According to the Ameraucana Breeders Club, if the hen lays a blue-green egg and has typical Ameraucana coloration (a wide variety of colors, shading from pale wheat to brown-black) recognized by the APA, then it's an Ameraucana. Easter Eggers lay blue, green, and even pink eggs and don't quite meet the APA standards of description for Ameraucanas. Araucanas are the much more difficult to find chicken breed of Chilean origin, with pronounced cheek tufts and no tail feathers due to the lack of a final vertebra. These mature much more slowly that Ameraucanas and are usually only available from specialized breeders, as true Araucanas have a lethal gene allele that makes viable hatchings tricky. Even "rare chicks specialists" like McMurray Hatchery sells Ameraucanas, not Araucanas, even though they're listed as "Ameraucanas/Araucanas." And some hatcheries just lump everything together as "Easter Eggers."
But as noted before, yes, Ameraucanas mature rapidly than most standard breeds, although their point-of-lay is an average of 22 - 24 weeks from our experience with our Ameraucanas (which they were purchased as "Araucanas" from McMurray and most definitely are not; we have not used McMurray again). Hope that helps!
My question is, the Americana is bigger than the others and has already a decent amount of little feathers on her wings. Is that breed bigger, or did I get a chick that's already a little bit older? I guess it doesn't really matter. I am just thinking that one is going to try to escape the brooder soon.
