Ameracauna or EE??

[chickens really]

Oh dear there is a lot of confusion on this thread...
An Ameraucana is a true, pure breed, accepted by the APA. Laying blue eggs is only one requirement of their breed standard.

An Easter Egger is a multigenerational Ameraucana crossbreed.

You can tell the difference easily when they are young. True Ameraucanas will always be sold prefixed with a color; e.g. a "Wheaten" Ameraucana or a "Blue" Ameraucana. Easter Eggers will often be mislabeled as simply "Americaunas." True Ameraucanas will be pricey, chicks alone often upwards of $20. Both Ameraucanas and Easter Eggers are known to have a pea comb, slate legs, a beard and ear muffs, and lay blue eggs; however, all Ameraucanas are required to have these traits, whereas about 20% of Easter Eggers will lack one or more of them.
Whoever told you that has no clue what they are talking about. Ameraucanas were included in the original crosses to make Easter Eggers, not the other way around.
They are Easter Eggers. Keep an eye on those two in the front... both have strong indicators of being cockerels. Pattern and combs are very suspicious.
This is almost correct. However, Ameraucanas can't be "any" color. They must be a specific color from parents of the same color. An Ameraucana who lacks a variety is an Easter Egger through and through.
No breed with a beard and muff will magically lose them as adults. If they have a beard as juveniles, they will have had it as chicks, and will continue to have it as adults.

Did not imply they magically lose them...When they are growing in their big bird feathers the muffs and beards can be missing till all the feathers grow in.

 

[chickens really]

Whew, the more I read, the more confused I get, there is SOOOOO much information on this site!
So, let's see if I understand this right...an Ameracauna is a breed that lays blue eggs, and if you mix it with another breed you get an EE...is that right?? And can you know which you actually have until they actually start laying? I recently got 5 little chicks sold as Ameracauna, but they all have really different coloring and markings, so I'm just confused!!

Please Note.
My Ameruacana Chickens are from a man that shows his birds. Some of my chicks are from a hatchery.
My hatchery I purchase birds from only sells Heritage Breeds that are pure.
Your colours you have are pure.
I only posted a reply to help you.

Best interest at heart.

 

[QueenMisha]

Did not imply they magically lose them...When they are growing in their big bird feathers the muffs and beards can be missing till all the feathers grow in.

Sorry, I misunderstood what you are saying. Yes, that can happen - sometimes even adults seem to molt in significantly larger or smaller beards for no reason.

Please Note.
My Ameruacana Chickens are from a man that shows his birds. Some of my chicks are from a hatchery.
My hatchery I purchase birds from only sells Heritage Breeds that are pure.
Your colours you have are pure.
I only posted a reply to help you.

Best interest at heart.

What hatchery?

I'm not disputing that your own birds are pure, but OP's are most certainly Easter Eggers. I've worked with something like five hundred of 'em and a handful of pure Ameraucanas and those are certainly little EEs.

 

[Alexandra33]

Whoever told you that has no clue what they are talking about. Ameraucanas were included in the original crosses to make Easter Eggers, not the other way around.

Thank you so much!

I had always doubted what this person (I won't name names) told me, since they were the only one who had ever stated it that way. When I told someone on another thread that EEs are Ameraucana mixed with another breed, this individual got on and flat-out told me my theory was false; EEs were used to create Ameraucanas and Araucanas.

Nothing bothers me more than people who insist that they are right all the time.

~Alex

 

[Alexandra33]

Please Note.
My Ameruacana Chickens are from a man that shows his birds. Some of my chicks are from a hatchery.
My hatchery I purchase birds from only sells Heritage Breeds that are pure.

Did they come from Meyer Hatchery?

That's the only large hatchery I can think of that carries true Ameraucanas. Meyer's where I got a few of mine, excluding the Wheaten bantams we ordered from a local breeder.

~Alex

 

[dekel18042]

Did they come from Meyer Hatchery?

That's the only large hatchery I can think of that carries true Ameraucanas. Meyer's where I got a few of mine, excluding the Wheaten bantams we ordered from a local breeder.

~Alex

www.mypetchicken also carries Ameraucanas, I believe in two colors in addition to the EE's/ I believe they may get theirs from Meyer's. The Ameraucanas are 20.00 per day old pullet verses less than $4.00 for an EE. '
I have both and unless you intend to show, I wouldn't be upset about having EE's. I find my EE's are excellent layers and are some of my favorite birds (OK, so any bird I am looking at at the moment is my favorite.)

 

[Alexandra33]

www.mypetchicken also carries Ameraucanas, I believe in two colors in addition to the EE's/ I believe they may get theirs from Meyer's. The Ameraucanas are 20.00 per day old pullet verses less than $4.00 for an EE. '

I guess I didn't include MPC because they get most of their stock from Meyer, but I'm glad you did for the sake of those who don't know that!

~Alex

 

[CrazyTalk]

Oh dear there is a lot of confusion on this thread...
An Ameraucana is a true, pure breed, accepted by the APA. Laying blue eggs is only one requirement of their breed standard.

Ameraucana is not a 'true, pure breed' because there is no such thing in chicken classification. There are birds that meet a breed standard, and birds that don't. Birds that meet the specification are Ameracaunas, birds that don't aren't, whether or not they're 'pure'.
Chicken breeds are descriptive - they describe the phenotype of the animal, they have nothing to do with its history, genetics, or bloodline.

Quote:
No, its not. An Easter Egger is any bird that lays a blue egg (or carries the blue gene in males) that doesn't meet any other breed standard. You cross a cream legbar and a leghorn, you've got an easter egger. You breed two Aracaunas together and get an unapproved color, you've got an easter egger. You breed two ameracaunas together, and get a bad pattern, you've got an easter egger. Lavender is not an approved color - all the 'Lavendar Ameracaunas' you see for sale are easter eggers.


Quote: Nope. Ameracaunas were developed by crossing Auracanas and several other birds to remove the fatal tuft gene - all of the intermediate birds were called easter eggers. There were large populations of birds that are now called easter eggers long before the Ameracauna existed. The Ameracauna is a new breed (70s) - blue laying multi purpose birds are not.

 

[Alexandra33]

Just looked at www.ameraucana.org and it states loud and proud that both Ameraucanas and Arauacanas were products of EEs. Boy, was I wrong!

I don't know why I didn't look into it for myself before now, but I'm so glad I did.

~Alex

 

[chickens really]

Did they come from Meyer Hatchery?

That's the only large hatchery I can think of that carries true Ameraucanas. Meyer's where I got a few of mine, excluding the Wheaten bantams we ordered from a local breeder.

~Alex

No, Local too me here in Alberta, Canada.