What breeds could be in this EE?

[Trish1974]

This is my recently acquired rescue Mutton Chops. I was pleasantly surprised to see that she lays blue eggs! Any guesses to what breeds she could have in her based on her comb, feather pattern, leg color and the fact that she lays blue eggs? Please excuse her rough appearance - these pictures were taken shortly after I rescued her from a fox.

 

[debid]

What a beauty! She's a hatchery type Easter Egger -- a descendant of the original landrace stock. And you're lucky to get one with such a bright blue shell, green is much more common.

 

[Stuckinlove]

I have no idea, but she is very pretty!

 

[Trish1974]

Thank you both!

 

[Lady of McCamley]

There's no way of looking at her and knowing exactly what her background is as she is a mixed breed hen...Easter Egger by definition is a mixed breed chicken.

With all hybrids, the offspring takes the characteristics of both parents with the outcome a crap shoot, knowing that certain characteristics are dominant and others are not, but all get "shaken in the bag" for outcomes. Thus siblings can look very different from each other but have similar dominant traits. Breed a hybrid to a hybrid, and the possibilities leap exponentially.

There is no pure landrace of Easter Egger. EE's have no breed standard, and as stated are a hybrid, which results in a vast array of feather color patterns, combs, leg color, and egg shell color (blue, green, brown, and pink being the most common...hence the label "Rainbow Layer").

The hatcheries began selling rainbow egg layers using Ameraucana stock (by far more common than Araucanas, although some of those were used) over any other breed laying stock. Using whatever they had on hand, they quickly multiplied their flocks often confusing customers by calling this hybrid Ameraucanas or Americanas or even Araucanas when in fact they were the hybrid bird, of many different formulas, commonly called an Easter Egger. (This means something if you are trying to breed forward and have a hybrid with only 1 blue gene rather than the pure breed with 2 blue genes...or expecting the high quality, expensive pure breed....mislabeling was done unscrupulously by some sellers).

All that can be said of your EE is that she has at least 1 blue gene (from the color of her egg being blue), does not have the genetics for brown egg wash (since the egg is blue and not green from the brown wash indicating a white layer as one parent, such as a Brown Leghorn since White Leghorn would be dominant white and have created a white bird). She has Ameraucana influence fairly close back as there is still signs of beard/muff, pea comb, and green legs. Those traits (beard/muff and green leg color) drop off pretty quickly when an EE (Ameraucana hybrid) is used as one of the parents rather than Ameraucana.

The hatcheries are breeding more and more from EE's as the Ameraucanas and Araucanas are expensive birds (and breeder quality only). Those EE hybrid of hybrid chicks often have no beard/muff and yellow legs.

Interestingly, the pea comb and the blue gene are closely linked on the gene strand so that if your hybrid as a pea comb it is highly likely they also have the blue gene.

There is also no way of knowing if she is a hatchery generated bird or a backyard generated bird.

My thoughts.

Pretty bird. Good for you for nursing her back to health and giving her a happy flock home.

LofMc

 

[debid]

Sorry but that information is incorrect. Ameraucanas didn't exist as a breed until the 1970s. They were created by selectively breeding EEs to meet a standard rather than EEs being created by hybridization of Ameraucanas.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Sorry but that information is incorrect. Ameraucanas didn't exist as a breed until the 1970s. They were created by selectively breeding EEs to meet a standard rather than EEs being created by hybridization of Ameraucanas.

Could you link a source for your information?

From what I've read from the Ameraucana Breeders Association, and all other research I've come across on this topic, Ameraucanas were an outcropping from Araucanas due to the difference in opinion as to whether the Araucana should have beard/muff and tail or be tail-less with ear tufts. The beardless, tail-less Araucana won recognition first (in the 1970's) while those breeders who favored the bearded-muffed and tailed Araucana variety concentrated in America and this variety became known as the Amer-aucana and later recognized as a breed unto itself (Ameraucana) in the 1980's.

Easter Egger was always a term used misleadingly over the history of the Araucana and never considered a reputable part of the breed development, to my understanding.

Below is the link to the Ameraucana Breeders Club history page.
http://ameraucanabreedersclub.org/history.html

Interestingly, a number of the Chilean (Araucana) blue layers were also brought to England and used by R. C. Punnett in his quest for blue layers, but an auto sexing type, and developed the Cream Legbar.

My understanding of the breed history.

LofMc

 

[Kyanite]

I have a hatchery EE that could almost be the twin of your girl. Her name is Blondie. She also lays beautiful blue eggs. 2 of my 5 EE lay perfect blue, the other three it's shades of blue-green to green.

As for the history of the EE, Ameraucana and Araucana... I have to agree with LadyofMC. I've read basically what she wrote from several sources, but never heard anything about Ameraucanas being developed from EE. debid, if you have a source for that information, please do share it.

 

[debid]

Could you link a source for your information?

From what I've read from the Ameraucana Breeders Association, and all other research I've come across on this topic, Ameraucanas were an outcropping from Araucanas due to the difference in opinion as to whether the Araucana should have beard/muff and tail or be tail-less with ear tufts. The beardless, tail-less Araucana won recognition first (in the 1970's) while those breeders who favored the bearded-muffed and tailed Araucana variety concentrated in America and this variety became known as the Amer-aucana and later recognized as a breed unto itself (Ameraucana) in the 1980's.

Easter Egger was always a term used misleadingly over the history of the Araucana and never considered a reputable part of the breed development, to my understanding.

Below is the link to the Ameraucana Breeders Club history page.
http://ameraucanabreedersclub.org/history.html

Interestingly, a number of the Chilean (Araucana) blue layers were also brought to England and used by R. C. Punnett in his quest for blue layers, but an auto sexing type, and developed the Cream Legbar.

My understanding of the breed history.

LofMc

This is actually pretty much the full version of my summary only I'm calling the imported birds EEs rather than Auracanas since they weren't what we currently know as Auracanas.

The issue I had with your post had to do with the current breeding program. The original imported birds didn't cease to exist when the breeds were created. They just no longer qualified to bear the name "Auracanas" as all blue shell layers were called back then.

Continuing to breed from their landrace stock isn't the same as taking standardized Ameraucanas and crossing them with other breeds.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

This is actually pretty much the full version of my summary only I'm calling the imported birds EEs rather than Auracanas since they weren't what we currently know as Auracanas.

The issue I had with your post had to do with the current breeding program. The original imported birds didn't cease to exist when the breeds were created. They just no longer qualified to bear the name "Auracanas" as all blue shell layers were called back then.

Continuing to breed from their landrace stock isn't the same as taking standardized Ameraucanas and crossing them with other breeds.

I'm sorry, I'm not sure what your disagreement is with. Their is no other original land race stock that is used in America to produce EE chicks. What is used in breeding in America are the developed descendant breeds known as the Ameraucana and Araucana. Also used is the hybrid Easter Egger, which can be a mix with either Ameraucana or Araucana, Ameraucana being by far the most common as Araucana is a rare breed in America (due in part to the difficulty to breed them as there is a 25% chick loss due to the lethal tufting gene).

The original imported birds ("landrace" as you refer) were originally called Araucana from the La Araucana region in Chile, dubbed thus by the Spanish in 1556.

The original "landrace" Araucana was not a pure breed itself. It was very much a mixed breed chicken used by the Mapuche Indians. They had 2 lines, a brown laying tailed type and a tufted, rumpless, pea combed blue layer type. Breeding the two produced a crested, bearded, pea combed, tufted bird who laid blue eggs as blue shell and pea comb is dominant. A line was refined by Dr. Bustos in Chile, from which a Professor Costello exhibited photographs at the Santiago Exhibition in 1914 which created the fervor and subsequent European imports of birds called Araucanas.

From those original imports of Araucanas, breeders developed our modern recognized breeds, having taken a long and convoluted path rift with disagreements (and often dubious hybrid Easter Eggers) as to standards.

America follows the European standard with Araucanas that have been refined to retain the tufts and rumplessness. In America we also have the Ameraucana which bears the beard/muff and tail. Australia and Britain have a tailed, crested, and tufted Araucana (developed from a shipment of original Araucanas that were shipwrecked off the coast of Scotland).

These 3 breeds all stem from the original La Araucana, itself mixes of the Querto and Collona by the Mapuche tribe. I seriously doubt you'll find any remnants of those birds to breed from as the birds in modern Chile are predominantly very mixed, mostly from European domesticated stock or simply commercial hatchery birds.

So any landrace of which you speak to breed from would be descendants from the Araucana of La Araucana, which we call the Araucana and Ameraucana.

As the OP's bird has beard, willow legs, and is in America, it is reasonable to conjecture that it is from Ameraucana blood rather than Australian/British Araucana (muffed/tailed) blood. If it were from Araucana blood (assuming American strain), it would have no beard, possibly tufts (though those drop out quickly in generations), and yellow legs.

LofMc
http://ameraucanabreedersclub.org/history.html