Is this an Easter Egger or Ameraucana??

[Chicken_Guru]

 

[hlhutchinson]

I'm not seeing the traditional EE puffy cheeks, interested in what someone with more experience has to say

 

[Mama Bay]

Easter Egger

 

[JedJackson]

Yep definitely not a pure Ameraucana as they don't comb in that color pattern and they have blue legs, not green.

 

[Gray Farms]

Easter Egger

 

[Lady of McCamley]

x3 Easter Egger
The hatcheries are doing more EE to EE breeding so the puffy cheeks are now dropping away.

Which is sad as it makes it hard to tell if there is any blue gene heritage (which can be bred out quickly if you are not careful)...but it's a lot cheaper breeding EE to EE than trying to keep the more expensive Ameraucana stock.

It *might* possibly be from Araucana mixing, which would not give it puffy cheeks, but few hatcheries have true Araucana stock to breed from as Araucana are very temperamental to breed (due to genetics and tail-less issues).

So bottomline...yes, Easter Egger. No, absolutely not Ameraucana (no beard, not one of the standard 8 colors, wrong leg color).

and BTW...it is female. That is the typical female pattern for EE.

LofMc

 

[lomine]

To clarify, the majority of the EEs from hatcheries come from the same lines that were exported from Chile. Those birds were breed selectively to create the Ameraucana and Araucana breeds. The reason EEs come with so much variation is because there is no selective breeding. You can occasionally get a true AM that is beardless but a good breeder wouldn't use the bird for breeding. Since there is no breed standard for EEs the hatcheries are going to breed the birds that give them more eggs with no real care about how the bird looks. It's sort of the same for a lot of the breeds they sell. Breed standards take a back seat to production.

(To be clear, this is not to say hatchery birds are bad. I have them myself.)

 

[TheKindaFarmGal]

Easter Egger pullet.

 

[Pat Mcaffee]

It is definitely an easter egger. It just doesn't have the comb and the perfect color.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

To clarify, the majority of the EEs from hatcheries come from the same lines that were exported from Chile. Those birds were breed selectively to create the Ameraucana and Araucana breeds. The reason EEs come with so much variation is because there is no selective breeding. You can occasionally get a true AM that is beardless but a good breeder wouldn't use the bird for breeding. Since there is no breed standard for EEs the hatcheries are going to breed the birds that give them more eggs with no real care about how the bird looks. It's sort of the same for a lot of the breeds they sell. Breed standards take a back seat to production.

(To be clear, this is not to say hatchery birds are bad. I have them myself.)

I'm not sure I agree with this statement or maybe am misunderstanding it.

The original lines from Chile are long lost, even in Chile (whose breeds are in sad repair). The hatcheries are not using those lines for anything.

The original lines, which were a mixed and motley crew, were imported to England from Chile. The original line bred was called Araucana, which had tails, muffs and beards in some while tail-less and tufted in others (reflections of the varied crew brought over).

A shipping mishap (I think off the coast of Australia?) produced a muffed and tailed variety for that continent.

Heated disagreements arose as to what the Araucana should look like, wherein American and European and Australian lines separated when Araucana gained standard in America as tail-less and tufted while in Europe tailed and tufted and in Australia tailed, tufted and muffed.

American breeders of the rumpless type gained recognition first with those displaced American breeders who had been breeding tailed and muffed formed the American Araucana club...truncated to Ameraucana.

In America, it is the Ameraucana that is tailed and muffed while the Araucana is solely rumpless and tufted (though breeders keep un-tufted due to the lethal gene for tufting).

So there are no "original" lines left of the Chilean birds, which were mixed breeds to begin with from the 2 types...rumpless/tufted then those tailed and some muffing as well.

The whole story of Araucana or Ameraucana in fraught with mixes, disagreements, confusion, and then general selection according to club preferences.

So what we have today does not resemble the original jungle fowl in Chile, and there is no original line left in Chile. Chilean chicken keepers report any Araucana type is long and hard to find there.

LofMc