WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE BREED? Where and how much can they be purchased for?

There are 3 types of chicken that lay green & blue eggs: Araucanas, Ameraucanas, & "Easter Egg Chickens". Araucanas are pretty rare, they are rumpless (they have no tail), & have tufts of feathers on their heads. Ameraucanas are a lot more common, have tails and may or may not have feather tufts. Easter Egg Chickens are any crossbreed of either of the former that lays blue, green, or pinkish eggs.
You can get Ameraucanas ( they are listed as Araucanas) from Murray McMurray Hatchery in Iowa. Their on-line catalog is at www.mcmurrayhatchery.com. Standards are $1.85 each st. run, $2.49 each for pullets (females), $1.27 each for cockerels (males). Bantams are only sold st. run (not sexed) & are $2.69 each.

Araucanas come from South America and they have the distinction of laying a blue shelled egg. To show the birds they must have tufts, rumpless and a pea comb. They do not breed true, so many chicks will not have tufts but the hens with clean head will be mated to a tufted, rumpless cocks. The rumpless condition tends to be easy to achieve and is not letal gene. The tufts are skin projections that are feathered placed near the ear. This trait is hard to achieve some test results indicate only one fourth will be tufted maybe less. Most breeder will not sell eggs because of the low hatch rate but will sell adult birds.
You can get a breeder guide
for 10.00 from
Araucana Club
7403 Arachibald Ave.
Rancho Cucamonga Ca 91730

Green and blue eggs are from Araucana crosses. "Easter Egg Chickens" are mutts that have a percentage of Araucana blood. They are not a breed, but a sales pitch found in hatchery catalogs. To be a breed, a line of chickens must have stable and identifiable (and unique) traits and color patterns, and "Easter Egg" chickens come in the full range of shapes and sizes.

I would like to add one thing. I have had Americaunas
for several years now, most Americaunas have steel grey
(almost grey-greenish) legs instead of the yellow legs
most chickens have.

I am thinking it is a stronger bloodline maybe???

All of my Americaunas have tufts. Although some of my
new chicks do not. They also do not have the steel
grey legs, so maybe they are not Americaunas as
promised! We will see when they start l

I hope the following will descibe the difference between tufts and muffs.
The ear tuft is composed of a group of feathers which grow from a tab of skin just at or below the ear orifice. The skin structure is called pedicle but it must be present if there is to be an ear tuft as this trait is a skin structure and not a feather mutation as are muffs and beards--this accounts for the fact that tuft feathers are quite different from those of the muffs and bears. The tuft is formed by the stiff feathers growing from it. The tufts can usually be seen at hatching. Difference in the location and size and shape of the pedicle or skin struture results in considerable variation in the formation of the ear tuft itself. Some common type of ear tufts are backswept, frontswept, upright or verticle, rosette, horizontal and a tuft that hang down like a earring