Last Updated on February 9, 2024 by AwesomeChickens
Known for its pleasing appearance and colorful nature — in every sense of the word — the Easter Egger is a “mutt” initially bred from the Araucana and Ameraucana breeds mixed with others. While crossbreeding will always produce interesting results, the Easter Egger is loved for its manifest array of colors that we see in its plumage and eggs, all a direct result of its mixed heritage. Read on below to learn where this unique bird gets its name, “Easter Egger,” and also what makes them among the most popular birds to keep in the modern age.
Table of Contents
Breed Origins
As we touched upon in the introduction, the Easter Egger is bred from mixing Araucana and Ameraucana breeds with other birds. Both the Araucana and Ameraucana birds are known for carrying the blue-egg gene, and that’s a key element of the Easter Egger. Its parentage is one blue-egg gene bird and one brown-egg bird of virtually any other sort. This is the key to the sheer variety that you find in the Easter Egger breed.
Strictly speaking, of course, we perhaps shouldn’t call it a “breed” in the sense of something recognized by the American Poultry Association (APA). This is because Easter Egger is not a breed recognized by the APA or the American Bantam Association (ABA). We called them a “mutt” in the introduction, but perhaps “hybrid” is a kinder word.
While not being recognized as a stand-alone breed, they are nonetheless very popular with home chicken raisers and farmers alike.
Appearance
As the non-standardized nature of its background suggests, Easter Egger chickens do not follow any standard in appearance, either. They can be virtually any mix of colors, depending on what their parents were. They can have particularly colorful mixes in their plumage, but it does depend on the parentage.
Additional features include a single or pea-comb and a small red wattle. They are invariably muffed and bearded, but muff/beards are typically small if they are there at all, with ear lobes generally red or white, but possible in other colors, too. They are 4-toed, with clean legs and shanks in colors like yellow and blue/green, but with many possible variants in between. The footpads, too, can be of any color.
The Easter Egger’s feathers come in as many colors and patterns as the other parts of their body we have mentioned. Solid colors and patterns are both possible and are largely dictated by the parent birds. As for their size, they are typically small birds, with males weighing around 5-lbs and females 4-lbs.
Temperament
One of the big factors that make Easter Eggers so popular among Chicken raisers is their sunny disposition, fun and friendly personality, and curious and gentle manner. Therefore, families looking for chickens to raise in the backyard find Easter Eggers ideal since they show little to no aggression to each other and won’t tend to scare young children as some other breeds could.
Not only will they not scare young children, in fact, but they are also the perfect chickens to raise as a way of getting children used to being around farm animals and learning how to handle and care for them. Easter Eggers are naturally curious, approach human owners looking for treats, and are perfectly open to being held or getting in some lap time.
Top Rated Chicken Treats
However, as part of a mixed batch of chickens, one should be wary of these birds’ gentle and kind disposition. Easter Eggers won’t assert themselves in a group, which is good if you mix with other birds of a similar temperament. Still, if you were to introduce a more aggressive breed there, such as Cochins, they may be bullied or dominated by them.
Mixing with more dominant breeds isn’t impossible. It’s just that one may need to keep an eye on the Easter Egger to make sure they are not being bullied or intimidated, which in turn might affect their health.
Egg Laying
Easter Eggers get their name because of their attractive egg-laying qualities. First and foremost, they are good layers, delivering about four large eggs each per week, which translates to roughly 200 eggs per year. The name “Easter Eggers” comes from the fact that the color of the eggs each hen lays is different. If you have a group of 5 or 6 Easter Egger hens, you might get different colored eggs from each one!
Contrary to popular belief, the individual Easter Egger does not lay different colored eggs each time. Whatever color you see from each hen one day is the color they will consistently deliver. The exciting thing is that each hen is a bit different, which means a basket of Easter Egger hens will usually be multicolored, hence the name Easter Egger.
If you like collecting eggs to give to friends, family, and neighbors, then a set of Easter Egger eggs has that fun novelty value that people love. Of course, your kids won’t get enough of it, either. What’s more, the Easter Egger is known as an especially non-broody chicken, so egg-laying time is maximized.
Health Issues
Another terrific quality of the Easter Egger is that they do not suffer from any particular health issues or congenital problems. Beyond the typical care needed for dealing with parasites, there’s nothing major to worry about with these hardy birds. They are comfortable in virtually all climates, hot or cold, and tolerate a winter freeze just as much as a summer heatwave. In addition, they don’t mind being confined for periods of time, so owners shouldn’t worry about keeping them indoors during any extreme weather.
Other Information to Know
So far, we’ve painted a very positive picture of the Easter Egger, and that’s because it’s all true and well-deserved. First, there can be no doubt that the Easter Egger is a great all-around chicken to raise either as a farm chicken or just a backyard project for the family. Another bit of positive news is that Easter Eggers are not known for being noisy, so if you do live in a more densely populated area, they won’t disturb the neighbors.
The Easter Egger is also an intriguing breed because it’s one of the few breeds in which you could buy 10 of them and still have a more diverse-looking flock than many others that you’d see, even with multiple breeds in them. With different coloring and features, and the rainbow of eggs that you end up with each week, it’s like having one of every kind of chicken but with all of them sharing the same positive characteristics.
They are tolerant of confinement, but as we have mentioned earlier, they are curious birds, so an indoor space where they have room to explore and satisfy their curiosity is a good idea. Keeping them free range will allow them to source some of their food, which can help cut feed costs a bit.
The only real drawback with Easter Eggers is their lack of pedigree, but of course, that’s only a problem for breeders or those who prize their chicken flock being of a specific stock or recognized type. The Easter Egger is an ideal “go-to” breed if that’s not you.
