What color EE am I? **pic heavy**

[Gypsylion]

I have 4 "Araucana/Ameraucana" pullets from my local feed store (they order from Mt. Healthy), plus one ameraucana/d'Uccle cross out of my EE and another from the same breeder of that mom. First of all, are we all EEs, or could we actually be ameraucanas? Secondly, are we pullets? Third, what color are we? I'm not too familiar with ameraucana/EE coloring yet, and I realize that these may not be any recognized color. All are about 3-4 wks. What do y'all think? Thanks!

Chick #1 - blue wheaten pullet? The mama of the bunch.

Chick #2 - red? pullet The explorer.

Chick #3 - blackish pullet. The homebody.

Chick #4 - silver penciled? pullet. The prom queen.

Chick #5 - the golden child - butterscotch pullet?

Chick #6 - the new girl - gold black spangled penciled pullet?

 

[watersoflethe]

they look like EE's to me...

hatcheries dont sell ameraucana so they should be EEs

and i suck at sexing so i shouldnt even try but 2,3,5 are males is my guess... but remember i suk at sexing.. someone better will come along

 

[Gypsylion]

Hrm... I hope they're not boys! They all should be girls, though of course that's never guaranteed.

Ameraucana/EE breeders - any ideas on what colors these kids will be?

 

[Gypsylion]

Any other color suggestions? I just found an EE chick color thread yesterday, so maybe I should post this there...

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[anniem]

They all look pullet to me, but it seems to be the rare person that actually gets all pullets from the pullet bin--especially EEs!
I'll be curious if people have color guesses. Usually, when it's EEs (mutts), there are just a lot of responses saying there are no color standards for EEs. Besides, at this age you can have 3 that look nearly the same and they will turn out completely different from each other.

 

[emjay]

as an owner of 2 batches of EE babies, there are no guarentees on sexes, my first batch at first looked all girly. then 6 out of 8 were roos, what a downer.


your #3 looks roo to me, keep us posted on the outcome.

 

[alicefelldown]

anniem is correct, there are no color standards for EEs because there is nothing standard about them. They are mixes of *hopefully* a blue layer at some point in time and a higher production layer.

Even if say, you have one that looks Blue Wheaten, that doesn't mean anything because a) it has mixed up genes and won't breed true, and b) seriously, it's a mix of this bird and that bird and maybe a one time fling with that other random bird. There is almost no definitive way to tell what color genes it's carrying, or what recessive genes are there, or any modifiers because it's impossible to know its genealogy. Did it get some E Black from it's father? Some Ar+ Autosomal Red from it's mom? How about some eb Brown from it's mom's mom?

Those are how color varieties are defined: by dominant and recessive genes. Something EEs definitely have, however mixed up and unknowable they are.

*I have EEs, and they are some of my favorite birds. I'm not hating on them at all, honest!

*paraphrased from the amazing book Genetics of Chicken Colours:
For instance: I present Buff. Think of these are recipes on how to make that bird. Think of eAlleles as the broth of the soup, the base. Then come the ingredients, like veggies or salt (for taste and color). Adding tomatoes makes the soup red, but it's still a veggie soup based on beef broth. Tomatoes would be dominate genes, and the background veggies like potatoes and mushrooms are recessive. Next come the diluters - adding creme or milk to your tomato veggie soup makes the tomatoes (dominant) changes the color (lighter) from the tomatoes but does nothing to the mushrooms (Red, Brown, or Black). Patterns come on top of all of that, like the croutons or cheese on top of the soup.

There are three 'pure' types of buff because different breeds tend to have different genes that can do the same thing. Look at Lavender and Self Blue. They look the same, but their 'recipes' are totally different.

eb/eb s+/s+ Db/Db Co/Co Pg/Pg Di/Di (Cb/Cb)
eWh/eWh s+/s+ Db/Db Co/Co Di/Di (Cb/Cb when no black)
eWh/eWh s+/s+ Db/Db Mh/Mh Di/Di Cb/Cb Ar+/Ar+

eb = Brown eAllele
eWh = Wheaten eAllele
s+ = Gold eAllele, extender of Red/Gold
Db = Dark Brown extender of Red, restrictor of Black
Co = Columbian extender of Red, restrictor of Black
Pg = Pattern Gene reorganizes Black pigment, and together with other genes forms patterns
Di = Dilute diluter of Gold and Red
Cb = Champagne Blond diluter of Black
Mh = Mahogany extender of Red, intensifier of Red
Ar+ = Autosomal Red, not sex-linked Red/Gold

 

[poodlepill]

I was one of the few lucky ones. Out of 7 EE's (pullet bin) all 7 are pullets, I was totally expecting at least one or two roo's...nope all pretty pullets.

 

[Gypsylion]

Thanks for the genetics lesson, alicefelldown! I have two higher degrees in bio, but I'm just beginning to learn about chicken genetics, so that was really helpful!

I'm going to post this on the EE chick/adult color thread here, too...

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

I have a EE pullet that looks just like the one is pic 4!