No they don't have actually Araucana. They get there chicks from a hatchery and no hatcheries have actual araucanas. They mislabel them, they are really Easter eggers. They just label them what the hatcheries tell them to label them as.
The hatcheries actually seem to hedge the issue a bit -
ie on Murray McMurray's site they have the tab labeled "Araucana/Ameraucana" - but then the description reads "Loosely referred to as the "Easter Egg Chicken", our Araucanas/Ameraucanas lay beautiful colored eggs of blue-green shades from turquoise to deep olive. Our chicks have some Araucana and some Americana blood mixed and consequently are not for show.."
Mt Healthy says: ~~Araucanas/Ameraucanas Originally from Chile, in South America they are called the Easter egg fowl. They lay colored eggs: blue, green, pink, and olive drab. These birds vary in size and color, some may have whiskers and others muffs of feathers that cover their ears. Their eggs are reported to have more nutritional value than ordinary eggs.
Cackle Hatchery is actually honest about it - they are labeled Easter Egger and they actually come right out and say they are NOT true Araucana/Ameracaunas ---~~The "Easter Egg Chicken" originally came from Chile in South America, discovered by the Araucana Indians. The true pure Araucana chicken is rumpless (tailless) , has a small curling tuft of feathers next to each ear and come in different pure color types. The true pure Ameraucana chicken has a tail, full beard and comes in pure color types. The Easter Egg Chickens are different because they have a full beard under the beak rather than a tuft and have a tail rather than rumpless and do NOT have pure color types. Cackle Hatchery offers for sale the "Easter Egg Chicken" not the Ameraucana or Araucana chickens for sale. . Cackle Hatchery's breeding program objectives for the "Easter Egg Chickens" are to produce chickens with a wide variety of feather colors, feather color patterns, feather combinations of colors with a full beard under the beak and high egg production of colorful egg shells. The color of their egg shells vary from pale blue chicken eggs to dark blue to various shades of green and a few light brownish/pink eggs. The meat is delicious and it has a taste similar to quail. We do not offer a specific color variety of this breed; however we do breed for a wide variety of colored feathers and egg colors. The Araucana chicken and Ameraucana chickens have a number of different color patterns being worked on all across the USA and are being shown in poultry shows. The Easter Egg chickens are great chickens for backyards, chicken coops, larger chicken houses and for raising free range chickens. The Easter Egger chicken or also called Easter Egg chicken hatch out colored eggs with colored chicks. These colored chicks are for sale online by ordering them below. We hope you sign up for our Cackle Hatchery Newsletter for helpful tips and offers of chickens for sale online free shipping or specials.
To blatantly say that "Araucana are often called Easter Eggers" -- um, NO -- Easter Eggers are often called Araucanas, generally by hatcheries trying to pass off their birds as something they are not.
My point/thinking in what I pasted above is that they are actually covering their butts because if you read through the description the information is there - and that is what they would say if/when a case was brought, "We did say they are EE" -- yes, they also said that they are Araucana/Ameracauna, but since the correct (though misleadingly worded) information was also in the description they have likely created a loophole through which they can pass.
Also, the funny thing is, there is NO reason to mislabel/misrepresent them. Those who purchase the chicks in a retail setting are doing so because they want the fun colored eggs - they would buy them as "Easter Eggers". Anyone who is serious about wanting Araucana/Ameracauna would seek out a reputable source of the birds -- especially if they would stop misrepresenting what is in the retail setting. What I mean is, if I want A/A and I go to stores and see nothing but EE I am going to start doing some research on where I can get A/A and find myself a reputable breeder. If I just want pretty eggs and the store has EE I am not going to care that they don't have A/A - I'm going to buy the EE and be thrilled with my purchase. Why they (hatchery, retailer, etc) feel they have to mislead me (general), the EE consumer, into thinking they are selling me A/A is beyond me.
