Ameraucana is really a... ?

[Sahwithchicks]

I got the pullet from a woman who claimed it to be an ameraucana. I thought she was pretty so I got her. However, I know that ameraucanas only have certain colors to be true. She is too young to lay, but I was wondering if anyone knew what she might be. An Easter egger? Or something else. I thought maybe she was a silver laced something but I couldn't guess. She has grey legs that you can't see in the pictures.

 

[Midwest Lizabeth]

She looks like she could be a silver Ameraucana. See: http://ameraucana.org/scrapbook_files/silverf.JPG

 

[Lacy Blues]

Not an easter egger. They have no tails and big tufts of feathers coming out of their ears! Definitely an Ameraucauna.

 

[ceeceeholt]

All my EE's have tails. They are all colors which I love and beards and tufts by their beaks, not sure about the ears.

 

[BlazeJester]

LacyBlues, you are confused about the distinction between Ameraucana, Araucana and Easter Eggers. There are lots of great threads - if you read into the Araucana thread in the "breeds" section you will get a lot of clarification.

-- this is a great place to learn all about what you don't know or are confused about chickens!!!

ETA: I spend quite a bit of time reading this "sexing and gender" forum before starting to chime in so I knew what I was looking for in the pictures and wasn't going to confuse or incorrectly encourage someone that their roo was actually a hen, or that their barnyard mutt was a valuable, showable bird.

Not an easter egger. They have no tails and big tufts of feathers coming out of their ears! Definitely an Ameraucauna.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm not really happy that the APA-ABA goes out of its way to confuse the issue by also calling the Easter Egger an Americana (notice the spelling: i instead of au) when showing the difference between the Araucana, Ameraucana, and Americana (Easter Egger), but the chart at the bottom shows the differences between the Araucana and Ameraucana. I'll stick with the Easter Egger nomenclature so i can keep it straight.

Since there are no standards for an Easter Egger, they can be anything. There is no formal definition of an Easter Egger.

EE/Ameraucana/Araucana comparison
http://apa-abayouthpoultryclub.org/Edu_Material/Easter Eggers vs.pdf

Sahwithchicks, I don't know if this chart will help you or not. Those grey legs sounds like they might be the right color, but maybe you could check the bottoms of the feet?

Here is a photo of the Silver Ameraucana hen from the Ameraucana Breeders Club.

http://ameraucana.org/scrapbook_files/lfsilverf.jpg

 

[Sahwithchicks]

Ok, from what I understand and correct me if I am wrong...
Ameraucana- muffs, or bearded. Grey legs. Tail. Only come in these colors: black, Blue, Blue Wheaten, Brown Red, Buff, Silver, Wheaten and White. They have pea combs and lay blue eggs. Will breed true

Araucana- rumpless, ear tuffed, pea comb, blue eggs, hard to breed and do not breed true (do not always carry the tuff or rumpless trait) Colors are: ??

Easter egger- any blue or green egg layer that does not match the specifications for the two breed above. Mixed breed. will not breed true.

 

[Sahwithchicks]

Ridge runner- that actually was very helpful. I went out and took a close look at my hens. I looked at the one I was pretty sure was a true Ameraucana. She did indeed have red earlobes (never noticed before) and the bottoms of her feet where white. When I looked at the pullet in question, she appeared to have white ear lobes and slightly yellow bottoms of feet. Though I am a complete newbie when it comes
To grading chickens, it seems to me I just have a plain ol' Easter egger, or a
Mixed breed.
Thank you all for your input, I guess I will really have to see if she lays blue eggs before I can cross off a completely different breed!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't know how hard they are to breed, but here are the recognized Araucana colors. The Araucana can have a fatal recessive gene that kills the chick in the shell before it hatches if the gene pairs up. That may be what you mean by hard to breed.

http://www.araucana.net/Varieties/APA_Araucana_Varieties.htm

To me, an EE should have the blue egg gene, which means it should lay either blue or green eggs. But many people don't see it that way. There are no formal standards for an EE, so you can call anything an EE if you want to. That's a big part of what makes it so confusing.

EE's are generally mixed breeds and in general, will not breed true. But I'm working in a project now trying to make some green egg laying Black Speckled EE's that will breed true. For practically any EE you get from a hatchery or from someone else, they are a mix and will not breed true, but even that is not a requirement.

 

[Sahwithchicks]

Yes that is what I meant for hard to breed, as well as the rumpless trait not always passing onto the chicks. I don't know that I have ever seen a true araucana, as I never knew the true colors... Thanks for posting that.