Which begs the question what came first the Easter Egger or the Ameraucana? Hmmmmmmm I wonder who would know,,Hmmmmm
Have a great day!
Well, the hatcheries acquired blue shelled layers long before either breed standard existed. Some called them Araucana after the Araucana from Chile so they'd sound exotic. Some called them American Araucana. Some called them Easter Egger and they were deceptively advertised as laying a rainbow of egg colors. False claims about superior nutritional content of blue shelled eggs were rampant.
When the Araucana standard was created by the APA, it required lethal genes. The hatcheries didn't exactly jump on the bandwagon, high chick mortality rates aren't appealing for them. But they did continue using the name.
Then came the Ameraucana standard with no lethal genes. The hatcheries didn't fully embrace them either but continued using the name. They did do enough to get their birds to roughly resemble Ameraucanas or the Ameraucanas were fashioned after the original hatchery look. Not really sure which came first there but either way, most hatcheries take the opinion that what they have is close enough. And so, yes, if you look at hatchery "Ameraucanas" (even if that hatchery finally started calling them Easter eggers a few years back), they will almost all have muffs and leg tint. A few might have white skin but most have yellow giving them a green leg hue rather than slate.
Now, if Meyer is abandoning the Ameraucana-ish look, that would be worth noting because it makes identifying the chicks a lot more challenging.