers to your flock!
Until next time,
–The Wing Lady
