Americauna or EE..?

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jaxchic

jaxchic

Chirping
6 Years
Aug 9, 2013
183
39
96
Florida
Hello all, I am new to chickens but it has quickly become my favorite pastime..I have spent hours reading about the different breeds but I still can't decipher what breed this female is.
My boyfriend bought three of them a few years back from a feed store and she is the only one left.
She is the main egg layer of the ranch. She lays large bright blue/green eggs. She is a fairly heavy girl with very dark legs.
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In that last pic the game type rooster is her mate. I have her fertilized eggs under another broody hen right now so I will hopefully have some mix babies soon.
 
Btw, her neck normally doesn't look that long, I think she was just stretching it a bit as I was following her around with the camera
 
An Easter Egger is not a breed. It is a name given to chickens that usually lay blue or green eggs and do not meet the breed standards for Ameraucana or Araucana.

Most birds sold as Ameraucana from hatcheries do not meet the breed standards, so they are called Easter Eggers.

Your hen was sold at a feed store, so that means the hen came from a hatchery. 99% chance it is an Easter Egger.
 
This feed store is small and local and my boyfriends mother has frequently traded rabbits and chicks in exchange for bags of feed, so not All of their chicks are from a hatchery. Thanks for the reply.
 
Unless the chick came from a breeder who is very carefully following the breed standards, it generally would be considered an EE as most hatcheries and small farms breed EE's.

No matter, it clearly has Ameraucana or Araucana blood as shown in the blue/green eggs. It also has the beard and muff and slate legs of the Ameraucana. Typically it would be referred to as an Easter Egger.

There is a good genetics line on BYC if you are interested in figuring out what percentages of the chicks would be blue/green egg layers, but they would definitely be called Easter Eggers. Not all will be colored egg layers, but I get lost in the genetics to tell you off hand what the percentage is for that.

I do know that if an EE has a pea comb, it has a high probability of also having gotten the blue egg gene too as they are closely linked on the genetic strand.

Happy hatching :D
Lady of McCamley
 
jaxchic said:
This feed store is small and local and my boyfriends mother has frequently traded rabbits and chicks in exchange for bags of feed, so not All of their chicks are from a hatchery. Thanks for the reply.
Click to expand...

It is doubtful that a serious breeder of quality Ameraucanas would just trade their chicks to a feed store when even hatching eggs from this breed are worth $20-$35/dozen.

That's an Easter Egger mutt. She is not one of the standard colors of Ameraucana. Although the pattern she resembles most is silver, she has far too much brown on her to be considered silver. Also, her comb is not a standard pea comb. It's a modified pea and her mixed ancestry shows.

EEs are great birds, and often are better layers and have prettier eggs than true Ameraucana. I have an EE right now that lays an astonishing blue/green egg that looks like a tropical ocean, but my Ameraucanas lay a far more muted egg.

Here's the genetics:
The blue egg gene is dominant, and very closely linked to the pea comb. With her comb, I am pretty certain she is heterozygous for the blue egg gene. The game fowl rooster will carry genes for lightly tinted eggs, and that's probably (don't know for sure) a mix of genes to achieve that color. So, for every chick, the chick has a 50% chance of receiving a blue gene from the mother and a 0% chance of getting one from the father. That means that you should have 50% green egg layers and 50% brown egg layers from your hatch. Remember that these are just probabilities, and there will be cockerels in the clutch as well as pullets, and it's totally possible, if not probable, to get 100% brown egg layers from this hatch. It's all a game of chance, and the odds just give you a hint which way to gamble. The chicks with pea combs and/or modified pea combs have a much more likely chance to have gotten that blue egg gene.
 
Last edited:
jaxchic said:
This feed store is small and local and my boyfriends mother has frequently traded rabbits and chicks in exchange for bags of feed, so not All of their chicks are from a hatchery. Thanks for the reply.
Click to expand...


Chickens traded from local residents? Then it is even more likely an Easter Egger.
 
Hey guys..I totally believe it is an Easter egger, I was just asking to be sure..I don't actually care either way I just like to know what I have.
I wasn't saying that this bird was a trade in from the feed store, I was just saying that this place often buys/sells & trades local birds..just to clarify that all of the birds they sell aren't necessarily from a hatchery.
 
jaxchic said:
Hey guys..I totally believe it is an Easter egger, I was just asking to be sure..I don't actually care either way I just like to know what I have.
I wasn't saying that this bird was a trade in from the feed store, I was just saying that this place often buys/sells & trades local birds..just to clarify that all of the birds they sell aren't necessarily from a hatchery.
Click to expand...
You have a lovely Easter Egger..... I have a few if these "mutts" myself and they are among my most reliable layers.........and sweet.............
lol.png
 
I always think she has a "mean face", lol..but she is very sweet and docile. When she sees I have a cup of feed in my hand she always runs up to me and demands a few nibbles right from the cup.
We placed two of her eggs underneath another broody game hen when we noticed her sitting and I have a handful of her eggs from this past week we haven't eaten that I will be placing in my first ever incubator I am building :) very excited
 

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