Ameraucauna Vrs Easter Egger! Such a "Raw Nerve" with some folks!

[Morgan7782]

I love my Easter Egger Munk, in my avatar. She is great, and a total "chicken" chicken lol! I love the variaty EE's give off, the different colors and patterns, not to mention personalities.

But I found a wonderful True Ameraucana breeder a little south of me... And once I get my big coop I will be taking a trip down south to pick one or two lavender or blue Ameraucana's up! They also breed Giant Cochins, colors include black, blue, splash, lemon blue (WHAT is that??) and gold laced. And she breeds them from personal stock, no hatchery birds in backgrounds I don't think. Very very nice set up too! I love meeting chicken people who really take care of their birds.

But no matter what, Munk is by far a favorite

I am pretty evenly split between the two so I figure why not get one or two of each? Perfect chicken sense, right?

Here are some pictures of the stock I will be getting these chicks from, hopefully!

At least around Spring if not this October.

And a picture of Munk

these are her "Autumn Photos"

 

[hencackle]

For full blooded Ameraucanas that are not to "standard" colors, I'd prefer they be called something like "Non-standard Ameraucana" vs Easter egger. They're still Ameraucanas just not "to spec".

I like that because it provides a third category which I feel is needed.

It would be a tremendous help if hatcheries and feedstores would label their EEs as such, instead of misleading people. Just how do we go about getting them to change?

I personally don't show, but I've gone to a couple of shows where a few youngsters RIRs and Araucanas were disqualified as "Production Reds" and EEs, respectively. I felt so sorry for them because they were misinformed from the beginning, probably by sales clerks at the feedstores that didn't know any better themselves.​

 

[tuesdays chicks]

I haven't read all the post on this thread but was going to start a new thread when I spotted this.
I was going to ask if ee owners don't realize that they actually have mixed breed birds?
I keep seeing ee/x. Do they not know that its actually either americauna or auricana / x. (Sorry if I spell anything wrong ) I'm just wondering I don't own any of above mentioned birds. But when I got my small flock I did look up my breeds and try to find out what they were. And now I think the only bird I have that is a pure bred is my bo hen.

 

[Illia]

Quote:
At least they tell someone it is an Easter Egger, so knowledgable people don't get ripped off.

So many people will say Araucana cross, or half Araucana. . . . When it's actually "half Easter Egger," or, simply an Easter Egger.

That also makes people not realize that their "half Araucana" is VERY unlikely to still have blue or green eggs, and its offspring even less likely, being that the Easter Egger in there already has little blue left.

 

[TK Poultry]

I think the presidnets from all three of the clubs need to sit down and out line the easter egger so that there is a definition for them so we will quit debating

There is an EE club its on my links page on my site

 

[dsqard]

Quote:
I think a lot of EE owners do not realize that is what they have. I think the hatcheries are listing them as Ameraucanas when I don't think that any of the big hatcheries have pure Ameraucanas. So if you don't know any better (and I wouldn't have if I had never found this site) I would have thought that if I ordered Ameraucanas that is what I got. Then if I started breeding then I might list them as pure not knowing the difference. Now, I know for myself I would have done more research if I was going to try to breed but how many backyard breeders do their homework? Please don't think that I am putting them down, since I plan on becoming one

but sometimes a little more knowledge is needed. I also think that as a buyer, if you are looking for "pure" anything, you should do some homework to before you buy that way you know what you are looking at.

 

[tuesdays chicks]

Quote:
All anyone has to do is go to the breed page here in byc and read the difference that is what I did. I do understand if you have been told specifically that your bird is a Americauna how upset you might be for someone to rudely point out you have an ee.
I was just trying to point out if you have an ee and you breed it with something else the chick is still an ee it just might not give the pretty eggs.

 

[Muggsmagee]

I have issue with the spelling, but would never be rude to people. Sometimes it is difficult to interpret the written word. When someone types "Americana"...I'm more than positive they have an EE. When we bought our first 8 Ameraucanas, we bought them from a well known breeder in our area. They were all sorts of colors, and we couldn't find what category (color type) they fit under, as we wanted to show them. The breeders take their birds all over to shows (they have several different breeds), and are even judges themselves for certain shows. It took me a good month or so of research to realize they sold me EE's.

We had only 2 pullets, and sold the other 6 cockerels. We kept the hens and LOVE them.

However, we still wanted to breed/show Ameraucanas. I haven't been able to tell them their birds are really a mixture (EE's)...how does one go about that, when they taught US about chickens!?! They just don't know what they have, and were quite possibly misled themselves. Some of their birds are close to standard...the blues and blacks. Someone wrote in an earlier post that some judges don't know the difference...SO true, yet sad. It is less likely to happen at a sanctioned show, than a county fair.

We spent a good deal of money buying hatching eggs and day old Ameraucana chicks, so that we would have quality Ameraucana stock. When someone says look at my "Americana", and it is an obvious EE, I feel the right thing to do is correct them. There is no "I" in Ameraucana, and what you have is a beautiful EE. If someone said hey look at my RIR and it was really a NHR, wouldn't you want to speak up?

I have some buff orpington x black jersey giant chicks (really cute backyard mix). It would be irresponsible of me to sell them as BO's. They still lay a light brown egg, they are both dual-purpose, but it isn't a true (standard) BO! Hatcheries intentionally misspell Americana or post it as Easter Eggers/Americana/Araucana.

To hear the breed name Ameraucana, you can't tell there is no I in it. Usually hatcheries have a disclaimer in the breed discription..."not show quality".

Also, there is no such thing as a "pure" breed. Not in dogs, chickens, etc. Just that there are many that have been bred to a standard. Lavender is not a color recognized in Ameraucana chickens per the APA standards. But people are breeding for it, and it takes time to get it accepted. We would call these "projects". It is projects like these that have devoloped the various "breeds". (A certain size, color, features...the consistency is what makes the standard.) One of my Wheaten Ameraucanas has no muffs/beard...she will not be put into the breeding pen, but she is still an Ameraucana. There are all sorts of variables when dealing with standard breeds, as they do throw off an unwanted trait. After all, didn't they derive from pheasants? Also, there is no such thing as the "perfect" bird...breeding is the pursuit of the perfect bird.

If your chicken lays a blue or green egg, it doesn't make it an Ameraucana. If it is bred to standard (color, etc) then it is likely an Ameraucana. If you order from a big hatchery, you are likely getting an EE. If you order from a feed store, their birds come from big hatcheries, so you are still getting an EE. If it is blue/green/pink eggs you are after...no big deal. If you want to show the bird at sanctioned shows, it is a big deal, and you should go through a recognized breeder.

In my case, there is no war in EE's vs. Ameraucanas. However, I don't want my favorite breed to be misrepresented. The Ameraucana.org website has some great pics on it for reference. I think everyone should at least be educated, and when starting out, it isn't easy to know what to look for. There are some pics of EE's on here I WISH were standard color...they were gorgeous!

I will continue to educate people where I see fit, but we can do it from a place of positivity and help bring people into this collective, shared knowledge with that positivity. Matter of factness, does not mean rudeness.

 

[puredelite]

Back in the 1970's I started raising what I mistakenly thought was Araucana's as they laid an egg that was "robin's egg blue" color. No green or pinks- just a pretty shade of blue. Then I found out that they were not really Araucana's at all as they had tails and muffs & beards as opposed to tufts. Just the same I continued to raise them and kept the same bloodlines. Then somewhere my chickens became EE's or Americanas. I never had any of the accepted Americana colors like blue or solid black but did occasionally hatch a solid white. Most were duckwing's or the tan/brown color of some pictured in a previous post. Almost all sported a beard and muffs. So, now after all these years I still am unsure as to what I raise but no matter I do enjoy them for what they are. As a footnote- I almost lost my strain of birds this past Winter when a pair of raccoons broke into my storm-ravaged coop and in one night killed over one dozen chickens but I was blessed to be left with a roo and one hen. Have hatched two broods off of her this Summer so the family still lives on!!

 

[puredelite]

My apology for the mis-spelling and misuse of the description of Ameraucana and Americana. Know that this might tend to offend some, not my intention at all!