What is my Easter Egger mixed with?

[Cl2Abbeyrd]

Hi friends!

Finally picked up my first 3 hens 3 weeks ago for my back yard flock. I picked 3 Easter Eggers that were each a different color. They are 17 weeks today. I hope they start laying in the next few weeks!

The white one has 5 toes and is supposedly mixed with Salmon Favorelle or Houdan.

The black one - not sure. Looks like a typical Easter Egger to me. 4 toes and the flightiest of the trio.

The third one...is brown with these really neat feathers. And she has a top hat on her head with no cheek muffs! She seems very unique. What is she?! Any ideas? Can EEs have a head of feathers like that?

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

The two look like Easter eggers but the other one looks like a Golden Brabanter.

 

[JedJackson]

I'd say the golden one looks more like a gold laced Polish mix due to her lacing. The black has the right comb for easter egger but the white does not. She would have to be a mix with the Faverolle since she has a single comb and Houdans and easter eggers do not. But her skin looks blueish, so I think she might have some Silkie in her somewhere.

 

[junebuggena]

One Easter Egger, two mixed breeds. One is definitely a Faverolle mix. Houdan don't have feathered legs and a Sultan would have produced a split comb and crest. The other is a Polish mix.

 

[The Moonshiner]

One Easter Egger, two mixed breeds

EEs aren't a breed.
They're just mixed breeds right? So at what point does a mixed breed go from being a EE to not being an EE?

 

[JedJackson]

EEs aren't a breed.
They're just mixed breeds right? So at what point does a mixed breed go from being a EE to not being an EE?

Not exactly. They aren't a standardized breed and they are somewhat mixed but they usually have certain traits in common, mainly a beard, pea comb, medium size and of course the blue eggs. Most of these traits came from the South American breeds that originated them and Araucanas and Amerecaunas.

 

[junebuggena]

EEs aren't a breed.
They're just mixed breeds right? So at what point does a mixed breed go from being a EE to not being an EE?

No. The vast majority of hatchery sourced Easter Eggers are not mixed breeds at all. They just haven't been selectively bred to meet a particular breed standard. They are a landrace type. Not a consistent breed, but a generally recognizable look to them. They are what was used to create both the Araucana and Ameraucana breeds. Legbar, Ameraucana, and Araucana crossbreds are a very small percentage. Two of those birds have no indications of any blue/green laying breed ancestry. Do they look like they might have Legbar in them? No. Any Araucana traits? No. No signs of Ameraucana or hatchery Easter Egger in them either. For such birds, they are mixed breeds until proven to have inherited the blue shell gene.

 

[The Moonshiner]

No. The vast majority of hatchery sourced Easter Eggers are not mixed breeds at all. They just haven't been selectively bred to meet a particular breed standard. They are a landrace type. Not a consistent breed, but a generally recognizable look to them. They are what was used to create both the Araucana and Ameraucana breeds. Legbar, Ameraucana, and Araucana crossbreds are a very small percentage. Two of those birds have no indications of any blue/green laying breed ancestry. Do they look like they might have Legbar in them? No. Any Araucana traits? No. No signs of Ameraucana or hatchery Easter Egger in them either. For such birds, they are mixed breeds until proven to have inherited the blue shell gene.

That's close to what I've always thought but most Ameracauna breeders disagree with that.
Most will tell you an EE can lay brown eggs which makes no sense to me at all.

 

[JedJackson]

No. The vast majority of hatchery sourced Easter Eggers are not mixed breeds at all. They just haven't been selectively bred to meet a particular breed standard. They are a landrace type. Not a consistent breed, but a generally recognizable look to them. They are what was used to create both the Araucana and Ameraucana breeds. Legbar, Ameraucana, and Araucana crossbreds are a very small percentage. Two of those birds have no indications of any blue/green laying breed ancestry. Do they look like they might have Legbar in them? No. Any Araucana traits? No. No signs of Ameraucana or hatchery Easter Egger in them either. For such birds, they are mixed breeds until proven to have inherited the blue shell gene.

I think land race is a good way to define them. Certainly the easter eggers of today are remarkably similar to the ones I had 40 years ago as a child.

 

[JedJackson]

That's close to what I've always thought but most Ameracauna breeders disagree with that.
Most will tell you an EE can lay brown eggs which makes no sense to me at all.

They can lay different colors of eggs but most will lay blue/green. Ameraucanas are supposed to only lay blue eggs, the brown factor supposedly having been bred out of them, but in fact they do sometimes lay tinted eggs.