About Americana Blue Egger Hens

The American Poultry Association, APA for short, does not recognize Americana chickens as a distinct breed. Many people, including hatcheries, use the term Americana to refer to blue and green egg laying chickens. These birds include the APA-recognized Ameraucana and Araucana breeds, as well as the various mixed-breed Easter egger chickens. APA recognition does not always concern backyard chicken owners, but chicken owners who enter their birds in competitions enter by APA breed categories. Birds that do not conform to the breed standards of the category entered in, get disqualified.

  1. Blue Egger History

    • Before the Spanish arrived in South America, the native people of Chile raised blue egg laying chickens called Collonca. Colloncas sometimes interbred with the Chilean brown egg laying, tufted eared Quetro chickens of the time. The genetic combination of the Colloncas and Quetros led to the development of a blue egg layer with tufted ears. When the Spanish invaded Chile, they encountered these tufted blue egg layers and brought some of them back to Europe. In the late 1920s, people in the United States began to learn about and become interested in breeding the blue egg layers that had originated in South America. Breeders in the United States developed many lines of blue egg layers with a wide variety of physical traits. Some of these birds became the APA-recognized Araucana breed, some became the APA-recognized Ameraucana breed, and some are still considered unrecognized mixed breed blue eggers, commonly called Easter eggers.

    Ameraucanas

    • The APA recognized the Ameraucana breed in 1984 after much hard work by several breeders. The APA Standards of Perfection require Ameraucanas physical traits to include red eyes, red earlobes, muffs, beards, pea-type combs, blue or black legs and medium tails and hens must lay blue eggs. APA-recognized color varieties are black, blue, blue Wheaten, brown red, buff, silver, Wheaten and white. Standard-size Ameraucanas mature between 5 and7 pounds, while Bantam Ameraucanas mature between 1 1/2 and 2 pounds. People who prefer Ameraucanas note that their mild temperaments, winter hardiness and consistent laying over a long season make them easy chickens to keep.

    Araucanas

    • The APA recognized the Araucana breed in 1976. The breed description requires the following characteristics: pea combs, tufted ears, no tail and the hens must lay blue eggs. Ear tufts can occur in a variety of different forms, but often they appear as tufts of feathers on one or both sides of the bird's head or neck. The ear tuft trait is linked to the Araucana lethal allele. When an Araucana inherits the ear tuft trait from both parents, the unhatched chick dies. Recognized color varieties are black, black red, golden duckwing, silver duckwing and white. People keep Araucanas as laying birds and as meat birds.

    Easter Eggers

    • Blue chicken eggs have pale blue or green outer shells.

      Easter eggers come from a mix of genetic backgrounds and exhibit a wide variety of different characteristics, including feather color, temperament and hardiness. Most blue egg layers have pea-style combs, because the pea comb trait is linked with the blue egg laying trait. All blue egger hens not classified as an APA-recognized breed fall into the Easter egger category. Sometimes hatcheries market Easter eggers as Americanas, Ameraucanas or Araucanas, but provide a note explaining that they are not considered competition stock. A flock of these birds will lay a combination of pink, green, blue, copper and brown eggs, because they come from mixed stock.