Question about EE chickens

[Princess_Layer]

Hia, this may seem like a silly question but are EE an american chicken or do they have different names in different countries. They are lovely and I've been looking if anyone was selling any in the UK and can't find any anywhere.

 

[LarryPQ]

EEs are just mutt birds. I have seen them called "barnyard classics" in the UK. Also the "pures" are Araucanas (spelling?) or Ameracaunas.

 

[sianara]

Easter Eggers are a blue egg producing breed bred to a brown egg producing breed. With this combination you will get egg colors ranging from light brown, pinkish, light blue, light green or olive green hence the name Easter Eggers

I have two standard EEs and they lay differing shades of olive green. I also have two bantam EEs and they lay light blue and light green eggs. That's part of the fun of the EEs you never know what color egg you are going to get.

Many hatcheries in the US still claim to sell Araucanas but in fact they are EEs. True Araucanas come rumpless and regular rumped. Ameraucanas are a separate breed different from the Araucanas. Both of these breeds lay blue eggs. If you do a google search for both breeds you will see some similiarities between the two.

Another plus for EEs is their feathering is always different. They are not a "breed" but a combination of a few. Hope that clears it up for you.

 

[Chris09]

Easter Egger (EE) is a chicken that carries the blue egg gene, but doesn’t fully meet any breed descriptions as defined in the APA and/or ABA standards.
Even if a bird meets an Ameraucana standard breed description, but doesn’t meet a variety description it is a EE.
If the bird meets an Ameraucana standard breed and variety description but doesnt breed true at least 50% of the time it is considered an Easter Egg chicken.

http://www.ameraucana.org/faq.html#TWO

Chris

 

[sianara]

Quote:
And one way to get that result would be to breed a blue egg producing chicken (which carries the blue egg gene

) with a brown egg laying breed. My understanding is the same results would not be obtained by breeding a blue egg producing chicken with a white egg producing chicken.

 

[Chickanmanfromarkansas]

The Easter Egger is a very royallybred chicken, most have unknown pedigrees. They are not neccessarily mixed with brown egg layer.
They can be pure but because they do not meet APA standards for Ameraucana people tend to call them mutts or mongrels (I think these terms are actually for dogs). Just because they do not have a standard does not make them inferior to other chickens. I have found that they (most of them anyaway) are very good layers.

 

[Chris09]

Quote:
And one way to get that result would be to breed a blue egg producing chicken (which carries the blue egg gene

) with a brown egg laying breed. The same results would not be obtained by breeding a blue egg producing chicken with a white egg producing chicken which is basically what I said above isn't it?

But going by what the Ameraucana Breeders Club says, If you breed lets say a Brown Red Ameraucana rooster to a Silver Ameraucana hen the off spring would be considered EE's because they would not breed true at least 50% of the time. ( at least not the first 2 generations) Plus it would not be a recognised variety.

Chris

 

[sianara]

Quote:
And one way to get that result would be to breed a blue egg producing chicken (which carries the blue egg gene

) with a brown egg laying breed. The same results would not be obtained by breeding a blue egg producing chicken with a white egg producing chicken which is basically what I said above isn't it?

But going by what the Ameraucana Breeders Club says, If you breed lets say a Brown Red Ameraucana rooster to a Silver Ameraucana hen the off spring would be considered EE's because they would not breed true at least 50% of the time. ( at least not the first 2 generations) Plus it would not be a recognised variety.

Chris

Aha! Thanks for clearing that up for ME folks!

I was misinformed about the brown egg producer (which is why I'M not a breeder

)

 

[Princess_Layer]

Thanks everyone - I'll see what I can find. It was really the pictures of their feathers which interests me, they are a very pretty bird.