Breed distinction

[ChickenMomma91]

I don’t have photos at the moment but I’ll get some when I get home.
I have two hens who were sold to me as ameracaunas. I don’t care is she was wrong but one lays a bright blue eggs and the other more of a greenish blue. I’m thinking one is actually an auracauna ( I know my spelling is probably wrong). One is fat/fluffy (hence why she was named marshmallow peep) and the other is skinny almost rooster looking. Thoughts?

 

[Hinotori]

Araucana are distictive from ameraucana. They are tailless and usually have ear turfs.

Ameraucana have beards and muffs. If it's not a named color (not someones fanciful names for mixed colors), it's probably not an ameraucana.

These girls are wheaten color

Easter eggers are mixed breed that have ameraucana, araucana, or cream legbar in their background. They have a chance to lay any color of egg because of this mix of genetics. I've had brown, pink, green, blue, olive, and speckled green. Because I've seen the question too many times, each hen only lays one color.

The body shape is all over the place and they may or may not have beards. A lot of the hatchery birds Ive had it's been obvious they had leghorn in their genetics.

Hatchery americana/araucana/ameraucana are actually a separate creature from barnyard easter eggers. They are not mixes of ameraucana or araucana. They are decended from the original mixed breed birds brought from South America. Hatcheries have crossed them with other breeds to increase egg production, hence the all over body shape. Most hatchery birds are a basic wild type partridge in color.

 

[Hinotori]

Easter eggers. Mixed color. Both carry blue so they dont quite have the typical color.

Actual ameraucana breeders do not ever mix colors. They may breed in a new color then they work diligently to get back to standard as fast as they can. Ive had birds sold to me as Easter eggers from color projects. Breeder was making lavender ameraucana and buff ameraucana. They mostly looked ameraucana but weren't quite right in body shape.


There is a huge range of acceptable for blue in the ameraucana standard. Ameraucana breeders club sells these on cardstock so you can compare eggs and get the color.

The silver ameraucana I had all laid more of a greenish. The wheaten have all laid a very nice blue. I like wheaten best as they are the most laid back of the colors. Yes temperament actually differs slightly between the colors. They are mostly the same. They are also clannish and stick to their own colors.

 

[Hinotori]

Post pics and we can tell you what yours are

 

[ChickenMomma91]

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Well done @Hinotori . It's a pet peeve for me that even the hatcheries can't seem to get their act together in properly labeling these birds. The only other comment I have to make is the fact that Araucana carry a lethal gene. I'm not sure it's carried on the ear tuft site, or on the rumpless site. But, either way, b/c of this lethal gene, many eggs fail to develop, or die prior to hatch. I'm thinking that if male and female both
carry the lethal gene, that half of the chicks will fail to survive. For this very reason, I would never willingly bring a true Araucana into my flock. I have the same, very strong feelings about crested chickens or water fowl. When it comes to breeding, my philosophy is: Just because you can... don't mean you should!

 

[Hinotori]

It's related to the tufted gene and easily work around if you keep a few without tufts for breeding. Gene is incomplete dominant. One copy gives tufts. 2 copies and the egg won't hatch.

Even if you breed tufted to tufted, it's 25% of the eggs that don't hatch. 25% won't have tufts and 50% will have tufts.

If you breed tufted to untufted, 50% have tufts and 50% are untufted. So either way you get the same amount of tufted chicks from eggs.

Now the rumplessness causes it's own issue on all breeds with it. Makes it harder for successful matings so fertility is down.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Looks like you have it well studied.

 

[Hinotori]

Most unique I've had was the actual pink and the grass green. They were both hatchery easter eggers.

Mom loved those pink eggs. They weren't tan or tinted. That hen was a super layer, too. 6 eggs a week.

 

[farmerjan]

I appreciate your explanations and feelings about the different "classifications". I get very "bent out of shape" with people who don't know what they are talking about and are "experts" on different "breeds of chickens" . Thank you for your common sense and dedication to properly identifying true breeds as opposed to "hatchery labeled birds". I have had show/purebred poultry for over 40 years. Many different breeds at different times. It gets on my nerves when someone gets some hatchery birds, that are barely able to claim what breed they are, and suddenly start to promote the off spring as this breed or that breed. I am no expert on most breeds. But had a friend that bred Aracauna's and knew the ins and outs of them. He has had many breeds over the years and is quite well versed in most. A lifetime member of the APA and ABA and I love to listen to him talk about different breeds and the different color patterns of established breeds.

I started out with Standard SC Dark Brown Leghorns and then got some SC Light Brown leghorns in the 70's. Have had cochin bantams, and black Langshan bantams that were very prolific. Have had standard New Hampshires for years and some standard Black Langshans. Also had some others at different times. Hope to get back into breeding some more in the next year or 2 as my work schedule continues to slow down with "semi-retirement". Liked the Welsummers I had, the color pattern being a bit similar to the Light Br. leghorns. We don't have any call for white eggs here so I try to mostly have the brown egg layers. Have had a couple different breeds of turkeys and hope to get some more in the future.