Easter Egger / Americauna Question

[jeffdubya]

I posted some questions about one of my Americauna / Auracauna chickens in another thread. One of the surprising replies I got back is that the chicken isn't a Americauna / Auracauna at all, but a breed called an "Easter Egger?"

So... this was my first year raising chicks (and selling pullets to boot) and I am pretty annoyed that the chicks I bought weren't even the breed that was advertised. How much difference is there between the two breeds? How in the world can I find out what I actually have?

That being said, I seem to be noticing a trend... assuming that what I actually have are "Easter Eggers" are the birds that are predominantly WHITE always going to be cockerels? If so, such a drag because they are very attractive birds. But also very convenient to know which ones to get rid of ASAP.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Easter Eggers are usually mixed breed birds that have Ameraucana or Araucana in their ancestry and (hopefully) lay blue/green eggs, they often have beards and cheek puffs and peacombs. Ameraucana and Araucana are breeds of chickens have to meet a physical breed standard that includes feather color as well as various other features to be considered that breed. Here are the links to the parent clubs of the two breeds http://www.ameraucana.org/index.html and http://www.araucana.net/ both those have FAQs pages that include the differences as well as copies of their breed Standard of Perfection.
Here is a nice BYC thread on the breeds. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/128806/differences-ee-ameraucana-araucana-pls-post-pics Ameraucana, and Araucana especially pretty much only come from breeders or some small hatcheries (there are one or two big commercial hatcheries that sell them, but the chicks are like $20 each), if you got them at the feed store or from somebody that just had a flock, you most probably have Easter Eggers.
Many hatchery EEs are sexlinked color wise, the girls will be that partridgey brown and black, and the boys will be black/white with red on the shoulders. Here is a nice thread with some EE pictures that covers it farther on https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/463817/easter-egger-sexing-tips-and-tricks-pictures-included
Note if it works in your breeding program because of the genetics your birds carry, it may work fine. If you are getting birds from other places this is not always true, it depends on what breeds they used in their EEs, ie I had a batch of EEs from Mt Healthy that had quite a few mostly black and white hens, think they crossed in Wyandottes in that case.