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These guys are cute! Not only cute, but friendly. I adore our Ameraucana chicken breeds. They are by far, the friendliest chicken breeds I have had the pleasure to own. They have those little cheeks you want to pinch each side and just kiss!
Ameraucanas have been confused on a consistent basis with the Easter Eggers. I love our Easter Eggers as well, but the most important difference is found in their offspring. The Easter Egger offspring could end up being any multitude of colors. The Ameraucana will bear the same colors as the parents. If you breed Lavender Ameraucana to a Lavender Ameraucana you will get a Lavender, or a White to a White and get a White Ameraucana. But with the Easter Egger you never know, but they are always gorgeous!
Both breeds carry the blue gene, which is how you get the blue eggs. The Ameraucana can also be breed to a French Black Copper Maran and this is how you get the Olive Egger which bears the olive colored eggs.
The Ameraucana, Easter Egger, and Olive Egger all have the whiskers instead of the wattles. This is the main quality I love about the blue egg layer species, is the cute fluffy cheeks. They are beautiful.
Their eggs are sought after by the folks looking to make their egg basket a bit more colorful. By adding the blue eggs to the basket gives eggs an aesthetic appeal. The taste is the same as with all eggs, it depends on what the hen is eating which determines how delicious the eggs are. Taste is not different because of the color of the egg, but by whether the hens are eating a healthy free range of food.
The pure breed of Ameraucana are used frequently for poultry shows, and the breed is still fairly a rare breed in America, even though they originated in the USA in 1970 from a breed called the Araucana.
I have enjoyed owning both the Ameraucanas, and the Easter Eggers. They have been my most beloved pets as well as egg layers. Egg collection time with these blue egg layer breeds are fun. My 7 year old grandson especially enjoys collecting the colorful eggs as if going Easter Egg hunt. I highly recommend either of these breeds of chickens for families with children.
See the Ameraucana Breeders website for more information: http://ameraucanabreedersclub.org/history.html