To bad your not in mobile al area. The local feed store have EE chicks but are calling them Americana.
I didn't know that until I showed my babies to my friend and told her what I got. She told me she went by too and they we EEs not americanas. Her good friend ordered those chicks for the store.
yeah I'll have green (or blue) eggs next year.
You really should read the thread "In Vino Veratus". It is about the South American Quetcha, the chicken behind all the blue colored egg breeds. It tells the story of how the chickens migrated with the humans from Southeast Asia to Chile. It tells how the Red Jungle Fowl and the Green Jungle Fowl were crossed to make Bekisars whose females are sterile but the males are not. These male Bekisars crossed with the Bantam Basket Hens. At this point there is more recent information than when the article was written. It has been found that a virus was responsible for rewriting the genes when the Bekisars and the Bantam Basket Hens crossed. Their offspring began to give not only blue and green colored eggs but also grey and lavender eggs. And the offspring of the Bekisars and the Bantam Hens were fertile. They humans traveled across the Polynesian islands leaving chickens on the islands that each developed into their own unique island breed. Sumatra even has a blue egg laying Sumatra chicken (Boggy Bottom Bantams has eggs) that the Unv. of GA imported in the '40s. They reached Chile at last and here was where the Quetcha people bred the Quetcha chickens that were the ancestor of all the blue laying egg breeds in North America and Europe. They developed several types. Some were rumpless, some had ear tufts, some had beards and muffs and some had crests. They spread farther than just the Quetcha people and other tribes bred their own versions.
The English Auracana are descended from the tailed crested version who was used in the founding of the Cream Crested Legbar. The American Auracana (rumpless and tufted) are from a crossing of Collonca(rumpless) and Quetcha de Aretes (earrings/tufts). The bearded Ameraucana came from a bearded tailed variety with a possibility of some Auracana because they very occasionally come up partially tailed or tailess. With the import of these everyone went into a blue egg craze. The hatcheries put Auracanas and Ameracana roos over any white or cream egg layer they could. So you had the Easter Egger that can produce white, cream, blue, green, and pink eggs. But still the selection tends to favor the beards so even though the Easter Eggers are a landrace breed there is a distinct look to them that still says Quetcha. I like the name that the author of the thread suggested for them: North American Improved Quetcha. They have an impressive history be proud of your humble Easter Eggers.
