Questions about Ameraucanas/Easter Eggers.

[Rachel]

I have had questions about this "breed" for about a year now. Since this has become a recent topic of discussion it seemed like a good time to post a separate thread. First off, some clarification. Araucanas are a blue-egg laying bird native to South America. They have distinct feathers on their cheeks (not to be confused with the little muff feathers on most of our green-egg laying birds that give them the appearance of puffy cheeks) and are generally completely without tail feathers. These are very rare, you must get them or their eggs from a breeder.

Ameraucana/Americaunas are a separate breed which has distinct characteristics recognized by The Standard (this is the book that lists all characteristics that each breed should have, a breeders roadmap if you will). The Ameraucana is a true breed that was derived from the Araucana and lays eggs that are blue, green. It is unlikely that even this is what most of us have, which brings us to...

The Easter Egger. Because the blue egg gene is dominant, a variety of crosses will produce birds that lay green eggs. Blue and green are not the same. Basically, green eggs seem to be from birds carrying a blue egg gene and a brown egg gene and blue eggs can be from a blue X blue cross or a blue X white cross. Without getting into the complicated genetics here there are many ways to make a mutt bird lay a blue or green egg, and crossing blue egg layers with other better laying breeds seems like a logical idea to improve the performance of a blue/green egg layer. Likely what hatcheries are going for. This Easter Egger is the bird that most of us probably have. It can be confusing because most hatcheries do not make these distinctions-- until recently even Murray McMurray listed it's easter egger chickens as Araucanas and only recently changed it to Araucana/Americana and then it uses "Easter Egger" in the description of the breed(!).

Now here is my question. In all or most other animals, mutts seem to be stronger. Why then, with this chicken mutt do these birds tend to be weaker? I don't think it's simply the mutt factor, that doesn't really make sense as plenty of people have entire flocks of healthy 'barnyard birds' that are mixes of who knows what. My only conclusion is that it is something tied to the blue-egg gene. Because most Easter Eggers are probably only carrying a blue egg gene from one parent rather than both like the true Araucanas, maybe something in that can explain why the wild birds seem to be successful where the Easter eggers are more prone to weakness?

Several of you (and myself) have had early deaths from this breed. Could it be something that the heat triggers in this 'breed' that makes us more prone to it than other regions? It seems to be not just heat stroke deaths, but deaths that also relate to reproductive issues.
I want to get to the bottom of this!! Anyone feel like researching? ;)

[Rachel]

Folks, there are quite a few off-topic messages here. A friendly reminder to stay on topic so everyone can benefit from the discussions. Thanks!

[toni sergent]

Chris back to the treadle feeder, almost constructed I have bantams what is the best way to use weights on the pedal for them to open it ??? Thanks Toni Sergent

[dj griffith]

Great information! Anyone have information on gathering pieces for a cholla fence?

[Suze Scott]

For what it's worth, the pigment that causes blue eggshells is a byproduct of bile.
From the Poultry Genetics for the Non-Professional website: http://kippenjungle.nl/sellers/page2.html#t8, "The blue eggshell pigment, oocyanin, is a byproduct of bile formation and is present throughout the eggshell."

There has been speculation as to whether specific feeds will enhance or dilute blue eggshell colouring.

[Rachel]

I had read that as well. I don't quite understand how that works with the chickens but works differently with quail. I would assume it's the same pigment, yet some of my quail lay eggs that are bright blue on the inside, others lay eggs that are cream on the inside. The outside of all of them are cream with brown spots... any ideas?

[Suze Scott]

Not really, I am not very conversant with the genetics of other species. I'd suggest posting on The-Coop and asking. Several of the regular participants are well versed in the genetics of other species as well. You might also look through http://kippenjungle.nl/Overzicht.htm#introEN and see if Henk has any information on the types of quail you keep; he does have some information on buttons and japanese, but I am not very knowledgeable about quail at all. Don't get discouraged by the Dutch language (not German); each section is followed by an English translation of the same material.

[Suze Scott]

This is my bantam silver duckwing araucana, Harmony:
[img]http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/20590_imgp1386--cropp...[/img]

[Becky]

I raised two EEs from Ideal last year. Kept one, gave one to my sister.

Mine died over the summer at about 7 months old while I was out of town. My sister's has had to be brought in the house a couple of times to save it from the heat. (She lives in Tucson)
My EE never developed great laying habits and was obsessed with dust-bathing from the time it was a small chick.
My sister's "talks" constantly.

I hope you(we) get this figured out" because I like their eggs and would like to have one again, but at this time I decided to avoid the EEs. I don't have a lot of chickens and when we lose one it directly effects the egg to family member ratio. :-)

[Rachel]

I've given the example of one bird, Moxie, who laid a long partially hardened egg that was shaped like a question mark, never laid again and died about a month thereafter. My guess on this was either internal laying due to the some trauma that was caused by the weird egg, or an underlying condition that caused both the weird egg and her death.

I'll give another example of Roxie (and no I don't make a habit of rhyming chicken names), she's a 4 year old Easter Egger that has never had any troubles laying and she still lays a few eggs per week for me in the nice parts of the year. She is second in command of the flock and has no problems enforcing that daily. However at least once a year for as long as I've had her, I've found her so sick that I thought she was going to die, and I've been able to revive her in about 36-48 hours with special treatment. For the sake of brevity- coccidia and worms were both ruled out. This seems to be some other type of issue and I've noticed that others have similar stories.

[Suze Scott]

The British standard for araucanas requires both tufts and muffs/beard. I am not certain whether rumpless birds are disqualified or allowed. Rumplessness is associated with lower fertility.