breed/color question

[Guest]

I was told by a fellow breeder and emailed a fellow breeder offline some questions regarding the breed and colors. I was told that to get a true Ameraucana one must breed like color to like color (i.e white to white, silver to silver, etc.). Withe exception of blues/blacks and wheatens/blue-wheaten, that these 2 colors could be combined. What doesn\'t make sense is that if one breeds say a white to silver wouldn\'t that birds offspring still be a true Ameraucana? Or is that considered an EE bird?  The exception being it wouldn\'t meet the APA/ABA show color standard and wouldn\'t be a show quality bird. Is this correct?

Kim

[Jean]

Here is what we have on FAQ page of the ABC website.

What are Easter Egg chickens?

The Ameraucana Breeders Club defines an Easter Egg chicken or Easter Egger as any chicken that possesses the blue egg gene, but doesn’t fully meet any breed descriptions as defined in the APA and/or ABA standards.  Further, even if a bird meets an Ameraucana standard breed description, but doesn’t meet a variety description or breed true at least 50 of the time it is considered an Easter Egg chicken.

Another wording says:

“The Ameraucana Breeders Club defines an Easter Egg Chicken or Easter Egger as any chicken that possesses the blue egg gene but doesn’t meet the Ameraucana breed descriptions as found in the APA  and/or ABA Standards.  Further, even if a bird meets the Ameraucana standard breed description, but doesn’t meet a variety description or breed true at least 50 percent of the time it is to be considered an Easter Egg Chicken.”

As Mike said not everyone agrees totally with the definition, but the Board has voted to accept it for now.  Mike\'s last ABC Bulletin article and Poultry Press article (page 53) go into more detail as to why many feel a definition is needed.  More input from the membership on this subject is wanted and a final vote on a definition will be presented to the membership by the end of the year.

If our reputation as a breeder is at stake, we may do better by eating our cull birds than selling them.  I do sell many, but if I had the same experience as Curtis I would make sure I only sold culls to folks that want to butcher them.  
.........................
John W. Blehm
http://FowlFest.org
http://ChickHatchery.com

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Posted Jan 28, 2006, 5:15 pm  

 

[bantamhill]

Kim,

Ameraucana for what ever reason are plagued by the commercial picture of the \"Easter Egger\" that comes in multiple colors and lays pink, yellow, green, and blue eggs . . . to paraphrase a recent ad I saw.

The APA and ABA define a variety a breeding true 50% of the time . . . that is why and how blue and blue wheaten can be standard varieties.

There are eight standard varieties of Ameraucana: black, blue, white, buff, silver, brown red, wheaten, and blue wheaten.

To answer your question . . . the birds in a white x silver cross are Ameraucana in type, but they are not a standard Ameraucana variety and therefore are not an Ameraucana. The club adopted a statement several years ago (I was there) that stated firmly that mixed variety birds should be considered \"Easter Eggers\". The discussion covered all angles, but in the end landed with the strongly worded statement to help combat that perception (and reality in some instances) that as long as a bird lays a colored egg that it is an Ameraucana.

All that being said if one only had a white and a silver needed to cross them to produce more of each variety, I would. Sometimes you have to start with what you have and work from there. Last year I lost my silver bantam cock before breeding season. I made the decision to put a very nice blue wheaten cock over the silver hens. Not an ideal cross at all, but it was what I had at the time. I now have a group of F1 birds that are ready to cross back to their parents and from the F2 generation I will get a few silver and a few wheaten, which is what I want.  When I sell the birds off in May I will sell them as mixed bantams and will not even indicated that they have any Ameraucana blood, because they are not Ameraucana. They are what I call \"barnyard bantams\".

I hope these ramblings made some sense! I am off to collect the eggs before the bad weather and then winter storm get here to Central Missouri! 75 degrees with a flood watch and winter storm watch . . . we should be to 20 degrees by tomorrow afternoon . . . no eggs for a few days!

Michael

PS - I wonder how/if the Leghorn, Orphington, or Wyandotte folks deal with this issue or if it ever comes up for those breeds.

[John]

My personal feelings have always been that if it fits the \"breed\" description of the Standard that it is an Ameraucana, but as an ABC member I use the definition that we as a club came up with thru much discussion and accepted by majority vote.

The Ameraucana Breeders Club defines an Easter Egg Chicken or Easter Egger as any chicken that possesses the blue egg gene, but doesn’t fully meet any breed description as defined in the APA and/or ABA standards.  Further, even if a bird meets a standard breed description, but doesn’t meet a variety description or breed true at least 50% of the time it is considered an Easter Egg chicken.

We were careful with the wording by saying \"any breed description\" so that Araucanas wouldn\'t be slighted.  
Note the birds don\'t have to be of a recognized Ameraucana variety to be still considered Ameraucana.  Lavender, splash and some other varieties that aren\'t yet recognized still meet \"a variety description or breed true at least 50% of the time\", so they are not Easter Eggers by definition.

[bryngyld]

We were careful with the wording by saying \"any breed description\" so that Araucanas wouldn\'t be slighted.  
Note the birds don\'t have to be of a recognized Ameraucana variety to be still considered Ameraucana.  Lavender, splash and some other varieties that aren\'t yet recognized still meet \"a variety description or breed true at least 50% of the time\", so they are not Easter Eggers by definition.

When I read \"a variety description\" I read it as not meeting a RECOGNIZED variety description... so the new colors ARE Easter Eggers!  

[Guest]

We were careful with the wording by saying \"any breed description\" so that Araucanas wouldn\'t be slighted.  
Note the birds don\'t have to be of a recognized Ameraucana variety to be still considered Ameraucana.  Lavender, splash and some other varieties that aren\'t yet recognized still meet \"a variety description or breed true at least 50% of the time\", so they are not Easter Eggers by definition.

When I read \"a variety description\" I read it as not meeting a RECOGNIZED variety description... so the new colors ARE Easter Eggers!  

I don\'t think you are correct.  The new colors breed true at least 50% of the time, so they are not Easter Eggers.  I believe the quote you copied says that very thing.