Ameraucana: chick color leads to what hen color?

[mother o' chicks72]

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I do have pics. they sold me an "australorp" who was really a barred rock, a "cuckoo marans" who was really a dominique and a "ameruacauna" who was really an easter egger, i also got a buff orp who actually what she was supposed to be, and then ,feeling sad about not getting an australorp I went back and got one that actually was an australorp. you still want pics? oh yeah, and also my ee might be a roo.

 

[Back to the Earth]

Mother--oh, man! That is all not good. I also got a cuckoo maran with my "ameraucana" and they are in fact girls of the correct breed. How did you figure out your maran was a Dominique? AND, yes! I'd still love to see your photos. I'm a visual learner.

 

[Back to the Earth]

I made a mistake in that post. I meant to say "I hope that they are in fact girls of the correct breed." I have more doubt than now than I expected to have.

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

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It's really not their fault. The hatcheries sell them as "Ameraucanas". Anyone buying them from a hatchery gets fooled, not just the feed stores.

 

[Back to the Earth]

How can one really determine the difference between a hatchery and a breeder. Just size and scale? Doesn't the hatchery first have to get them from a breeder? I'm sure I'm stepping into next thread territory here, but it just got me thinking.

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

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No, a private breeder is someone who has select stock that (hopefully) breeds toward the betterment of the breed, and breeds toward the breed description in the Standard of Perfection.

A hatchery hatches chicks from whatever stock they have, it's about quantity, not quality. Hatcheries call anything that carries the blue egg gene an "Ameraucana" or an "Araucana". Some hatcheries (like Welp Hatchery) lists both breed names with a "/" between them on their Easter Eggers.

There's no telling where hatchery stock comes from, even if it originated with a private breeder decades ago, but they replenish their stock with their own chicks, and if they aren't selectively breeding toward the Standard, their birds get further and further away from it.

It's the same as the difference between someone who breeds dogs toward the betterment of the breed vs. a puppy mill who breeds whatever specimens they have available to them to churn out more puppies and make more money faster.

 

[mother o' chicks72]

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my maran...grew a pea comb and her legs are yellow. bad urban farm store! bad!

 

[gordonburrito]

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Green! Mint green to be exact

...and with her they are bit spotty

 

[gordonburrito]

Here is her "sister" who is a more wheaten colored EE and her egg

 

[debid]

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Mint chocolate chip! Gorgeous!