anyone know what Ideal "Ameraucanas" actually are? *pics*

[ChickenWisperer]

My EE girly from Ideal is THICK. I mean she is a STOUT and HEAVY bird - not neccesarily big. She has some weight to her too. Shes a lovely girly.

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

I have a suspicion that the hatcheries keep mixed pens of very productive hens (various sexlinks, leghorns, etc) with pure Ameraucana roos.

If they use pure roos, they're almost guaranteed that all the babies will get at least one copy of the blue egg gene (and most likely the pea comb gene) and lay a green or blue egg.

If they were just using pens of EE's we would see many more straight combs, and brown/white egg laying EE's. I know there is a lot of variation, but I think MOST of us have EE's with pea combs that lay a green or blue egg. That's why we buy them, right?

 

[tadkerson]

Quote:
Is that true? I had EEs in high school and could have sworn they all had single combs. I need to scrounge up pictures, obviously. I hate it when my memory fails me.

ETA: I scrounged up a picture of my favorite hen from back then (and if I remember anybody I should remember her), and sure enough, she had a pea comb! I must be extraordinarily unobservant to have missed that.

Single combed EEs that lay a blue egg are very rare. The gene that causes a pea comb is closely linked to the gene that causes a blue egg shell. That is whey they are inherited together.

Tim

 

[pipermark]

Ameraucanas, known as the "Easter Egg Breed", are a multicolored breed. They have beards, muffs and a normal tail with a tail head. They are often incorrectly called Araucanas, which have ear tuffs, are rumpless, and do not have a tail head which gives them a bunny tail appearance. Most of the chicks sold as Araucanas are really Ameraucanas, which are excellent, efficient producers of large eggs of many colors and shades including blue and green.

That is from Ideals website, clearly they state they are Easter Egg breed. They need to all the other hatcheries call them Ameraucanas, they need to compete.

McMurrays, also lets you know

Araucanas/Americanas

The "Easter Egg Chicken", This unusual breed gets its name from the Indian tribe of Chile where they were first discovered. Araucanas lay beautiful colored eggs of blue-green shades from turquoise to deep olive. These natural Easter Eggs will amaze your friends and make a great "show and tell" project for school. Adults are of medium size with pea combs and our breeding stock is selected for their ability to produce colored eggs. They exhibit a wonderful combination of colors and color patterns and 10 or 20 of these birds make an absolutely beautiful laying flock that is extremely hardy and will be the talk of the town. Baby chicks come in all colors, plain and fancy, just like the adults. This is a unique breed and great fun to have when the colored eggs start coming. Our Araucanas are recommended for egg laying color and ability and not for exhibition.

Hatcheries , none that I have ever found, supply birds to the APA standards. It would be impossible they have to produce to many birds to meet the demand. Given the limited gene pool they need to cross in birds from other breeds, to widen the gene pool, if not , by now, they would be sending out 4 heading chicks

 

[bibliophile birds]

Quote:
That is from Ideals website, clearly they state they are Easter Egg breed.

but even that is misleading. Ameraucanas and Easter Eggers aren't the exact same thing. and to someone not in the know (aka me, when i ordered my chicks) i ordered these thinking they were Ameraucanas. some of the other hatcheries i looked at actually advertised EEs, but Ideal said they were Ameraucanas so i believed them.

in the long run, i don't mind that i have EEs. i'm really just aiming for egg color variety. my EEs should hopefully produce beautiful colored eggs AND give me a breeding pool for some Olive Eggers when i get my Maran roo in the Spring. and if all EEs were as big and beautiful as the two i'm talking about, i'd probably get a whole lot more!

 

[ArizonaDesertChicks]

Quote:
I think my MPC EEs are about the same age as yours. I finally took a couple pictures to show the difference. Please ignore the mess - these were not taken in my house - my brooder is set up in an outdoor shed/building.

We ordered 25 EEs - this is my largest & smallest EE together with a buff orpington of the same age (all the buffs are the same size).

I think the BOs must just be a lot smaller in their initial growth.

 

[bibliophile birds]

>arizonadesertchicks

they do look to be about the same age as mine (a month old tomorrow). your white EE has lovely head feathers! i'd love to see pics of it when it's grown. EEs are so exciting/frustrating since you really have no idea what they are going to look like once they are all feathered out. Blondie didn't have a bit of color on her until the past week or so and now she's developing these beautiful russet feathers around her saddle.

she went from this...

... to this...

... in a week. it's amazing how fast they change!

eta: pics

 

[Happy Chicken Mama]

My 'Ameraucanas' from Ideal (We have three girls) grew out to be normal (about 4-5 pounds) sized 'Ameraucanas'. One is a bit thicker than the others but still quite a bit smaller then the orppingtons and cochins. You can see pictures on my BYC page (maggie & alice).

They are the BEST layers! We get one green, one blue and one cream egg from them everyday (except when they are moulting). You will be thrilled with them. They are the smartest and coolest of all of our 'yard' birds.

 

[LeBlackbird]

I have pure ameraucanas. My strain of birds are a a bit heavier than they should be. My Roo (which is 2 yrs old) topped out at 9 1/2 Ibs. My hens are between 7-8 Ibs.

My birds

 

[ChickenWisperer]

Quote:
If they are using pure roosters, all the chicks will have a copy of the blue egg gene and will lay blue/green eggs.