Thanks so much! I can easily return "Antonio" to the farm from which he came.
Thanks for the breed ID too! I was wondering if they were Easter Eggers instead of actual Ameraucanas but from the research I did, I thought the blue legs and the muffs concluded Ameraucana. I wonder if my RIR is actually a Production Red?
Junebugenna gives a good suggestion for detecting the actual skin color of a bird. Your birds are EE's as 1) they came from a farm store (farm stores notoriously sell EE's labeled as Ameraucanas) and 2) they are not standard colors. True Ameraucanas almost always have to be purchased from a reputable breeder. (I think one hatchery reportedly sells true Blue Ameraucanas).
As to your RIR...yes it will be a Production Red as you got it from a farm store which purchased it from a hatchery. Hatcheries breed for productivity rather than strictly to breed standard, so most breeders argue that any hatchery RIR (or NH for that matter) is a Production Red.
So what does that mean for you? Nothing, really. You got wonderfully healthy and hardy birds that will lay well for a very inexpensive price. If you wanted to show, breed, then sell chicks under breed standards,
then it would matter.
The Ameraucana people are particularly sensitive to EE vs. Ameraucana because many unscrupulous people try to sell EE's as Ameraucanas. (As the breed is rare and more difficult to find, it is much easier to have only one true Ameraucana and breed that to any other breed to get EE's...but that dilutes the breed and the all important blue egg shell gene).
Return Antonio (the patchy coloring and darker red/brick bars coming in at the wings mark him as a rooster), and trade for another bird if they have one.
Enjoy your EE and RIR pullets. You have a good chance of the EE laying blue or green eggs as it looks like she has a pea comb. (The disadvantage of the EE...it can lay blue, green, white, pinkish or brown eggs vs. the coveted 100% blue eggs of the Ameraucana...but that is why it is called an Easter egger...the variety of colors in the eggs between one hen to the next...an EE can lay any one of those colors...the hope is you get a bird that will lay the green or the blue color...and that depends upon if it got the blue egg shell gene).
LofMc
