Are we Easter Eggers or what?

[ib2150]

Sunny (the lighter one) and Pebbles (the darker one) are supposedly Easter Eggers, but looking at pictures of other real Easter Eggers I am not buying it. What do you think?

 

[Lady of McCamley]

They could be, although they do not have the typical muffs and beards of an Easter Egger, nor the green legs....BUT

There is no standard for an Easter Egger other than it SHOULD have Ameraucana or Araucana genes from one parent, then any other breed on the other side.

Typically that gives the chicks green legs, beards/muffs (if Ameraucana is involved), and pea combs.

Your two birds look like they have pea combs, and slate colored legs...which would come from the Ameraucana or Araucana. They don't have beards or muffs, so Araucana may have been used, or the muffs/beards dropped away, or they could grow them in later (not typical).

So it is possible they could be Easter Eggers.

Since Easter Eggers are hybrids with those two breeds (Ameraucana or Araucana), unfortunately they can end up looking like almost anything depending upon how far back those genes go and how dominant the genes were from the other parent.

If they lay blue/green eggs, then you know that they are Easter Eggers...but alas, Easter Eggers can also lay brown eggs.

So unless you want to do genetic testing, it may be a mystery.


EDITED TO ADD: and those are common Easter Egger colors...the black and white is more common...but a number of people are trying to breed for Lavendar Ameraucanas which is not a SOP color and thus by default would make the bird an Easter Egger.

Lady of McCamley

...and

 

[ladycat]

They look like easter eggers to me.

 

[ib2150]

lady-of-mccamley, thank you for such a detailed and helpful commentary! That's why I joined BYC hope to be able to help someone someday too

Thanks, ladycat! I'm hoping they are

 

[Cyan Night]

The black and white one definitely is, it's one of the common colors. The thing with Easter eggers is that they come in different shapes and sizes. Some will have muffs and/or beards or neither. Some will have a pea comb or even a single comb. There are all kinds of colors too. The ones you have are very pretty

 

[debid]

Where did you get them?

 

[ib2150]

From a local chicken breeder in GA

 

[debid]

That's what I figured. They might be easter eggers and you won't know until they lay but I wouldn't hold my breath. Some folks will call any old mix an easter egger and then insist they weren't deceptive because "some easter eggers lay brown or white eggs". This is one reason I refuse to use the term for any chicken that lacks the blue egg gene. It's really the only defining feature for them, after all.