Ameraucana? Female or male?

Date sort Score sort
violamama

violamama

Chirping
Feb 6, 2016
51
8
56
NW Oregon
I'm hoping this is a pullet. S/he runs around the brooder like a nut half the time. The kids have named he(r) Atlas and it fits. Beautiful chicky either way, but I want time to break the news to them if it's male. (We will have to re-home a roo.)

700

700

700

700


Does everybody else look female? 3 Borps, 3 barred rocks and 3 ameraucana (but are they?!).
700

700

700

700
 
Your "Ameraucanas" are Easter Eggers.

It's way too early too tell sex with any certainty. No one is screaming cockerel. If they were sexed as chicks they've got a good chance of being pullets, even with the reduced accuracy in sexing Easter Eggers (about 90% accurate vs. 95-98% with most breeds).
 
violamama said:
Okay! Thanks.
Is it a thing you just know when you've seen more of them (ee I mean)?
Click to expand...


Partly experience... partly because there's just such a low probability that anything sold as an Ameraucana or Araucana is actually the real thing. I've only met... three people... out of the several hundred I've spoken to (in person at my workplace) who actually had a true Ameraucana or Araucana, and all three had those only because they new before buying the birds that they were purchasing from a geniune breeder and fully understood the differences between Ameraucans, Araucanas, and Easter Eggers.

Here's a quickguide I wrote up a while back as to the differences between the three breeds (or more correctly, two breeds and one type)

What is typically sold as an "Ameraucana", "Araucana", "Americana", or "Americauna", is, 95% of the time, an Easter Egger. True Ameraucanas and Araucanas are not sold by hatcheries, Easter Eggers are. Both the Ameraucana and Easter Egger were created (in their modern form) from crossbreedings of South American Araucanas and various other production breeds in the 1970s, but only two are true breeds and the third one is a specific type of mutt.

Ameraucanas will:

Always be a specific color; e.g. Blue, Black, Wheaten

Always lay a blue egg

Always have ear muffs and a beard

Usually come from a private breeder

Araucanas will:

Always be a specific color; e.g. Blue, Black, Wheaten

Always lay a blue egg

Always have ear tufts (NOT muffs) and a beard

Always be rumpless (this does not apply to birds in UK or Australia)

Usually come from a private breeder

Easter Eggers will:

Be any color or mixture of colors

Usually lay a blue OR green egg but sometimes brown, white, tinted, etc.

Usually have a muff/beard but not always

Usually come from a hatchery
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Thanks so much! I realize now I had read your guide on here also. I really appreciate you writing it and taking the time to respond here also.

In truth, I am sure these guys being ee's will make almost no difference to us. I can imagine getting into rare breeds as the kids get older and do more in 4h but for now it's all new.

It reminds me a lot of dog breeders who sell "akc registered" pups. I could register my dining room table as whichever breed is hottest. It's the individual breed's society or breeder conference registration that matters. I saw (maybe in one of your posts?) that there is an Ameraucana group like that. If we get serious about wanting one (and the kids save their pennies) maybe we'll start there.

Thanks again!
 
sannabelle said:
What do you mean by "they will always be a specific color"? As in- all of the chicks you purchase will be blue?
Click to expand...


If you buy true Ameraucanas they will always be a specific variety. Easter Eggers are multicolored and come in no specific color - they can be anything from buff colored to black and white to blue and red, but none of these are specific colors of Easter Egger because they are all the same variety (or rather, there are no varieties). Your Easter Egger may be mainly blue with some red highlights, for example, but it's not a Blue or Blue Red Easter Egger - it's just an Easter Egger. Ameraucanas, however, are purebred and so must be a specific color. Common colors of Ameraucana include Brown Red, Wheaten, Black, and Blue, among many others. If you are purchasing a true Ameraucana it will not be simply an Ameraucana; it will be a Blue Ameraucana, or a Black Ameraucana, or a Wheaten Ameraucana, or any other [color] Ameraucana.
 
violamama said:
Thanks so much! I realize now I had read your guide on here also. I really appreciate you writing it and taking the time to respond here also.

In truth, I am sure these guys being ee's will make almost no difference to us. I can imagine getting into rare breeds as the kids get older and do more in 4h but for now it's all new.

It reminds me a lot of dog breeders who sell "akc registered" pups. I could register my dining room table as whichever breed is hottest. It's the individual breed's society or breeder conference registration that matters. I saw (maybe in one of your posts?) that there is an Ameraucana group like that. If we get serious about wanting one (and the kids save their pennies) maybe we'll start there.

Thanks again!
Click to expand...


Oh yes, there's few practical differences between EEs and Ameraucanas. The EEs will lay a few more eggs than the Ameraucanas, while the Ameraucanas will be much more valuable for sale as chicks or adults, and of course EEs cannot be shown whereas Ameraucanas can.

There are several Ameraucana associations in the US, I believe. I imagine many of them have breeder directories.
 

Similar threads

M
    • Sad
4 week old chicks - unknown breed, male or female?
Replies
8
Views
934
Galaxy_rules
Galaxy_rules
W
Dominant Pea Comb? Is this a pea comb? Ameraucana x leghorn
Replies
7
Views
777
FunClucks
FunClucks
M
Lonely year old bantom rooster "Is he protecting the baby chicks?"
Replies
8
Views
1K
Majestic
M
PantherWaltz
Male or Female Golden Comet Chick?
Replies
3
Views
2K
PantherWaltz
PantherWaltz
M
    • Like
Male guinea making a female call?
Replies
3
Views
1K
R2elk
R2elk

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom