Are these Ameraucana chickens?

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These came from ideal poultry listed as Ameraucana's... After reading up on this breed I am confused. What are the differences in the Ameraucana and Easter Egg chickens?
Thanks for any help!
Trish

 

[madamwlf]

Sorry but no. Hatcheries sell Easter Eggers as Ameraucana. The only way to get true Ameraucanas is buying from breeders on here. Beautiful chickens though.

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

To be a true ameraucana it has to conform to certain standards (color, body type, egg color, etc). Very few hatcheries or farm stores sell true ameraucanas. They sell Easter Eggers because their chicks seldom, if ever, meet the standard for ameraucanas. Yours are Easter eggers (and lovely ones at that). To make this even more confusing, it is possible to get an Easter Egger from a pure ameraucana rooster and hen if for some reason it doesn't meet color standards. Truthfully, I think those should be called non-standard ameraucanas, but that's just me. Generally you get an Easter Egger from the mating of a pure ameraucana and something else. Around here I have a pure Ameraucana rooster over a variety of hens. The offspring are all EEs and will lay some shade of green egg. In another pen I have a pure ameraucana rooster over pure ameraucana hens. They are blue/black/splash and will only produce more BBS offspring (laying a bluer egg). That pen is pure and are true ameraucanas. The other pen is not and they make EEs. Make sense?

It gets tricky. To make it more fun I have some EEs that come out looking JUST LIKE the pure AMs. I know they aren't because I know who their parents are, but until you started breeding them you would never know. I only run hatches of one sort or the other so I am positive what is hatching out and what I am selling. That's the other reason you should get ameraucanas from reputable breeders. They are a tricky breed.

Yours are beautiful. I love EEs because of all the color variations. One of my very first EEs looked a lot like your blue one. She was beautiful!

 

[ChickenWisperer]

No. Those are Easter Eggers (mutt chickens with a blue egglaying ancestor). No hatcheries sell pure AM's that I'm aware of.

Ameraucanas are an APA recognized breed that have breed standards they must adhere to, such as color, type, pea comb, etc They should only lay blue eggs (though there are those who lay green).

Easter Eggers are mutts which aren't recognized. They have no standard - they can look like just about anything and lay any color egg. They typically look like your girls and lay green eggs. Like your girls, they typically do not stick to any color standards.


I wouldn't call your birds non-standard AM's. Because they don't look real typey to me, they have small muffs, and most importantly their legs are green - which to me says that they've been crossed with yellow legged production birds at some point.

 

[GhostRider65]

These came from ideal poultry listed as Ameraucana's... After reading up on this breed I am confused. What are the differences in the Ameraucana and Easter Egg chickens?
Thanks for any help!
Trish

EE's sorry to say but very pretty ones............ the gray girl with the black neck feathers looks almost like my EE Feline A VERY NICE HEN LAYS ME A VERY LARGE TAN WITH WHITE SPECKLED EGG EVERYDAY....I LOVE HER dearly, I also have her brother Graybeard as 1 of my mixed flock roosters, and he is very pretty roo.... you will like then even if they aren't pure they are very chickens. heres some comparison pictures for you, OH and also they have green legs.....

 

[Thespoiledchicken]

Wow- note to self... Ideal has some STUNNING Easter Eggers

My hatchery Easter Eggers are very boring and look like a common Easter Egger, yours are VERY nice looking.



Trish

 

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CityGirlintheCountry, Madamwlf, ChickenWhisperer, GhostRider65 and Thespoiledchicken,
Thank you all so very much for posting back to me! Thanks for the kind words!! Think I will stick with my Easter Eggers for awhile, I have so much to learn about the different breeds... I found someone that raises the Ameraucana's that lives about 20 miles from me. His name is Aaron Hickson. Thinking about getting one of his roosters to go with my EE.

GhostRider65, I love your pictures! thank a million for sharing them!!
Trish

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

You are very welcome. You have two lovely girls there. Thanks for sharing pictures.

 

[chicken crazyaa]

We have an Ameraucana that is the friendliest chicken in the coop. She is six and a half month old and still no eggs. What's up? The other girls are mean to her is that why? Stress??

 

[GhostRider65]

My girls are also very friendly, a few are more flighty, but most love to be petted and squat to you like you are the rooster, silly girls, I love my EE's my 10 Pullets are starting to lay several have blue eggs, I can't wait till all of them are laying so I can see who is laying what, some look so much alike not sure how I'm gonna tell them apart, will have to band them I guess the blue bands for blue eggs, and pink bands for pinkish eggs, LOL first I have to catch them, they seem to like my hay corner found 4 small pullet eggs in it today, 3 blue 1 tan probably from the BO pullets...... I will have to get some pictures put up on the EE braggers thread for ya all.......... you should read that thread lots of nice pictures, and tons of infor on EE's too......Kim