Easter Eggers

[City Chicken Lady]

What exactly is an EE? I think I read that it isn't a particular breed but is it certain breeds mixed together?

The more pictures I see of EE's the more I think my RIR/Americauna looks more like an EE than anything else.

I'm finding the EE thread interesting but didn't see an answer to my question.

 

[KDailey]

EE is pretty much an Ameracauna mixed with something else, anything really, that'll look really similar to an Ameracauna but lack certain traits like laying a sky blue egg. It's usually pretty hard to tell the difference to the untrained eye.

do you have a picture of your bird?

 

[CarolJ]

The folowing is my understanding: There is not a standard for EEs - it's a "mutt." Usually an EE hen will lay an egg that's a shade of blue/green - but sometimes a hen will lay an egg that is a shade of brown. Somewhere in its lineage there is an Araucana or Ameraucana which is where the blue/green egg gene came from. However, it doesn't breed "true" - i.e. no standard.

I'm sure others can explain it better than that.

 

[Illia]

Technically Easter Eggers are the mutts BEFORE Ameraucanas were around.

The so-called "Americaunas" from hatcheries are actually Easter Eggers, and yes, some were Ameraucanas mixed with other breeds, but most are actually the same mutts they began with before the 80's. But, that's hatchery EE's. . .


The definition of an Easter Egger is a bird that lays blue or green eggs but does not meet the standard for an Ameraucana or Araucana. (green legged but has a tail, or has the wrong color, or has beard/muffs but no tail, etc)

 

[City Chicken Lady]

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I do have a photo but am not sure how to put it here.

 

[City Chicken Lady]

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I do have a photo but am not sure how to put it here.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/99592_img_2062.jpg

It worked!

 

[City Chicken Lady]

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Do some people breed EE's to EE's hoping to get "better" EE's? My "mix" has greyish blue legs and hasn't laid yet at almost five months old.

 

[Stacykins]

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Do some people breed EE's to EE's hoping to get "better" EE's? My "mix" has greyish blue legs and hasn't laid yet at almost five months old.

"Better" depends on the individual definition. Some people mix Ameraucanas or Araucanas with dark egg laying breeds like Marans to create an bird that lays olive hued eggs, an EE technically but it is called an Olive Egger. Depends on what an individuals needs are and what they have available for the project.

 

[City Chicken Lady]

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Do some people breed EE's to EE's hoping to get "better" EE's? My "mix" has greyish blue legs and hasn't laid yet at almost five months old.

"Better" depends on the individual definition. Some people mix Ameraucanas or Araucanas with dark egg laying breeds like Marans to create an bird that lays olive hued eggs, an EE technically but it is called an Olive Egger. Depends on what an individuals needs are and what they have available for the project.

So, if you mix an Americauna with a white egg layer, you get green or blue eggs and if you mix an Americauna with a brown egg layer, you get olive colored eggs. Are Americaunas and Araucanas the same? They look similar.

 

[Stacykins]

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There are only two shell color types, blue and white. If you crack open a brown egg, the base shell on the inside is white. If you crack open a blue or green egg, the inside shell if blue. And the blue egg gene is dominant to white. An olive egg is created by the blue egg base with the dark brown pigment overlaid on top.

Ameraucanas (the breed is spelled Ameraucana, some hatcheries call their EEs Americanas, though) and Araucanas are definitely not the same and very different. Ameraucana breed standards are for a muffed, bearded, tailed bird bird (in a nutshell, the breed standards are much more exact) while Araucanas are tufted and rumpless.