Ameraucana questions.

[BigBlueHen53]

Do they at least have muffs and beards? lol

YES. Every single one. Floofy faces.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

And pea combs.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

This afternoon. Late aftrnoon lighting, sorry. All my Ams are black. I'll do better tomorrow. I believe the two at upper left are cockerels. Not sure the one at far left has correct comb?

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

Hello everyone,
So I guess I have been keeping chickens 40 years. Been a member here for a decade but don't post often if ever. I don't show and until recently I haven't really sold my chickens. A few years ago I purchased some "Ameraucanas" from a hatchery and I hatched a lot of chicks over the last 2 years. Last year a sold a bunch of chicks without issue. This year BOY have I been taken to task on a forum (not naming) for my chicks. My chicks look great, healthy and all but apparently this hatchery I bought my original stock from is considered not to be Ameraucanas. Anybody know about this issue? I'm not to concerned about what my breed is but I know many "show people" are. I don't want to deceive anyone but I have been selling my chicks as what this well known hatchery sells them as? Does anyone have insight on this issue?

I can guess which hatchery you ordered from.

To my current knowledge, they had their line of Ameraucanas BEFORE the APA made their decisions on how they want Ameraucanas to look. They're pretty strict. (Slate legs, pea comb, beard and muffs, and they originally only allowed 8 colors, and after decades it's now up to 10. But no luck finding all those colors.)

So, your birds aren't SOP according to APA Ameraucanas. (Unless they somehow are, unintentionally.)

I can understand some people's frustration because of the confusing situation, but I think some people cross a line in their reactions to it.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Oh, I also inadvertently ordered some BA pullets in the same order. There were 3 cockerels in that batch, which have already gone to freezer camp. Maybe I should sell the BA in the spring as POL...

 

[JedJackson]

i may be off, but I don't remember any hatchery calling Easter eggers Ameraucanas before the purebred version came into being. No one had ever heard the term Ameraucana before then.

Easter eggers were mistakenly called Araucanas back when I was young, another pure breed which they did not even resemble except for the color of their eggs.

This is a hatchery con job from the beginning, meant to confuse people and maximize profits. Selling Easter eggers as Amer'i'canas only increases the confusion.

Purebred Ameraucanas will always be sold by a single color, will always have white skin and slate colored legs except for the black, blue, lavender and brown red varieties, which should have dark slate or black legs.

The underside of the feet will always be white to pinkish white in purebred Ameraucanas, never yellow. The legs will never be green in purebred Ameraucanas. That color indicates a yellow skinned bird, which is not correct for purebreds of any color of Ameraucana.

There is no partridge, black breasted red or plain brown color in Ameraucanas, but that is the most common color of Easter eggers.

Sometimes I think a class action lawsuit should be filed against these hatcheries for false advertising and fraud. Their practices are intentionally deceptive.

 

[NatJ]

i may be off, but I don't remember any hatchery calling Easter eggers Ameraucanas before the purebred version came into being. No one had ever heard the term Ameraucana before then.

If you want to take a hatchery's own word for it:
"The Ameraucana breed was originally developed in the 1970s, derived from Araucanas. Ameraucanas were bred to retain the blue-egg laying gene but eliminate some of the issues associated with the Araucana breed.

"We have been breeding Ameraucanas since the 1980s — even before they were admitted into the Standard of Perfection by the American Poultry Association in 1984. "

That is from this page:
https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/ameraucanas.html


As a matter of practical logic, of course the name had to exist for at least a few years when the breed was in development, before they were officially accepted by the APA.

If a hatchery started to breed those in-development birds, with the name that was applied to them at the time, then yes they could have a flock of birds, with that name, from before the APA accepted the breed. But apparently in all the years since, they have not bothered to breed their flock to meet the standard that was actually created, just kept the name and kept breeding the same not-really-finished kind of chicken.

Easter eggers were mistakenly called Araucanas back when I was young, another pure breed which they did not even resemble except for the color of their eggs.

Depending on when you were young, the Araucanas might not have been standardized either. If we can believe wikipedia (always a bit iffy), Araucana was actually accepted APA standard in 1976. The British were a few years ahead of the Americans, but they used a different standard, and the Australians followed them a few years later. "True Araucanas" can look very different in different countries (eartufts and no tail in the USA, crest/muffs/tail in Britain and Australia).

This is a hatchery con job from the beginning, meant to confuse people and maximize profits. Selling Easter eggers as Amer'i'canas only increases the confusion.

It certainly does increase the confusion, although I think it may be improving with time, as hatcheries are breeding so many variations of chickens that lay blue or green or dark green ("olive") eggs, and giving them a bunch of different proprietary names. Of course that causes other issues, but at least it doesn't mix up the name of an actual breed.

Regardless of how they are naming the chickens, I think the hatcheries have done some good: chickens that lay blue or green eggs are now widely available to the average backyard keeper that wants them, instead of restricted to small numbers owned by breeders and hard to get.

It would be really nice to get some set of terms commonly accepted and used, and have an end to the confusing labels and arguing about it. I think "Easter Egger" is a good catch-all for the ones that lay blue or green eggs of any shade, and do not belong to any recognized breed. It seems easy to understand, easy to spell and say, and I fervently hope no-one ever tries to use that name for a new standardized breed.