What is considered an Easter Egger?

Brahma Chicken5000

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Sep 26, 2017
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The title says it all...Is an Easter Egger any mixed breed chicken that carries the blue egg gene? Does it have to have Ameraucana ancestry to be considered an Easter Egger? If an Easter Egger has to have Ameraucana in it, would that mean that the chicks from a Legbar rooster or an Araucana rooster over a Campine hen not be considered Easter Eggers?
 
Could you please elaborate :p
I've heard it defined as any chicken that lays an off-colour egg (pink, green, plum, etc.)

I've heard it defined as a crossbreed of any Chilean green-egg laying breed

I've heard it defined as a descendant of the original Chilean stock that is not defined as an Ameraucana or an Araucana.

Obviously, these definitions are not compatible. I think EE's a term made up by hatcheries to sell eggs, and no one bothered defining what it meant before using it.
 
I've heard it defined as any chicken that lays an off-colour egg (pink, green, plum, etc.)

I've heard it defined as a crossbreed of any Chilean green-egg laying breed

I've heard it defined as a descendant of the original Chilean stock that is not defined as an Ameraucana or an Araucana.

Obviously, these definitions are not compatible. I think EE's a term made up by hatcheries to sell eggs, and no one bothered defining what it meant before using it.
I see. Thank you for the info.
 
I personally don't know a thing but here's what wikapedia says:
Easter Egger
In current American usage an Easter Egger is any chicken that possesses the "blue egg" gene, but doesn't fully meet any breed standard defined in the American Poultry Association's standards, or in the case of Easter Egger bantams, the American Bantam Association's standards. The name derives from the resemblance of their colorful eggs to Easter eggs and for many years most hatcheries mistakenly labeled their Easter Eggers as Ameraucanas or Araucanas. The Araucana, Ameraucana, and Easter Egger are descended from the same founder stock that spread around the world from Chile and the Falklands. The pigment oocyanin deposited on the surface of the shell accounts for the blue-green color. Easter Eggers are hardy and excellent layers.
Does that help?
 

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