You might see and know about beautiful eggs with rebirth meaning on Easter occasions but have you ever thought that there is any egg like that in real life?
In fact, it is real. There are some types of chickens that are able to produce distinctive colour eggs and one of them called Easter Eggers. So what is the origin of this amazing phenomenon? When do Easter Eggers start laying?
When do Easter Eggers start laying?
At the age of 20 to 25 weeks, Easter Eggers start laying and this process will finish after 5 or 6 months.
Though these eggs are not as colorful as the ones you saw on the internet, they still make people curious about where they come from and some of their interesting features. So let’s read on.
Easter Eggers
Background
Easter Eggers are not a breed, they are a cluster of chickens having specific features, most remarkably, a blue colored eggshell gene. Those chickens include Araucanas, Ameraucanas, and Easter Eggers.
Inthere, The Araucana is considered as two other chickens’ origin since it was derived from a mixed-heritage, blue egg-laying bird. This is always a reason why a lot of people mistake Easter Eggers with Ameraucanas or Araucanas.
Actually, Easter Eggers are a combination of varied chicken breeds that provide you with blue egg-laying chickens through Araucanas’ dominant gene. (Source)
Features
Since Easter Eggers are not bred from a particular standard, their appearance can be dissimilar vastly. Easter Eggers with single and pea combs are the most popular types.
Some Easter Eggers have beards, cheek pouls that make them cute like chipmunks. Their earlobes are usually white or red and some chickens own ear tufts. Both roosters and hens have red and small wattles.
Most Easter Eggers have tails, however due to the Araucana gene, some of them may be rumpless.
Their feathers come in a variety of colours such as grey, gold, etc. Easter Eggers with grey feathers flatter their shining eyes.
Generally, Easter Eggers have four toes and each legs’ colour is also different. A couple of them will have a dark color, while the other’s legs are lighter or have blue colour.
One of their distinctive features is that their eyes have a black eyeliner which is really easy to see.
When Easter Eggers have grown fully, their weight is about 4 or 5 pounds on average. Aslo, the roosters are heavier than hens. (Source)
These chickens are quite friendly and docile, they can be considered as a good option if you want to choose an animal. Easter Eggers can easily get close with people like eating from owners’ hands or sitting in their lap. It is usual to see an Easter Egger greets you at the door and behave like a pet.
They are also known as non-aggressive and mild chickens, so it would be a great idea if you are looking for a type of animal to add to your flock.
Easter Egger’s eggs
Quantity
They are excellent layers and expected to lay about 200 eggs per year.
Quality
Even though Easter Eggers have unlike appearances, they all lay eggs with various colours like green, blue, sage, yellow, and pink.
Most surprisingly, each Easter Eggers lays one and only coloured eggs. For instance, if a hen lays green eggs, she will lay green eggs forever. The eggs’ colours depend on each chicken gene, the most dominant gene will be maintained and showed up through the egg colours.
Blue or green eggshells prove the rare genes as well as the good nutrition absorbance of chicken breeds. Those eggs seem to be weird but they are not harmful to people’s health.
Blue or green eggs not only contain higher amino acids, zinc and vitamin contents but also taste more delicious than other chickens. Besides, they are low in cholesterol and beneficial for everyone, especially sick people or pregnant and postpartum women, etc.
Affected factors and solutions to enhance the productivity
Serving food
The Easter Eggers’ laying relies on a lot of factors, in which the most crucial thing is their diets.
Since the laying process consumes lots of energy, you need to provide them with a 16 – 18% protein diet. Furthermore, layers need dietary food with a higher calcium content to produce sturdy eggs.
From time to time, you also should give them some herbs, insects, and fruits to balance their dietary feed.
Letting them access fresh and clean water is also necessary to improve their laying egg process.
Season
It is normal if your Easter Eggers lay eggs less in winter than in other seasons.
Most chickens need quite lots of hours of daylight to lay eggs, it takes about 14 hours. Therefore, to support your chickens’ laying, you should equip their coops with lights and turn them on during the night.
Living environment
Generous, dry, and fresh spaces can help Easter Eggers lay eggs better. A stressful home will make them feel stressed and even stop laying.
It would be a good idea to put some fake eggs in their nesting box. Easter Eggers can lay anywhere so fake eggs help them know the laying positions and encourage them to lay at the right places.
Conclusion
If you intend to have Easter Eggers, those things mentioned above can be some brief and helpful information. It will help you get an understanding of their essential features and problems to take into account and raise them properly.