What's the difference between...

[cejunes]

I'm just curious, what is the difference between and EE, an aracauna, and/or an americauna? I have 3 that lay a greenish blue egg... more on the green side. Here is a pic of two of them. The third looks just like the brown one.

 

[PineappleMama]

Quote:
I may be wrong, but I think...

Araucana is a RUMPLESS bird, easy to spot that, lays a blue egg, has face fluffies.

Ameraucana is the result of America taking the Araucana and tweaking and whatnot to arrive at a standard that breeds true (in the many variations) and has face fuzzies. There are breed standards for Ameraucana chickens, they all lay BLUE eggs.

And EE, Easter Egger, has two definitions.

1 Any chicken that's PART Ameraucana (maybe Araucana too I don't know?)... a mutt... because these are mixes they could lay just about any colored egg... 'cept maybe white, don't think I've heard of that happening... but anything from light light brown/aka pink to medium brown like a plain old barred rock... (think it's the roo that carries the egg color genes? Thus if the daddy was a brown layer and mom was the Amer then maybe you'd get brown laying chicks???) from light minty green (blue layer to light brown layer) to deep camo green (blue layer to DARK brown layer)... it's the face fuzzies that really tag a bird as being at least part Ameracana (or Araucana though the missing tail is more obvious to me)... but unless you know exactly the bloodlines or you get a perfectly blue egg, it's hard to tell if it is a 'purebred'... especially since EE's have been known to be passed off as purebreds... and no one's the wiser until that egg pops out green or brown.

2 Any full blooded Ameraucana that does NOT meet the breed standard of perfection... they're nifty to have around, don't need to dye your eggs they'll already be blue, but can't make a living off showing or breeding that chicken.

If you do a search you'll find plenty of topics on this, with much more informed people doing the answering... if any of those peek in here and see I botched something PLEASE let me know so I don't keep doing it...

 

[HBuehler]

Yours are Easter Eggers..they don't meet the breed Standard for Ameraucana. www.Ameraucana.org has the breed standard pics etc there is also an Araucana site but don't have that one handy.
Ameraucana's only come in 7 colors and have a strict breed standard that most every "Ameraucana" in people's back yards will not meet.Basically you must buy them from a breeder not hatchery feed store etc.Then,there are breeders of them that don't have one on the property so if you really want one you need to know for yourself what they are.
Araucana's are rumpless MOST of the time but can have tails..not really wanted but they can and are also used for breeding to help keep the back longer.They come in clean faced and tufted not bearded like an Ameraucana and EE they can also be bi-lateral tufted.They carry a lethal gene so you want to breed clean to tufted to get the highest percent of live chicks or tufted to tufted will result in more in the shell loss but the more saught after tufts.We don't breed them here so I hope I didn't botch that too terribly bad

EE's are a cross between either most often the Ameraucana but there are rumpless EE's as well.They will lay all colors of eggs including brown and white depending on what the cross is a leghorn cross will not give brown but white etc...if you cross EE to EE both with the green genes you lessen the chances of the off colors(we don't have any off color ee eggs here) then there is the Gourmet EE as I call them...100% Ameraucana blood but crossed colors so they don't meet the APA Breed Standard but only carry the blue gene(some Ameraucana's lay a more green blue than others)
If your wanting a wide variety of colors with your chickens and still want the pretty eggs the EE is a real good choice. They come in about every color and pattern you can think of..and some you won't think of,they are cheaper to buy than an Ameraucana most often and like the Ameraucana are very easy to live with.
Once you know the differences it's pretty easy to spot the differences.