Is This An Araucana?

[Sphinx]

Okay...So, if I asked you what breed she was, what would you call her?...

I'd call her an Araucana, or if talking to chicken geeks, a "pet quality Araucana".

 

[Pele]

She's a pretty girl! But she's so far off of standard for any breed that I'd just call her a mix. The straight comb, wrong color ears, tail, no tufts, wrong coloration, etc rule her out for Araucana. Even if you subtract the tufts and tail, she's still far from standard. I'd say wait for eggs though. If she lays sky blue, then you can get away with calling her Araucana despite the issues.

You could get away with calling her an EE, since that's a slurry class of birds anyway, and they don't mind mixed company. But even that still doesn't fit quite right.

Call her pretty and give her lots of treats . I don't think she'll mind either way.

 

[philbfarm]

Thanks for all your replies....philbfarm and my "mystery bird"

 

[CibolaChooks]

i bought Ameraucana chicks from a hatchery which on there site makes it a point to say the have beards muffs and tails which make them Ameraucanas and not araucanas. so i posted on the forum to determine the sex of mine and everyone calls them EE'S and that there not ameraucanas. I thought the beards muffs and tails maid them ameraucanas lol but im affraid everyone would say im wrong haha. .Sounds like we got a few experts here could you guys please tell me in simpleton words what actually makes a bird fit into each of these classes. i know EE like pele said is a slurry class where you just throw everything in there if it produces a green egg or no. Please help me to understand the diffrences. Also im kinda noticing from 1 hatchery web site to another the ameraucanas look different in color and patterns. if hatcherys arnt that uniform in what they produce how can we have the ameraucana and EE classification anyway. It seems like its just left up to us to argue about and there is no clear definition. even if a breeder says this is 100% arucana blood people will argue defects in the standard make it a different bird. Which doesnt make since to me. it should still be an arucana that just isnt perfect right blood line is bloodline. how can a defect in the norm pattern call it something else.

 

[CibolaChooks]

also sry for the double post but i have a bb red old english bantam that looks allot like your mystery bird. the head and neck, red in the face combs and wattles are identicle to my bb red old english bantam. the skin patch behind the ear on my bb red is a greenish color though. maybe its a cross with that and a araucana.

 

[Pele]

www.ameraucana.org has a very good summary of the common misconceptions between the three 'breeds'. It's a very nice site, and helped me when I first started looking at purchasing chickens.

 

[CibolaChooks]

thanks pele. your awesome

 

[philbfarm]

Regarding the misconceptions and misrepresentation of both the Americana and Araucana breeds....Most of us that are unfamiliar with them truly do not understand and are easily misled by hatcheries and sellers. Perhaps someone could create a thread that would provide a list of reputable breeders, the above list of standards, and even maybe a list of hatcheries which are not sellling what they advertise. It would be real service to many, many people. I am only now understanding the differences, and although I was lucky enough to buy my Easter Egger as just that, and the "Aracauna" a.k.a. Mystery Bird was basically a rescue...I am becoming more and more facinated with these birds, and now would be very careful about where I would get one.

Thanks again for all the information and for being so patient with us....

 

[CibolaChooks]

I had maid a post to determine the sex of mine. could you guys look threw the pics and tell me what i should be calling mine. The 3rd bird turned out to be my B.B. red old english game hen. thanks again everyone .

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/681200/8-chics-i-need-help-with-lots-of-pictures-posted

Philbfarm i went to that site pele posted and it has a list of the breeders per state. Any one who belongs to that organization of american breeders will stick to the standards if your wanting to get some for breeding.

www.ameraucana.org

 

[dretd]

... what actually makes a bird fit into each of these classes. i know EE like pele said is a slurry class where you just throw everything in there if it produces a green egg or no. Please help me to understand the diffrences. Also im kinda noticing from 1 hatchery web site to another the ameraucanas look different in color and patterns. if hatcherys arnt that uniform in what they produce how can we have the ameraucana and EE classification anyway. It seems like its just left up to us to argue about and there is no clear definition. even if a breeder says this is 100% arucana blood people will argue defects in the standard make it a different bird. Which doesnt make since to me. it should still be an arucana that just isnt perfect right blood line is bloodline. how can a defect in the norm pattern call it something else.

I am sure I will get flamed for this response by some as passions run deep here.

I suggest you go back to the link to the Ameraucana History http://www.ameraucana.org/history.html and read the information there. What happened is there was a lot of people breeding for egg color--Easter Egg birds (some called them Ameraucanas and some called them Araucanas)-- since the 1920's discovery of a blue egg laying type of chicken in South America. There were a mishmash of traits including rumpless, tufted and beard and muffed birds. Private folks as well as Hatcheries were breeding them. In the 70's the first group to break off and standardize was the Araucana folk with a breed standard for tufts and rumpless birds. Then some folks worked very hard to try to get a breed standard for Muffed and Bearded blue egg layers. The Standard for Amaraucana was set and any bird that didn't meet the standard was officially not an Ameraucana. So now the Hatcheries (who have never been know to breed to standard, but rather for production) have their flocks they have been calling Ameraucanas for years and they all the sudden don't match breed standard so they are officially not Ameraucanas. The Hatcheries don't show their breeds and so they don't really care and continue to call their chickens something that they are officially not, much to the dismay of the Ameraucana breeders and folks that think they are getting a true Ameraucana bred to the standard.

Now the waters are muddied about what is considered pure or not and much of it depends on the culture of the groups involved. Apparently the Araucana folks are a little more lenient about birds that don't meet breed standards and are willing to accept birds that are not show quality and at least call them non-standard Araucanas. The Ameraucana folks are resolute that no chicken, even if it is from purebred parents, be called an Ameraucana if is not up to standard. Those birds are automatically labeled EE. The bird may be genetically from a line of pure Ameraucanas but because it has the wrong plumage or leg color it is labeled as EE. Now to make matters worse, any bird with a hint of green legs or a beard or muffs is called an Easter Egger even if is has no Ameraucana genes in its body. So the term Easter Egger has now expanded to include possibly pure but off-type Ameraucanas (accidental breeding of two different colors resulting in a clutch with non-standard colors but genetically from pure Ameraucanas) to any bird that has a hint (or not) of beard of muffs and has kind of become a catch-all for a mutt chicken with some qualities that might be Ameraucana. Hence your confusion.

I pass no judgement one way or another--it's each breed standards decision to be as lenient or strict as they want to be. Many breeds have decided what their standards are and they may change over time as it is somewhat political. A case in point is with Quarter Horses. When they formed the standard they DQ'd as unregisterable any horse that had white above the knee or hock but would accept horses from the Jocky Club (thoroughbreds) so a foal from registered Quarter Horses was not considered a purebred Quarter Horse but a half QH/half TB was. The Paint folks said they would gladly register those horses and accepted them. Sometime in the 90's the Quarter Horse folks realized they were losing some really awesome genetics (and expensive high value horses so I am sure there was a money motive behind the change) to the Paint folks and they loosened their standard and say something like 'this horse is off-type' on the papers.

So for the time being in these breeds of chickens:
-if is is rumpless and maybe tufted (its a lethal trait if you get two copies so they will never remove the a-ok to be non-tufted) and lay sky-blue eggs you are an Araucana (US only)
-If it meets the strict breed standards for Ameraucana including only being one of the 8 accepted colors, it is an Ameraucana
-if is generally resembles a bird that might have either Ameraucana, Araucana lineage, or lays blue eggs, it is called and Easter Egger

Clear as mud, eh?