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Is this an Ameraucana?

4K views 21 replies 10 participants last post by  ladycat 
#1 ·
After mixing up hens for roosters and from what everyone says hybrids for Ameraucana I wanted everyone's opinion - is this a n Ameraucana as advertised?
 
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#5 · (Edited)
I am seeing a Ameraucana bird. He may not be the perfect specimen though.
And the bird is a ROOSTER. You know that, correct ?
Ameraucana's have a pea comb. A short comb.
He looks young. Maybe a little more growing before you see him in his mature feathers.
He does have nice color. If he has a good personality, he would be a keeper.
If you are going to breed, you would want to keep looking for another one.

I have had quite a few Ameraucana hens and roosters. Seems like no two are alike.
Several of my current hens have quite the docile personality. Roosters always have
the wild pretty colors, more so than the hens.
 
#6 ·
I'd guess a mix...legs are light and comb is wonky.
Bird is not young, look at those spurs, I'd guess he's around 2yo.
Short of a DNA test it'd be hard to say for sure.
Plumage looks close to a brown/red.....but.
Take a look at these photos:
http://ameraucanaalliance.org/photos.html

What's really a bummer is that they sold it to you as a female,
I wouldn't believe anything they said.
 
#9 ·
Usually birds like this guy are called Easter Eggers. I'd keep him around if he's not going after people. He looks better than the other cockerel in your other thread. Get him some pullets from a feed store or online hatchery. Breed doesn't matter unless you were looking to breed Ameraucanas.
 
#11 · (Edited)
He is at best a cross - not many Ameraucana characteristics. I don't know who these folks are with the chickens, but they are (to put it bluntly) full of it.

The Ameraucanas I got from Welp Hatchery this spring and most of the others I've seen have what I call "partridge" feathers. I'll go out and take a couple of pictures - hang on. ;)
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The base color can vary wildly, seems to me - like this very pretty light colored rooster (hatchery-sexing mistake) that I DIDN'T want/don't need and who will probably see the axe real soon. He came with these (now) little 14 week old Ameraucana pullets. But greenish, bluish legs and the short comb, plus the facial "whiskers" are a good indicator.

Chicken Vertebrate Bird Rooster Galliformes
Chicken Vertebrate Bird Rooster Fowl

 
#13 · (Edited)
BTW, looking at the picture in the original post, that black hen in the background is exactly what some of my Ameraucana/Maran crosses look like. (They lay sort of a muddy green colored egg). The pullets I bought from Welp will lay a pure blue egg. These folks have a lot of barnyard crosses running around, appears to me.

What the heck - go ahead and grab a few laying birds right now for expediency, then order the purebreds that you want from a good hatchery in the spring. That's what I would do if I was starting out in the fall like this.
 
#14 ·
That's what my original plan was then I saw some Jersey giant pullets and some Ameraucana pullets cheaper than I could buy lunch at McDonald's...
I also have 10 red sex link but wanted to get some heritage birds. I was thinking one of my Jersey Giant s could hatch some heritage eggs later on
 
#15 ·
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/Arau/BRKAraucanas.html

This should clear some things up. The vast majority of birds you run into are Easter eggers. I have rub ibto a lot of people that call these, incorrectly, Americaunas, or even more incorrectly Aracuanas. They might not have been deliberately misleading you, maybe just unaware. That's a good site to check out chicken breeds on by the way.
 
#18 ·
It all depends on if you are trying to breed for the standard of perfection, historical accuracy, production, personal enjoyment or a host of other reasons. There are a ton of birds that are called something, or sold as something, even by hatcheries, and are nothing like what they are billed as. Chickens are not registered, so you are at the mercy of whomever you are getting chickens from.
 
#20 ·
I have one arucana, looks exactly like the blue one from Sweden on the link barnbilder posted, lays blue eggs and if I were closer anyone could have her free! She's a horrible chicken, scared of her own shaddow, runs from everyone me the cats the dogs the other chickens, only the ducks will she even get within a meter of, all my other birds are fine but not that one. She carried on making baby noises for a good 9 months, I suspect she's a few grains short of a ear that one.
 
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#22 ·
What hatcheries sell as "Ameraucanas" are actually easter eggers.

Ameraucanas are a pure breed with a Standard of Perfection, and come in very specific color varieties. You can show them in a poultry show sanctioned by the American Poultry Association. They are a little hard to come by, and a little on the expensive side.

Easter eggers are any mixed breed or mutt chicken that descended from a blue egg breed. They can come in any color, and they do not have any fixed characteristics. They can look like just about anything.
 
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