I would disagree — by cross-breeding I am hoping to create hybrid vigour in beautiful birds. Some of them lay green, olive, blue eggs — which is what I am aiming for — while others lay cream, white, pink and shades of brown.
Olive Eggers are one branch of Easter Eggers. They are a cross between a blue egg gene and a dark brown egg gene e. Marans, Welsummer. A blue egg x light brown egg will produce various shades of greens from minty to sage. Folks spend years breeding and cross-breeding birds to create the perfect olive egg. It is part science and part art. Their eggs were very pale blue, which makes me doubt they were carrying two blue egg genes.
Was that a problem? I loved them, so in that sense, no. The problem is, that in our ignorance, we perpetuate erroneous information. I bought those four Easter Egger hens from a young woman who was told they were Ameraucanas.
When I sold them, I did so as Ameraucanas. Both of us were wrong. One of my aims with this blog is to set a high standard of knowledge and practice, by putting out the best information I have at my disposal. I may be accused of being a grammar queen, but in this case language is important.
Most of the eggs are a very drap whitish-green. Today, as I always do, I candled them for the beginning of life. Two of them has likely dead embryos about half the size of a dime. I see no sign of life in the other eggs. Their eggs were the most shocking dark aqua-blue. This I want agan. My email is down. You can contact me on facebook under Penny Baldwin.
It states I live in Grantsville, WV. Do you sell day old chicks or a rumpless bearded blue eggs, at a reasonable price? Like Like. It sounds like you got some hatchery EEs. From your description I think you had Arauacanas rumpless with tufts ; Ameraucanas have a rump and muffs.
Good luck finding some nice blue egg layers. Like Liked by 1 person. Great article!! Thank you for taking the time to make the distinctions between the three breeds so that new chicken keepers can have accurate information. And for the information on the egg color genes. Forty-five years ago we had the same problem! The Araucana originated in Chile most likely and come in five colors including black, white, duckwing silver and golden. They are the breed that the Ameraucana was developed from.
They are technically mutts - mixed breed chickens that do possess the blue egg gene, but don't fully meet the breed specifications of either Araucanas or Ameraucanas. Easter Eggers are fun because you never know what color egg each hen will lay until she starts laying, and even identical-looking hens often lay varying shades of bluish or greenish eggs.
But ultimately if you want blue eggs, you'll need to choose either Ameraucana or Araucana chickens, or one of the newer breeds including Cream Legbar or Ice Cream Bar.
Final note: There is no such thing as an Americana. If you run across a feed store or hatchery selling Americanas, they are likely Easter Eggers. Articles may contain affiliate links. I have raised all three types of the blue egg layers. Unfortunately, the two Araucanas I hatched both turned out to be roosters, so I was out of luck there with blue eggs from them, and every Easter Egger I have ever raised has laid green eggs - some a pale mint color, others a sage green - always very pretty, but never blue eggs, so I am anxiously awaiting my first Ameraucana to start laying.
I hatched her this past spring and she's due to start any day now! So anyway, back to the three, here are the basic differences between them:. Ameraucanas are a pure breed recognized by the APA since They were most likely originally bred from South American blue egg laying breeds but were developed and standardized in the United States. They come in eight distinct colors including, Blue, Black, White and Wheaten, which all share these distinct Ameraucana traits:.
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