Ameraucanas are my Favorite True Blue Breed to use in Olive Egger Breeding Programs

Ameraucanas have become my favorite breed to use in Olive Egger Breeding programs - and likely one of my favorite breeds over all.

Ameraucaunas (alongside Cream Legbars) are renowned by colored egg breeders because of their homozygous Blue Egg genes - meaning they carry two copies of those blue egg genes and are guaranteed to pass one of those genes down to offspring. They also always pass down those adorable muffs and pea comb in that first generation

It’s common for production markets like feed stores, hatcheries and backyard breeders to mistakenly refer to Easter eggers as Ameraucanas. To give those manufacturers the benefit of the doubt, their mislabeling could be due to the fact that the birds theyre referring to also have that Ameraucana Muff and comb. But this is simply because Ameracaunas are used so frequently in egg color projects acrossed the board.

What separates Olive Eggers from Easter Eggers is the mindfulness of choice of birds used to create the stock - and those homozygous blue egg genes.

First Generation Olives should originate from a Marans (or welsummer or barnevelder - but we want the darkest brown genetics available) and a Homozygous Blue layer (Legbar or Ameraucana). To keep these Olive Lines “Olive”, from that F1 generation we breed back either to another Olive, Marans or True Blue Layer. When we stay within this breeding that’s how we get our later generations of Olive Eggers.
There are too many potential unknown variations in Easter Eggers for them to be considered for use within Olive Breeding Projects.

If you’re concerned about whether your bird is an Easter Egger or an Ameraucana - knowing the SOP for Ameraucanas is the solution. It will be helpful to know some information that the APA has provided us about the Standards for Ameraucanas.

 Recognized Ameraucana colors include Black, Blue, Splash, Blue Wheaten, Buff, Brown Red, Self Blue (Lavender), Silver, Wheaton, and White. Breed traits include a pea comb, full tails, muffs and beards, black legs, no ear tuffs, and white skin. Self Blue or Lavender is a newer recognized color variety and was only recognized in 2020 by the APA

***Edited to say that Splash had also been approved as an accepted color variety of Ameraucana