Ameraucana chicks? CAN ANYONE IDENTIFY THIS?

[ddschicks]

Hello,
so I ordered chicks from IDEAL poultry and they came in today. I had four ameraucanas, two welsummers, and two barred rocks. The barred rocks are black, and therefore easy to identify, and the welsummers are lighter brown so they also stand out. I assumed the other four were my ameraucanas. One, however, does not look like the other chicks and it is much darker. Is it the wrong breed, wrong gender, or just an EE?

Any ideas? does anyone else have pictures of ameraucanas and how they changed from chick to hen?

 

[ddschicks]

...my pictures did not work im guessing? how do you upload a photo on here? I googled how to make an image into a URL and a couple places said to use tinypic.com but I guess that doesn't work on here? is there an easier way to post pics?

 

[ChickenCowboy02]

Click "upload a file" It's near "post reply" I had trouble with that too!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Ameraucana from Ideal are going to be Easter Eggers -- because Easter Eggers are mixed breed birds there is often a great variance in their appearance as chicks and adults. The irony being that even in their description of the breed the give a nod to the often used misrepresentation of "Araucana" but then go on to blow the "breed description" of Ameraucana that they claim their birds to be:

Ameraucanas, known as the "Easter Egg Breed", are a multicolored breed. They have beards, muffs and a normal tail with a tail head. They are often incorrectly called Araucanas, which have ear tuffs, are rumpless, and do not have a tail head which gives them a bunny tail appearance. Most of the chicks sold as Araucanas are really Ameraucanas, which are excellent, efficient producers of large eggs of many colors and shades including blue and green.

 

[wishing4wings]

If they are selling Ameraucanas without a specific color designated, then they are probably Easter Eggers (EEs) which are a hatchery version of Ams and tend to be very good layers. EEs can be any color, but usually have green legs. Look carefully at the faces. EEs usually have big puffy cheeks!

Oops, looks like Mare beat me to it!

 

[ddschicks]

well here are the pictures anyway. What is weird is that three of them are colored the same but one is different... oh well.

 

[wishing4wings]

They sure are cute. A brown chimpmunk pattern is very common, but they really can be just about any color. Depends on what the hatchery is producing. I have one from last year that is orange and white. The Welsummers I have gotten have been dark brown chipmunk as well.

 

[BYCDebiD]

Of 9 so far (one hatchery and 3 separate occasions) zero have looked alike as adults. The gal made an effort to choose two that didn't look like my other chicks and she couldn't have made it any easier to tell them apart! The only thing they have in common is both have very long tails. The genetic diversity is amazing. The two in the current group (baby pic above) are still changing but:

And

 

[aart]

EE's can be different crosses, thus their slight differences as chicks.
EE and wellie both are chipmunk but legs color should tell the tale...
...wellie have yellow legs, EE have greenish/slateish

 

[Veggan]

well here are the pictures anyway. What is weird is that three of them are colored the same but one is different... oh well.

Adorable!!! Easter Eggers (hatchery "Ameraucanas") come in all colors. This website shows some great examples of the variety: http://www.plumjam.com/poultry/breeds/ee-colors.cfm So I bet that baby of yours is still an EE like the rest of them!