Araucana thread anyone?
- Thread starter megcpat
- Start date
Ok, I want to run something by you on the araucana thread. This is my write up for the Easter Egger in my book. I don't want any argument over this please. I just want to state the facts in a light and informative way. If there is something I should add or take away please let me know. Its my book and this is my belief ( about the EE not simply being a non standard araucana or Ameraucana.) I think when we say it is, it adds to the confusion for people about the difference.
" The Easter Egger chicken is a bird hatcheries sell usually under the name araucana/americana the easter egg chicken. It can lay just about any color egg from blue, green, tan, or white. The Easter Egger typically has a beard, muffs, tail and green legs. They come in just about any color. The Easter Egger is not simply a bird not conforming to the standard of perfection for the araucana or the ameraucana."
or this one
" The Easter Egger is a chicken that hatcheries sell to backyard enthusiest as a blue egg layer. However their breeding has been so mixed with other breeds, that some have lost their blue egg gene and lay tan or pinkish eggs instead of blue or green. The Easter Egger typically has a beard, muffs, a tail and green legs. They come in just about any color. Hatcheries tend to sell them under the name Americana/Araucana, which adds to the general confusion. The Easter Egger is not simply a bird not conforming to the standard of perfection for the araucana or the ameraucana."
Thoughts please. This is for my segment on the differences between the Ameraucana, Araucana and the Easter Egger.
Lanae
" The Easter Egger chicken is a bird hatcheries sell usually under the name araucana/americana the easter egg chicken. It can lay just about any color egg from blue, green, tan, or white. The Easter Egger typically has a beard, muffs, tail and green legs. They come in just about any color. The Easter Egger is not simply a bird not conforming to the standard of perfection for the araucana or the ameraucana."
or this one
" The Easter Egger is a chicken that hatcheries sell to backyard enthusiest as a blue egg layer. However their breeding has been so mixed with other breeds, that some have lost their blue egg gene and lay tan or pinkish eggs instead of blue or green. The Easter Egger typically has a beard, muffs, a tail and green legs. They come in just about any color. Hatcheries tend to sell them under the name Americana/Araucana, which adds to the general confusion. The Easter Egger is not simply a bird not conforming to the standard of perfection for the araucana or the ameraucana."
Thoughts please. This is for my segment on the differences between the Ameraucana, Araucana and the Easter Egger.
Lanae
I kinda like the second one, mentions the pink eggs too. the last sentence in both (the same) is missing something. You make a statement of what it is not, so it either needs to be balanced by saying what it is, or restructured. I like to clarify, that way anyone can get it. but if you wanted to restructure, you could remove the not, and make it a statement that they don't conform. Nice write up!
Sib
Sib
I like the first
I like the first one Lanae.
The egg is one of the bluest Ive seen, it made my EE egg look white! It was very small, but It should get some size later, right? The eggs they hatched out of were very big, like a giant ping-pong ball!
Tyler
The egg is one of the bluest Ive seen, it made my EE egg look white! It was very small, but It should get some size later, right? The eggs they hatched out of were very big, like a giant ping-pong ball!
Tyler
Pullets first eggs are always smaller. The eggs will start to get bigger fairly quickly. You don't want them to pop out with the big ones right away. They will never lay another egg again. LOL!!
I totally changed my whole approach to the Aruacana, Ameraucana, Easter Egger portion of the book. Here it is, tell me what you think: Its a bit long sorry.
"I first heard about the Araucana chicken when a friend gave me her entire flock of hens. The next day one of them laid a beautiful blue egg. I asked her about it. I wanted to know which chicken did, what had she been feeding it to make it do that, and how could I get more. She just laughed and said it was an Araucana chicken and I could get more at the feed store. Thats where she had gotten hers. How easy is that? So I trotted right down to the local feed store and there they were. Such cute little chipmonk looking fluffy baby chickens. The sign said Araucana /Americanas so that was them. I bought 5 and brought them home. Imagine my surprise 6 months later when only 1 laid a blue egg. Two laid a green egg and 2 laid brown eggs. Now I was pretty ok with the blue and green eggs. Who wouldn't be. But I paid good money to get blue egg layers and the brown eggs wouldn't do.
I decided to do some research. I quickly found out, that what I had in fact bought was not an Araucana at all. It was an Easter Egg Chicken. It looked nothing like an Araucana was supposed to. Oh My Word!! Those tufts, the adorable little rumpless behinds. And it laid a blue egg. Ok, I seriously had to have some of those. It never occured to me at that moment, that actually finding the real Araucana would be difficult. They were awesome. There should be plenty of them running around.
It took me two years to find someone who was willing to sell me several rumpless cleanfaced bantam hens. I knew I wanted the large fowl but since I couldn't find any, the bantams were going to give me something to look at untill I found the large fowl version, but with tufts.
About 6 months later I managed to purchase my first 4 large fowl hens, all rumpless and one was tufted. Then a little bit later I bought two more hens and a rooster, all rumpless and cleanfaced. I had the beginings of my flock.
I tell you that story to illustrate the difficulties that a newcomer to the Araucana faces when looking for this fabulous breed.
I sell table eggs at farmers markets in my area, and will invaribly get people coming up to me, pointing to my eggs and saying " I have Araucana chickens too". The majority of the people buying hatchery Araucana/Americanas, do not care that they did not get the real deal. They cannot imagine that anyone else would care. There are a few people like myself who think they are buying the real Araucana and are surprised to find out they did not.
For those that do not know the difference. The bird on the top right is a Tufted Rumpless Araucana, while the bird on the bottom right is a hatchery Easter Egger Chicken.
A couple of obvious differences to point out. The top bird has no tail. The bottom bird has a definate tail.
The top bird has tufts or feathers protruding from its cheeks. The bottom bird appears to have a russian beard. It has no tufts of feathers. The top bird has no beard.
That brings up the next issue with hatchery Araucanas. They are often labeled Americana/Araucanas depending on the hatchery. There is another American Poultry Association breed called the Ameraucana (notice the spelling versus the hatchery spelling) it also lays a blue egg and has a controversial history, but that is for another book. Many people are looking to buy the real Ameraucana when they go looking at the hatcheries or feed stores ,who get their birds from hatcheries. Sadly they end up with Easter Egger Chickens. It is much more difficult to tell the difference between the hatchery Easter Egger and the APA Ameraucana, but it can be done. First clue is, if you purchased your bird at a feed store or ordered it from a hatchery, it is not an Araucana or an Ameraucana.
Next, the Easter Egger has green legs. The Ameraucana has slate or blue/black looking legs because it has white skin, whereas the Easter Egger has yellow skin.
The Ameraucana only lays blue eggs. The Easter Egger can lay blue, green, tan, pinkish, or brown eggs.
The Ameraucana was recognized as a breed in 1984 and come in blue, black, white, blue wheaten, wheaten, buff, brown-red, and silver. The Easter Egger comes in just about every color. If you are interested in learning about the Ameraucana chicken, the Ameraucana Breeders Club at www.ameraucana.org is the place for you.
Lanae
I totally changed my whole approach to the Aruacana, Ameraucana, Easter Egger portion of the book. Here it is, tell me what you think: Its a bit long sorry.
"I first heard about the Araucana chicken when a friend gave me her entire flock of hens. The next day one of them laid a beautiful blue egg. I asked her about it. I wanted to know which chicken did, what had she been feeding it to make it do that, and how could I get more. She just laughed and said it was an Araucana chicken and I could get more at the feed store. Thats where she had gotten hers. How easy is that? So I trotted right down to the local feed store and there they were. Such cute little chipmonk looking fluffy baby chickens. The sign said Araucana /Americanas so that was them. I bought 5 and brought them home. Imagine my surprise 6 months later when only 1 laid a blue egg. Two laid a green egg and 2 laid brown eggs. Now I was pretty ok with the blue and green eggs. Who wouldn't be. But I paid good money to get blue egg layers and the brown eggs wouldn't do.
I decided to do some research. I quickly found out, that what I had in fact bought was not an Araucana at all. It was an Easter Egg Chicken. It looked nothing like an Araucana was supposed to. Oh My Word!! Those tufts, the adorable little rumpless behinds. And it laid a blue egg. Ok, I seriously had to have some of those. It never occured to me at that moment, that actually finding the real Araucana would be difficult. They were awesome. There should be plenty of them running around.
It took me two years to find someone who was willing to sell me several rumpless cleanfaced bantam hens. I knew I wanted the large fowl but since I couldn't find any, the bantams were going to give me something to look at untill I found the large fowl version, but with tufts.
About 6 months later I managed to purchase my first 4 large fowl hens, all rumpless and one was tufted. Then a little bit later I bought two more hens and a rooster, all rumpless and cleanfaced. I had the beginings of my flock.
I tell you that story to illustrate the difficulties that a newcomer to the Araucana faces when looking for this fabulous breed.
I sell table eggs at farmers markets in my area, and will invaribly get people coming up to me, pointing to my eggs and saying " I have Araucana chickens too". The majority of the people buying hatchery Araucana/Americanas, do not care that they did not get the real deal. They cannot imagine that anyone else would care. There are a few people like myself who think they are buying the real Araucana and are surprised to find out they did not.
For those that do not know the difference. The bird on the top right is a Tufted Rumpless Araucana, while the bird on the bottom right is a hatchery Easter Egger Chicken.
A couple of obvious differences to point out. The top bird has no tail. The bottom bird has a definate tail.
The top bird has tufts or feathers protruding from its cheeks. The bottom bird appears to have a russian beard. It has no tufts of feathers. The top bird has no beard.
That brings up the next issue with hatchery Araucanas. They are often labeled Americana/Araucanas depending on the hatchery. There is another American Poultry Association breed called the Ameraucana (notice the spelling versus the hatchery spelling) it also lays a blue egg and has a controversial history, but that is for another book. Many people are looking to buy the real Ameraucana when they go looking at the hatcheries or feed stores ,who get their birds from hatcheries. Sadly they end up with Easter Egger Chickens. It is much more difficult to tell the difference between the hatchery Easter Egger and the APA Ameraucana, but it can be done. First clue is, if you purchased your bird at a feed store or ordered it from a hatchery, it is not an Araucana or an Ameraucana.
Next, the Easter Egger has green legs. The Ameraucana has slate or blue/black looking legs because it has white skin, whereas the Easter Egger has yellow skin.
The Ameraucana only lays blue eggs. The Easter Egger can lay blue, green, tan, pinkish, or brown eggs.
The Ameraucana was recognized as a breed in 1984 and come in blue, black, white, blue wheaten, wheaten, buff, brown-red, and silver. The Easter Egger comes in just about every color. If you are interested in learning about the Ameraucana chicken, the Ameraucana Breeders Club at www.ameraucana.org is the place for you.
Lanae
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