Americanas or not?

[Bluerosesd]

I know true americanas are set to a standard. Otherwise they are Easter eggers. I seen a woman on a livestock page in face book offer up americanas. I have bought Orpington from her and was happy. So I tell her I want three which will make me have six. I go and pick out three thinking she is selling EE as americanas. I pick she gets money and proceeds to tell me they hatched from huge white and brown eggs. I ask her about thinking americana lays green and blue. She said no they lay brown and white eggs. Now I am no expert but EE and American lay green/blue eggs. Is she selling regular chicks with sideburns or is she wrong about these hatching from brown/white? These little girls have sideburns but are not Americana standard. So they are generic chicks or they are EE. I was wanting the EE.

 

[sourland]

Definitely not 'Ameraucanas' and perhaps not EE; although, some EE do not lay blue/green eggs.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

They're likely mutts.
You are right, both EEs and Ameraucanas should lay a green or blue(rare) egg. The original source of the blue gene was Araucana. After many crossings with brown layers, eggs are various shades of green. The blue pigment is throughout the shell. Most brown pigments are applied as a coating on the outside creating a green egg.
Sometimes an EE lays brown eggs when the blue gene has been sufficiently diluted but never white and never from true Ameraucanas. You were taken. Hopefully you'll end up with nice birds but if they came from brown and white eggs, don't expect green or blue eggs from them.

Another possibility is that the father was an Ameraucana. The mothers were not or the eggs wouldn't be white/brown. If that's the case, you could get green eggs. At any rate, they're mutts of some kind.

 

[Bluerosesd]

Thank you guys I didnt pay much for them. They have the sideburns which I think are adorable. I would be ok with them laying brown or white eggs though I wanted green/blue.

 

[RWise]

I get many colors of eggs from my EEs (some are rainbow eggers), never a pure white egg, extremely lite blue. I also get brown/pink eggs, you will certainly know when they start laying!
Years ago I read an article the person claimed "fixing" the EEs, and this persons EEs laid only brown eggs, I myself say they broke them!
Oh BTW the spelling is enuf to say they are not true bloods, but EEs or muts. Nothing wrong with that but should be advertised that way.

 

[aart]

I believe the SOP for Ameraucana is blue eggs.
Many birds are sold as Ameraucana(spelled correctly or not) because the hatchery's perpetuate the name, and so do their resellers(farm stores, feed mills, etc), and anyone who buys from either.
Most hatchery AmeraKinda (my take on the naming snafu)birds I've bought laid blue/green, some a beautiful blue.
My crosses with those birds was a crap shoot, got a couple pretty nice olive layers with a Wellie cock or brown or something in between.

 

[Ridgerunner]

@ChickenCanoe you are usually interested in facts. You might want to follow this link about how the Ameraucana breed was developed. It cleared up a lot of my misconceptions about the blue and green egg layers. For example the Araucana was not the source of the blue egg gene. A barnyard mix of two different chicken breeds in Chile was that source. The Araucana and Ameracana were developed from these mutt birds.

http://ameraucanaalliance.org/DnLd/Early History by Richard Orr.pdf

I'll pull an excerpt from that link to show how messy the history actually was.

To generalize the situation as briefly as possible; going back prior to the arrival of the Spaniards, the Mapuche Indians in Chile had TWO breeds of chickens raised in different areas of the country: One they called the “Collonca”, which was small, laid BLUE eggs, was rumpless, and had a small single comb; the other they called the “Quetro” or “Quetero”, derived from their word “kerto” meaning stammering, referring to its peculiar crow. The “Quetro” was TUFTED, had a flowing tail, pea comb, and laid brown eggs --- “Tufted rumpless” occurred when a rumpless bird crossed with a tufted tailed bird, but these offspring were rare. The latter were later called “Collonca de Arêtes” by the Spanish, meaning “Collonca with Earrings”


@Bluerosesd There is no real definition of an EE. EE's are not a breed (no breed standards) so they can be anything people want. Some people require an EE hen to lay blue or green eggs. Some people only require an EE to be hatched from a parent that one of its ancestors used to lay a blue or green egg. Some people expect them to have muffs, tuffs, beards, a pea comb, slate legs or some other specific trait. I once read on this forum that an EE should have some white feathers. I can't argue with any of them since there is no breed standard. There is no universal definition of an EE. You can make up your own and many people do.

The hatcheries don't help. Some of the older hatcheries developed their colored egg laying flocks before the Araucana or Ameraucana were developed. They used those names as marketing names more than breed names and many still do. A very recent development is that a very few hatcheries are starting to offer true Ameraucana, not just EE's.

Now egg shell color. The blue egg gene is dominant. If just one of the genes at the hen's gene pair at that location on the chromosome is the blue egg shell gene she will lay a blue or green egg. Since those chickens were hatched from white or brown eggs they did not get the blue egg shell gene from their mother. A rooster does not lay eggs so you don't know what he is contributing. If there is a blue egg laying chicken somewhere in his background it is possible the pullets from that cross will lay blue or green eggs. Only time will tell.