What Are Easter Egger Chickens Versus Ameraucana Chickens?

Do you eff the difference between Easter Egger poulet and Ameraucana poulet ? If you plan to someday engender and sell your own chick or if you plan to expose show poultry , you must be able to distinguish between an Easter Egger and a true Ameraucana . Unsure of the eminence ? Here are three ready A ’s to help you differentiate between these two farmyard favorites . Ana Hotaling

Easter Egger Chickens Ancestry

Unlike the Ameraucana , the Easter Egger chicken is not an literal breed . It is a intercrossed chicken , the result of crossing a juicy - egg - lay breed with another breed , usually a brown - egg layer . Like the Ameraucana and its close cousin , the Araucana , the Easter Egger own the gene for blue eggs . While the Ameraucana and the Araucana always lay sky - low egg , however , the Easter Egger lays testicle in an array of pastel , including green , pink and yellow ( hence the name “ Easter Egger ” ) thanks to its mixed inheritance . Note : One Easter Egger hen will not lie a rainbow of egg colors but rather one color throughout her put years . Ana Hotaling

Appearance

Ameraucanas and Easter Egger chickens frolic fluffy muff and beards , both of which give these chickens their characteristic full - cheeked face . Both shuttlecock have cold - hardy characteristic such as pea combs and miniscule ( or abstracted ) wattle , small earlobes , and full dander and tail feathers . colouration , however , is where the two diverge . The American Poultry Association recognizes only eight varieties of Ameraucana : black , blue , whole-wheat , blue wheaten , white-hot , ash grey , buff and brown redness . The Easter Egger has limitless variation , with its mixed lineage come through strongly in its feather coloration and patterning . Columbian Wyandotte stock , for example , might succumb an Easter Egger with dramatic white and black feather , while a Buff Orpington pedigree might result in golden Easter Egger chicks . A Rhode Island Red stemma might bring about a sullen auburn bird .

The confusion between Easter Egger chickens and Ameraucanas can be further compounded when the sundry breed features purebred colour . Not certain whether your chicken is a blue Easter Egger or a blue Ameraucana ? break its shanks . The Standard of Perfection defines the colour cannon for each recognise Ameraucana variety ( for a blue Ameraucana , slating shanks and toes with white posterior ) . An Easter Egger ’s shank are most unremarkably dark European olive tree but can be any color , depending on its blood line . Ana Hotaling

Easter Egger Chicken Availability

A circumscribed numeral of commercial hatcheries now provide purebred Ameraucana chicks , usually with a disavowal that these baby are not meant for expo . The vast majority of purebred Ameraucanas are available only through private stock breeder . If you bid to raise your own good deal of dependable Ameraucanas , consider consult breeder directories such as those found online at theAmeraucana Breeders Clubor theAmeraucana Alliance . Depending on the variety , ask to pass between $ 10 and $ 30 — or more — per Ameraucana wench .

That cost difference is the main telling polarity that your feed store ’s Ameraucanas are actually Easter Egger chickens . These hybrid baby chicks usually trade for $ 1 to $ 3 apiece and , unlike Ameraucanas , are much ubiquitous . You ’ll witness Easter Egger skirt at provender shops , farm - supply stores , local farms and commercial hatcheries . unluckily , many of these places deal their Easter Egger chicks as Ameraucanas — or Americanas , Araucanas and even Acurananas . This mislabeling is typically not done out of malevolency but out of ignorance . As retail business organisation , these shops and hatchery focus on moving product rather than find detail regarding their product . The farmer selling “ Ameraucana ” chicks most likely originally buy mislabeled chicks from hatchery , farm - provision stores and provender shops .

Upon seeing the Americana preindication on that stock tank , I fleetingly considered chance the shop owners and explaining the departure between Easter Eggers and Ameraucanas . I ’ve tried every individual leaping for the past three class , though , once even providing a comparison chart . In the ending , I decide that it ’s more significant foryouto have it away the difference than it is for them .

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