Cherry Egger Chicken Breed

Cherry Egger Pullet (point of lay), twenty three weeks old

   I am writing about the breed, the Cherry Egger chicken today. Why? Because when I was choosing chicken breeds, and later wanting to know more about them, they are to scarce on the internet to satisfy my enormous curiosity!

   I did find the one picture that many different hatchery sights share, apparently. Like no one has really bothered to take any pictures of their cherry eggers.

 

   I did find a few out there, but nothing specific, just some mentions and a couple of photos.

 

 

   I myself, took a chance on this little talked about breed. Why? Because I wanted to pick three breeds for my order of fifteen from Cackle Hatchery (we were very satisfied with our order since the chicks all arived alive, and only 1 chick turned out to be a roo out of fifteen, not bad!), and I chose them for the number of eggs they are projected to lay, and so they can be the pretty red chickens of our diverse flock. lol!

   I also thought it would be fun to see who outlays who on eggs. All three of our varieties are brown egg layers. All three are supposed to be layers of large eggs. My husband's requirements!

   So WHAT is the genetic makeup of a Cherry Egger? (They are a hybrid breed of course!) The information  available states the the parents of the Cherry Eggers are Rhode Island Red roosters crossed with New Hampshire Red hens, though some say it is vice-versa. Some sights just state they are a mixture of different breeds to produce an egg production chicken. And maybe it's worded that way because a New Hampshire Red chickens were developed a long time ago by crossing Rhode Island Reds with other breeds to get their own version of a red chicken that is a good layer.

 

   But the difference is, if you breed a New Hampshire Red with another NHR, the breed holds true. But if you breed a cherry egger with a cherry egger, you get a lesser quality mut.

 

 

   They get to be a decent size chicken in the heavy breed category, but not too terribly big to where they eat you out of house and home, supposedly.

 

 

   hens: seven and a half pounds

   pullets: four to six pounds

   roosters: nine and a half pounds

   cockerals: seven to eight pounds

 

   Wow! Heftier than I remembered!

 

   They are supposed to be adaptable, and winter hardy. And I never found any info on if they go broody much or not. I will assume not since they were developed for laying 250 - 300 eggs a year. And I read somewhere they start laying early, at about twenty weeks old.

 

 

   Now my experience so far. My five Cherry Eggers developed at the same rate as our Golden Comets, though the golden girls had more mature combs, except that is, for Little Red. We wondered if Little Red was a "Fred" because she suddenly sprouted a big red floppy comb, lol. It's cute.

 

   Around that same time, I also noticed Little Red doesn't like to share, especially eating space. Or standing space sometimes. She is also kind of a loner when she wants to be. She doesn't mind wandering or staying without the others nearby when she is foraging. Little Red is her own chicken and says so when she needs to. But her bark (peck) is quick and short lived.

   And then there's Hagatha!!! What can I say? She's mean for the fun of it. She looks for a reason to chase down a chicken and holds grudges. If there is a fight, it's usually her as the instagater. She won't make it long with us I fear. She seems like the most aggressive Rhode Island Reds I have heard tell of and wanted to avoid. Too bad. She was one of our first chickens to lay, but some are double yolkers, some are soft, and some are normal. She has on occasion layed two soft eggs or two normal eggs, or a normal and a double yolker back to back. Mostly softees though of late (eggs with no shells, just membranes and normal insides). As soon as she comes out of the chicken house, she lets some poor chicken have it. And she tries to regulate who can be inside the chicken house with her, and even then, they may still get punished. She is a psycho chicken.

 

   Our other three Cherry Eggers can be a wee territorial, or be just fine, depending on their moods, but they are usually fine with the other chickens. And Little Red is blending in better too, since she started laying. (I was sooo relieved to see she wasn't a Fred!) I kind of am getting fond of Little Red.

 

   Hagitha's normal egg shells are a pretty, sort of terracotta brown with red speckles on them. (You see the speckles after you wash the bloom off the egg.)

   Little Red's eggshells are kind of a brown with a leaning toward a nice tan shade. So they don't ALL look alike. (There's just something manly about Little Red, lol!)

 

  Hagatha is our lightest red Cherry Egger, and the largest, while Little Red is the deepest red with a small sleek physique (I told you she appears a roosterish, lol).

 

   So far they are laying almost every day. I haven't caught the other three Cherry Eggers in the laying box yet. Hagitha began laying at twenty one weeks, and Little Red at twenty three weeks old.

  They are now twenty five weeks along as of this blog.

 

   Now here are the photos that contain  our Cherry Eggers.

 

The chicks that are more red are the Cherry Eggers.

As pullets.
The backside view of an eight week old Cherry Egger sunning herself in her new pen.


The next two photos are taken when the Cherry Eggers are seventeen and a half weeks old. The top photo shows the Cherry Eggers foraging in the center, surrounded by the speckled Sussex's and Golden Comets.

The photo underneath is Hagatha, just starting to show her crazy eyes. She is in the corner with a Black Australorp pullet and an Ameraucana looking on.

 

Under Hagatha's photo is Little Red. Her comb stood up nicely for this photo. One of her sister's is standing nearby in the second Little Red photo. Her comb isn't as developed as Little Red's or Hagitha's. Each develops at their own rate (sigh).