Ameraucana Fact or Fiction?

[SandyM]

Saw this on Facebook and I'm wondering how true this is. For someone like me who probably couldn't tell an Ameraucana from an EE it could be useful information in the future.
I think I bought Ameraucana chicks, but I could of bought EE's. I honestly don't know any different.

[thegawd]

the truth is it goes by the SOP and the SOP dosent usually touch on eggs... I dont know about that... I have ee's I made and ameraucanas but I don't look inside the egg.... hmmm

[WLLady]

ha ha. NO. not true. An easter egger with blue eggs will have blue inside as well, regardless of whether it is an ee or an ameraucana.
A GREEN laying ee will have blue inside and green outside. the blue pigment is deposited throughout the shell. the brown is painted over the top.

a true ameraucana go by SOP. breeds true. slate legs, beard and muffs. there are a handful of recognized colours. easter eggers are birds that are crosses etc that lay blue or green. ameraucana should only lay blue. not green. there is an ameraucana club website, worth looking up, it has all the SOPs and recognized colours on their site.

i'll see if i have any spare eggs i can crack....

[WLLady]

Left ee. Middle wheaten ameraucana. Right brown

See the left 2 are same blue inside while one is green outside? Then brown is white inside. Green egg is blue inside. Not white.

[TomK]

Okay...i learned something today..worth waking up for...lol

[kenya]

I'll often sell ameraucana's as Easter eggers if they are poorer representatives, meaning a little off colour, poor muffs that kind of thing, they will still lay blue eggs and are probably a lot better representatives of the ameraucana breed than a lot of people sell. When I sell older birds as ameraucana I want them to be excellent representatives according to the standard of perfection. You will still the odd one that will lay a minty blue egg, a blue egg is not the only criteria for ameraucana's.

[SandyM]

Thanks. Clear as mud! Just kidding.

So I'll just stick to telling everyone I have small dinosaurs that lay eggs

[thegawd]

so what I gather from that information is someone prolly selling ees as ameraucanas or aracaunas. because there is absolutely no research that would conclude that LOL.

[WLLady]

LOL....yep, dinosaurs. (at least between 5 and 14 weeks they sure look like it too!) Lots of people sell ees as ameraucanas, or americanas. best to know the chick down colour and the SOP for adult colours so you can make an informed decision on buying them, or buy from a reputable breeder.

In a white shelled egg, the entire shell is white. There's no blue or brown genes to give blue or brown. it's white all the way through.

The blue pigment is oocyan (o gene locus) if i remember correctly and is a bile mineral that is blue in colour. it is laid down in the shell as the shell is being deposited around the yolk and albumin. Since it is throughout the shell, both the inside and outside (and middle) of the shell is blue pigmented.
Since it's a mineral compound it is incorporated with the calcium etc in the shell it is located THROUGHOUT the entire shell. So a blue egg, or an egg from a hen carrying a blue gene will be blue throughout.

Next is the brown-protophyrin which is derived from blood heme. It is laid down over the shell. If you have a simple brown layer, the brown is painted over the white AFTER the shell has been formed. Can't paint the inside of a sealed container-so the brown is only on the outside. so a brown egg is white inside, and brown outside.

Blue+brown=green....blue is throughout the shell, while brown is painted over it, making us see green on the outside, but the shell is blue inside, because the brown cannot be painted on the inside of the shell.

Hope this is a little clearer.....
So any blue or green layer will be blue inside the egg.
Any white layer will be white inside the egg
Any brown layer will be white inside the egg and brown outside.

If you want to have fun (well, a little anyways) take a freshly laid brown egg (still warm) and put it under the tap and use a scrubbie brush....the brown will come off leaving a white shelled egg. Then take a freshly laid green egg, do the same and you'll get a blue egg when the brown pigment washes off. ;-P

then the other cool science trick for kids is to take the eggs and put them in vinegar overnight and leach all the mineral out of the shells and see what they feel like the next morning. LOL-totally unrelated to colour.

[SandyM]

If I recall the shell disappears. Correct?

I didn't know the pigment could be washed off. Very interesting.

If you rub blue off you get?