what is he?

[kleinheksel farm]

this rooster was given to me by a friend to get some fertilized eggs for our incubator. idk if this is an obvious answer or not. my friend said he's an ameraucana, but he doesnt look like any that i've seen online. any thoughts are appreciated

p.s. he was just in the cage for a short while for transport... that was just when i got the best pics

 

[Tressa27884]

wow he is beautiful Looks like one to me.

 

[RedIII]

He does kind of look like an Ameraucana to me, just a lightly-colored one. His legs look they have some green in them, though, but that might just be the lighting he's in. Are they black?

I'm not an expert by any means, so I'd like to see what others have to say about it.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

What a gorgeous rooster!

 

[BlueCamas]

He's an EE not an Ameraucana, but he is the prettiest EE I've seen!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

He's an EE not an Ameraucana, but he is the prettiest EE I've seen!

You know, I was thinking perhaps OP was not from the USA. It might be considered an Ameraucana over in Europe????

OP, are you in the USA?

 

[Wolfhound]

He is so handsome!

 

[donrae]

Easter egger roo.

 

[kleinheksel farm]

You know, I was thinking perhaps OP was not from the USA. It might be considered an Ameraucana over in Europe????

OP, are you in the USA?

I'm from Michigan



Can someone explain to me the difference between americauna and ee? From what I understand, an ee has americauna in it, just mixed with another breed. Is that true?

 

[BlazeJester]

That is true, but there is a very fuzzy line between "just a mutt" and "mutt that probably has a blue egg gene", especially in roos.

Ameraucana is an APA recognized breed with 8 recognized colors. According to the Standards of Perfection for that breed, any color mixing results in an EE, even if bred from true Ameraucana parents. Those EEs should lay true blue eggs.

When "easter" eggs started getting popular, hatcheries mixed Ameraucana with high-production breeds to increase egg production and breed out broodiness, resulting in true mutt breeds rather than just color mutts (Amer color X to Amer color Y resulting in unrecognized color XY). Now that it's a huge craze they are probably breeding EEs to EEs, resulting in some layers who don't have the blue egg gene and some roos who don't carry it.

Some people, myself included, consider the bird a mutt rather than an EE when the blue egg gene has been bred out. At that point it is just a mutt bird that obviously has Amer somewhere in its lineage.

The more Ameraucana characteristics your roo has, the better the chances of him carrying that blue egg gene and passing it to offspring. Your boy's comb appears to be a hybrid between pea comb and single, so he's likely been crossed one or several times. He still has beautiful muffs.

The only real way to tell is to breed him to brown egg-laying hens and keeping the female offspring til laying age. When you breed him to brown egg layers, you may get green eggs. Breeding to white egg layers will result in some white layers and some blue layers, though I'm not sure which one is dominant or if that gene is more complicated (white is "not blue + not brown").