Ideal poultry order - Americana or EE?

[biteme2134]

So I ordered some Ameraucana chicks from idealpoultry.com and I'm wondering if they are really Easter Eggers. From what I've read Ameraucana only lay blue eggs. The ones advertised seem to lay different colored eggs. What's your take?

Here's their description :

AMERAUCANAS


Ameraucanas, known as the "Easter Egg Breed", are a multicolored breed. They have beards, muffs and a normal tail with a tail head. They are often incorrectly called Araucanas, which have ear tuffs, are rumpless, and do not have a tail head which gives them a bunny tail appearance. Most of the chicks sold as Araucanas are really Ameraucanas, which are excellent, efficient producers of large eggs of many colors and shades including blue and green.

Standard weights at maturity are males-5 lbs. and hens-4 lbs.

 

[jtn42248]

I am guessing that since their ad, quoted by you, says "Ameraucanas, known as the Easter Egg Breed" that you will be getting Easter Eggers. True Araucanas are pretty rare when buying from hatcheries.

 

[biteme2134]

Ya that is my thought. Which is OK but I do hatch my own. Can you hatch out Easter Eggers from am Easter egger on one side only? I was hoping to make EE from what I ordered

 

[jtn42248]

It will probably all depend on the breeding stock that yours came from. I am not the best at genetics but there is a pretty good article that breaks down the breed genetics on Wikipedia you might check out.

 

[biteme2134]

Oh OK I'll have to check it out.

 

[Michael OShay]

I've ordered from Ideal Poultry on a number of occasions, including their "Ameraucanas" and they are Easter Eggers, not true Ameraucanas. The only major hatchery that breeds true Ameraucanas is Meyer Hatchery. In addition to their EEs, they breed true Blue Ameraucanas. Whether or not you can hatch EEs from EEs is a matter of luck. The EE parent has both a blue gene egg and a brown gene egg. If the parent gives the blue gene egg to the offspring, you will get an EE. If they give the brown egg gene to the offspring, then the offspring will not be an EE.

 

[biteme2134]

Good info. That's what I was wondering was the genetics of it. I'd like to be able to hatch more green egg layers so that's nice to know I'll have probabaly a 50/50 shot