Aracauna, Americauna, and EE

[pips&peeps]

Quote:
This is how I pronounce them:

Easter Egger - not gonna go there.....

ameraucana - a mare a kan a

araucana - air a kan a

 

[Buff Hooligans]

To pronounce Ameraucana, in my mind, I say "Amer RAW canna", to make sure I remember to spell it "amerau". Just my little thing...

But regarding EE's, I want a couple !! ! ! They're so striking looking.

 

[Windy Ridge]

Yes, I think the problem is that most hatcheries sell EasterEggers incorrectly... then their customers think they have a specific breed (Americana/Americauna/Araucana/Aricana/etc.) when they don't. Most of the hatcheries don't even know the difference between EEs and the actual breeds, so it results in customers absolutely insisting they they DO have a certain breed when they don't. Others get disappointed by discovering the birds they purchased can't be entered in shows after all because they don't meet a breed standard. Others breed their own purebred "Americanas" from the stock they ordered and are then shocked to learn that they've been falsely selling to other people based on what their hatchery told them they have. And those other people may be very mad at them!

Most hatcheries have small print ("not for show") or somesuch in their description of the breed, but some don't even have that. Even for those that do, selling you a breed and telling you it's not show quality is very different from selling you a variety/mix that is not a breed and doesn't qualify to be shown for that reason.

I have both EEs and Ameraucanas, and I love them both. I really don't understand what the big deal is about advertising them correctly .

Frankly, I think some ears need twisted.

 

[herechickchick]

I agree Windy, advertising is a huge problem when it comes to the Ameraucana and Araucana. Now someone please correct me if I am wrong but I read that in the late 70's early 80's a false report came out the the blue chicken egg was lower in cholesterol and more healthy than other colored eggs (this is NOT TRUE). So the hatcheries tried to make a big profit off this and obtained any blue egg layer (Ameraucana and Araucana) and crossed them with higher production breeds to get more eggs and larger eggs (which I think is stupid. Pure Ameraucana and Araucana are generally good layers). So the misrepresentation by the large hatcheries continues today and it is VERY frustrating to those of us who have chosen to work with these wonderful breeds. Visit the Ameraucana Breeders Club page and the Araucana Club page for more information on these VERY different breeds.

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Hi!
Honestly, I can see where it would be confusing.

It's a bit of befuddlement to me that an Ameraucana that is not an accepted color *must* be called an Easter Egger (and I don't use that term, I call them blue-eggers or crossed birds are green-eggers --- depending on what they lay).

If a bird is bearded/muffed, has slate legs, lays a blue egg, meets the rest of the breed standards and came from Ameraucana parents --- how is it , regardless of color, not an Ameraucana?
It may not be a 'show quality' bird, because it is a 'not-accepted-color', but it is still an Ameraucana.

A clean-faced and tailed Araucana is still an Araucana.
A not-accepted-color Silkie is still a Silkie.

And so on and so on.

I don't understand the difference.

To pronounce Ameraucana, in my mind, I say "Amer RAW canna", to make sure I remember to spell it "amerau". Just my little thing...

That's how I remember the *correct* spelling, too.

a false report came out the the blue chicken egg was lower in cholesterol and more healthy than other colored eggs (this is NOT TRUE).

I hear that regularly from folks wanting to buy blue-eggers . I've read nothing to make me believe they are any different from brown or
white eggers fed the same diet.
I always say "I don't think that's true Just to be safe if you have issues w/ cholesterol, skip the yolk and just eat the whites" --- great protein and no fat or cholesterol.

Lisa​

 

[klf73]

I got eggs from Gary(geareduplyn) and he included a pamplet about Araucana and an analysis of eggs re: cholesterol.
small amount of info if anyone cares

breed yolk cholesterol (mg./11g.
Araucana 1315
Leghorn 1163
Plymouth Rock 1255

it is under "cholesterol myth"



Krista

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Hi!
Wonder where that came from --- higher #'s than Rocks or Leghorns ??

Lisa

 

[Windy Ridge]

Quote:
That's the problem. The EEs that are sold in hatcheries (and I don't really have any problem with what EEs are called--it's a marketing thing, really, call them what you will) don't come from Ameraucana parents. In other words, they don't breed true.

This leads to people saying, I have an EE and she looks a lot like a ____ Ameraucana. Is she really an Ameraucana?

Mmm... well... I suppose you might be able to get away with entering her at shows, although it's unlikely. The standard of perfection doesn't just have to do with the color of leg, etc. A lot of times it's the angle the tail is held, the shape of the body, the weight, the length of leg and so forth... even to the number of points a single comb should have, or the number of rows of papillae a pea comb should have. It's not just color, muffs, beard and comb by a long shot!

That being said, even if, somehow, you miraculously have an EE from a hatchery that does meet the standard of perfection for an Ameraucana, he or she will not breed true. Anyone with a project to create even a color within an established breed knows how difficult it is to stabilize such things. It takes a lot of hard work!

Randomly running across a bird whose genetics are perfectly Ameraucana out of a bunch of mutts--and I love mutts, by the way, I have some beauties myself-- would be like having a bunch of junkyard hound dogs who, after years of mating and producing adorable little mutt puppies of various stripes, somehow produce a perfect bichon frise. Not only does the new puppy look like a bichon frise, but when mated to other bichon frises, all the progeny are also perfect bichons. In other words, it's so extremely unlikely that there would be such a spontaneous genetic accident, that we may as well just say it's impossible.

 

[klf73]

Quote:
The study was done by Researchers at Kansas State University and was published in Poultry Science , March 1977! So I find it funny this myth still goes around. But hey, it's better for the blue egg sellers

. I see what you mean Lisa. I too wondered why they weren't just called non-standard color Ameraucana, if they are truly from 2 Ameraucana parents

Krista

 

[Windy Ridge]

Quote:
Again, if they are from two Ameraucana parents, you do have that.

For instance, I have a splash blue wheaten cockerel. Splash blue wheaten is not a standard color and can't be shown, but it can still be used in a breeding program to produce standard colors (when paired with a wheaten will produce 100% blue wheaten).

Another example: someone is trying to develop salmon Ameraucanas (Stormstryder Poultry--I love them). That's not a standard color, and frankly I'm not sure if the salmon stock was originally outcrossed to get that color or if the color was a randomly occurring sport or mutation that someone wanted to try to propagate. They're not standard color, but as a part of a breeding program with a specific goal in mind, they are Ameraucanas (or will be when they're stabilized). Getting the color APA approved is something else again. Maybe they'll never be an approved APA color in the US.

Marans don't have an APA standard in the US, either. However, Marans is a real breed. If cuckoo gets approved, will wheaten and black copper? If not, will that mean black copper marans aren't real Marans? No. It will mean that color isn't approved, yet, here. But if you have a sort of black copper looking bird that came out of your barnyard crosses and sell it to someone as a BC Marans, it would be pretty unethical.

The same goes for coronation orpingtons, red sussex and various other colors of "standard" breeds that are not APA approved (or available, alas!) in this country.

Again, they key is that they come from breed parents... or that by the time the "non-standard" color is stabilized, the birds will breed true. That would give you a non-standard color Ameraucana (whose color is waiting for approval from the APA). A non-standard color Ameraucana will not come from a hatchery or feedstore, though. They are not looking to develop or stabilize a breed. I love that you can order 10 EEs and get 10 differently plumaged birds. My RIRs are hard to tell apart! But EEs are not just non-standard Ameraucanas, unless any brown egg layer with a single comb and yellow legs is a non-standard color of Rhode Island chicken.