Ameraucana Projects Thread

[gonehencrazy]

Need some help as to what this guy is. I'm still hoping he isn't a cockerel. I'm struggling to find pictures online that look similar. I have a wheaten cockerel for sure in with this one

 

[Saris]

Need some help as to what this guy is. I'm still hoping he isn't a cockerel. I'm struggling to find pictures online that look similar. I have a wheaten cockerel for sure in with this one

Looks like a blue wheaten cockerel.

 

[Braxton Brigade]

Does anyone on here know if any of the hatcheries have any true Ameraucana chicks? I can't find any breeders around my area and would have to ship from hatchery, but I have heard they are all actually Easter eggers

What state are you in? I can find a breeder that ships and or one that is even within your state.

 

[sherahart]

Here is a project oddity. Came out of some buff. She is 2 years old now. Finally figured out what could be done to produce something similar. She carries dominant white so the white areas would be black without the white. She could be bred to brown red to produce a red pyle version of brown red. No name for that not that I have found. So no matter which way you go a new name is in order. This is one of those projects that may go nowhere It would be nice to have another color in the brown red family. Of course there is birchen that I have tinkered with.

Jerryse, did you breed her and decide on a project color name? I love the laced projects and started black gold already with help from Lyne Peterson. I have not found any brown red Ams so am using EEs. The roo is Ameraucana BBS stock, black but with gold hackles from a farm where they don't seem to cull sports. The hens are local EEs. Then I got Buffy, pictured here. On the Ameraucana project page of Facebook, I was told she is an EE and that this isn't lace. I knew she is an EE because of her green legs but I thought this was lace although not as defined as your hen's. Her 6 sisters are either Super Blues (leghorn x Ameraucana) or Paints. Each has a few black spots, not many. All but 2 have slate or black legs. The person I bought them from thinks they are splash wheatens and that she is Wheaten Ameraucana from a Blue Wheaten roo over Wheaten Ams. They do have a blue red EE roo along with the Leghorn, if that helps explain her genetics. Her underside is cream, not grayish, so I think she is at least heterozygous wheaten.

I am studying the genetics but still get confused. I am not sure if I should put her in the black gold project or put her with a lavender Am roo or a blue Am roo. I would be happy whatever color lace I get except pumpkin orange. In person, her faux-lace? is gold on cream. I think my lavender Am carries a blue gene too. At least I've gotten blue chicks from him and my white Araucana hen and from one of my EE hens.

I would appreciate advice from anybody to get better lacing without using Wyandottes. I want sweet personalities and no yellow or green legs. I wasn't exactly counting, but I think I hatched over 300 test chicks this year to figure out which of my hens (mostly production breeds) would work to make high production Calico or laced Ameraucanas. I got lots of false lace with the dot that looks like spangling, especially from my RIR hen, some barring from my Barred Rock hen, and some silver not sure what pattern from an EE hen, but very few gold and black or blue, not sure what pattern either. Only a few blues appear to have lace, just darker gray on light gray, more faux-lace?

I can post more chick/pullet pics if anyone is inclined to help.

 

[sherahart]

I know all sorts of people who bought EEs and raise them to POL only to be disappointed because they lay a brown egg. The draw of an EE is those blue or green eggs, so to feed a bird for months only to have yet another brown layer..well, I can understand the disappointment. I myself have a hatchery EE that lays a pale cream egg. I too only hatch from my blue eggs but I wanted the added reassurance of an AM roo so that my chicks will be blue layers. The second draw of EEs is that they are colorful and come in a vast array of color types. My chicks may be blue egg layers, but they are also only blue or black. That defeats the purpose of hatching EEs. I might as well just stick with BBS Ams and be done with it.

I hope you got a new rooster and kept working on it. I found out by using the chicken calculator that the reason I kept getting black chicks was that only a couple of colors produce anything but black using a lavender roo. Now my lavender roo is over the white leghorns, white Araucana, and white Am on the left in this pic, and I get white chicks with a little black, blues, and pale lavenders. For my black and other color production breed hens, I got this cull mottled rooster from a farm that had BBS Ams and lavenders. He's over my Calico project. Got some fun EE chicks from this group of hens, really cute mottled babies from the Ancona. Anyway, try the chicken calculator. Not completely accurate because I got some black chicks with red stripes from my lav roo x RIR hen, but way better than guessing.

 

[sherahart]

I certainly agree there is no more risk in any of those crosses than any other in terms of health issues. Genetic diversity is a good thing.

I personally like the crosses to the White Leghorn and the BSL hens. White Leghorns if I remember right might have genes that suppress certain brown egg shell genes. You very well could get blue or nearly blue shells from this cross. The Black Sex Link I like because you are likely to get nice productive Olive Eggers. Some of my most prolific egg layers were daughters of my Red Sex Link hen crosses to a blue egg shell gene rooster. You can use these crosses to see if your rooster have brown egg genes which he most likely does. You can also test to see if he is homozygous for Blue gene and Pea comb genes and even if he isn't you will know whether or not his single pea comb/blue egg gene is linked. All very useful information to determine future breeding! The Plumage color on the white Leghorn cross will most likely be White with spots of black. The BSL cross could be any plumage color, you could get some really beautiful birds.

Your daughter could learn a lot about Punnet squares and basic Mendelian genetics with these crosses, I think it's GREAT to encourage this kind of stuff in kids. I love science in particular biology and I wish my parents had gotten me into this at a younger age. I probably would have changed my profession if they had. You can also study his bearding genes with these crosses! Another cool thing you can test for is if you get color sex linked hens from your White Leghorn. If your leghorn carries the Barring gene and your rooster has dark colored legs - the Boys likely will hatch out with yellow or white skin legs and little to no black leakage in feathers while the girls hatch out with dark skinned legs are obvious black splotches in feathers. This could also be very useful to know!

That is great information on the barring gene in white Leghorns. Tomorrow I will check to see if the boys have light legs and fewer spots than the girls. And I am now going to put my pretty black with some gold BSL hen (child of Cuckoo Marans hen x blond hackled mystery breed rooster) in my black gold Ameraucana pen. She may be the mom of the few black gold chicks I hatched this spring. Until too late, I didn't know I could put eggs in bags or baskets during hatching and wasn't home to see which chicks came from which eggs. Thank you!

 

[jerryse]

Jerryse, did you breed her and decide on a project color name? I love the laced projects and started black gold already with help from Lyne Peterson. I have not found any brown red Ams so am using EEs. The roo is Ameraucana BBS stock, black but with gold hackles from a farm where they don't seem to cull sports. The hens are local EEs. Then I got Buffy, pictured here. On the Ameraucana project page of Facebook, I was told she is an EE and that this isn't lace. I knew she is an EE because of her green legs but I thought this was lace although not as defined as your hen's. Her 6 sisters are either Super Blues (leghorn x Ameraucana) or Paints. Each has a few black spots, not many. All but 2 have slate or black legs. The person I bought them from thinks they are splash wheatens and that she is Wheaten Ameraucana from a Blue Wheaten roo over Wheaten Ams. They do have a blue red EE roo along with the Leghorn, if that helps explain her genetics. Her underside is cream, not grayish, so I think she is at least heterozygous wheaten.

I am studying the genetics but still get confused. I am not sure if I should put her in the black gold project or put her with a lavender Am roo or a blue Am roo. I would be happy whatever color lace I get except pumpkin orange. In person, her faux-lace? is gold on cream. I think my lavender Am carries a blue gene too. At least I've gotten blue chicks from him and my white Araucana hen and from one of my EE hens.

I would appreciate advice from anybody to get better lacing without using Wyandottes. I want sweet personalities and no yellow or green legs. I wasn't exactly counting, but I think I hatched over 300 test chicks this year to figure out which of my hens (mostly production breeds) would work to make high production Calico or laced Ameraucanas. I got lots of false lace with the dot that looks like spangling, especially from my RIR hen, some barring from my Barred Rock hen, and some silver not sure what pattern from an EE hen, but very few gold and black or blue, not sure what pattern either. Only a few blues appear to have lace, just darker gray on light gray, more faux-lace?

I can post more chick/pullet pics if anyone is inclined to help.

A coon got that hen . I did send some of her eggs along with some brown reds to another breeder . I have no updates from him . Pay no attention to the ones who say it is not lacing . Big word game IMO . I am not convinced the pattern gene is involved at all . I made some Wyandotte crosses to test this idea . I saw no improvement in lacing on blue . I think it really needs to be based on birchen ER as in brown reds . Plus some yet to be identified modifiers or enhancers . I have seen no updates lately on the blue Andalusian crosses . Mike Gilbert did produce a line of blue bantams with excellent lacing . He used blue Sumatra as I recall to get the better lacing .

 

[sherahart]

I'm sorry about your hen. I think a coon was what got my only gold based blue Ameraucana hen the very first night I got her. We had company and I forgot to close a window, then found her body with head torn off. Ugh!

Please let me know if you get word back from the breeder who got your hen's eggs. I've been trying to find some birchen based LF without yellow skin. I did get some Gold Laced Polish but they are brown based with henny feathering and crests to breed out in addition to being the reverse of black gold Ameraucanas. They have black lace on gold as do Wyandottes and every other breed I've found, so I guess I have to use brown red Ameraucanas for black with gold lace-- if I can find some. Not so sure about red laced blue or the reverse. I know one local woman who already has f1 hens from the Wyandotte cross with a blue wheaten Ameraucana. Very pretty even if their legs are yellow.

I did find out in this very thread that faux-lacing is called edging if you can see through the feather edge. Haven't tried it yet but I did see a post on ABA? that laced blue Ams are birchen based so I hope I can find a few of those to work on blue/red.

Thank you very much!

 

[enggass]

Hello all, just finished moving and am getting back on my feet with chickens. I adopted a Silver Ameraucana Roo and a few hens. The hens need work as their Dad was Silver, but mom was Black Ameraucana-so they are 50/50. I plan to get a good flock of Silvers going, but a also looking for ideas for a project to start with my Silver Roo... Any ideas? I will be getting some Wheaten Marans eggs, but I really would like to do something other than EEs. Any of you working on interesting things with Silvers?
Thanks,
Steve

 

[Chicken5555]

I have a auction for cuckoo/lavender cuckoo hatching eggs on the 24 hour auction thread if anyone is interested .

Are you still working on your cuckoo project? How is the egg color coming along? Do you mind telling me some of your process? Thanks! Cuckoo chickens are so pretty.