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Actually not quite correct. The araucana was created in South America from two separate types of chickens one laid a blue egg and one did not. They were inadvertantly introduced at the worlds fair as a new breed of chicken. According to paintings and drawings from then, they were rumpless, tufted ( not ear muffs ), and laid blue eggs. When people saw how pretty the eggs were the demand for them became very high. Because the blue egg gene is dominant they can be bred to a number of different breeds and still retain the blue eggs, when bred to tan or brown egg layers the eggs become green and greenish brown.
The term easter egger was from an article actually about real araucanas not cross breeds and they were called that because of their beautiful eggs. Hatcheries started selling cross breeds after obtaining a few real araucana and seeing how easy the cross breeds were to breed and still maintain the egg color, versus the araucana which is very difficult to breed. People didn't and to some extent still don't care if they are buying the real thing they merely want the colored eggs. By the late 60's there was lots of versions of the araucana and no real standard, and no one could agree on a standard untill the 70's. Then the standard of perfection became what it is today for the araucana, and those that still had that original type started breeding towards that.
The gene for Tufts is fatal in two copies, while the muffs does not have that fatal gene.
Try to take several yellow skinned green egg laying EEs and breed them to the ameraucana standard of perfection and you will see why ameraucana people get upset. The ameraucana is a white skinned bird that comes in definate colors and lays blue eggs. The ee is a mostly yellow skinned bird hence the green legs which you cant get on an ameraucana, and it can lay blue eggs ( some definately a better color blue than araucana or ameraucana), green eggs, white eggs, brown eggs, or tanish pink eggs. There is no consistancy. It is not a breed.
That would be like me saying I have black labs. My dogs parents were chocolate lab on the fathers side and somewhere on the mothers side there was a coon hound mixed in with the black labs. My dogs are black with red markings. While they are parentage wise maybe 3/4 lab, they really do not fit the standard, both in color and body shape. But why not sell any puppies I have a pure lab if they are black? Because they are not lab, they are a mix and to anyone who knows labs its obvious. Kinda the same thing with chickens. There is nothing wrong with EE's, there is something wrong with thinking they are inferrior to ameraucana. They are a neat chicken. They are not a breed, but they are a neat type of chicken, that is easily recognizable.
Here are a couple of my rumpless tufted araucana.
Lanae
Actually not quite correct. The araucana was created in South America from two separate types of chickens one laid a blue egg and one did not. They were inadvertantly introduced at the worlds fair as a new breed of chicken. According to paintings and drawings from then, they were rumpless, tufted ( not ear muffs ), and laid blue eggs. When people saw how pretty the eggs were the demand for them became very high. Because the blue egg gene is dominant they can be bred to a number of different breeds and still retain the blue eggs, when bred to tan or brown egg layers the eggs become green and greenish brown.
The term easter egger was from an article actually about real araucanas not cross breeds and they were called that because of their beautiful eggs. Hatcheries started selling cross breeds after obtaining a few real araucana and seeing how easy the cross breeds were to breed and still maintain the egg color, versus the araucana which is very difficult to breed. People didn't and to some extent still don't care if they are buying the real thing they merely want the colored eggs. By the late 60's there was lots of versions of the araucana and no real standard, and no one could agree on a standard untill the 70's. Then the standard of perfection became what it is today for the araucana, and those that still had that original type started breeding towards that.
The gene for Tufts is fatal in two copies, while the muffs does not have that fatal gene.
Try to take several yellow skinned green egg laying EEs and breed them to the ameraucana standard of perfection and you will see why ameraucana people get upset. The ameraucana is a white skinned bird that comes in definate colors and lays blue eggs. The ee is a mostly yellow skinned bird hence the green legs which you cant get on an ameraucana, and it can lay blue eggs ( some definately a better color blue than araucana or ameraucana), green eggs, white eggs, brown eggs, or tanish pink eggs. There is no consistancy. It is not a breed.
That would be like me saying I have black labs. My dogs parents were chocolate lab on the fathers side and somewhere on the mothers side there was a coon hound mixed in with the black labs. My dogs are black with red markings. While they are parentage wise maybe 3/4 lab, they really do not fit the standard, both in color and body shape. But why not sell any puppies I have a pure lab if they are black? Because they are not lab, they are a mix and to anyone who knows labs its obvious. Kinda the same thing with chickens. There is nothing wrong with EE's, there is something wrong with thinking they are inferrior to ameraucana. They are a neat chicken. They are not a breed, but they are a neat type of chicken, that is easily recognizable.
Here are a couple of my rumpless tufted araucana.
Lanae