Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[mattmaran]

are my chickens americauna or Easter riggers? The breeder I got them from said they were

 

[junebuggena]

are my chickens americauna or Easter riggers? The breeder I got them from said they were

Easter Eggers.

 

[mattmaran]

That is what I thought. Good to know for sure.

 

[scflock]

That is what I thought. Good to know for sure.

Easter Eggers are beautiful birds in their own right. The easiest way to tell they are EEs and not AMs is the wide mix of colors. AMs breed true, meaning the offspring look like the parents. EEs throw a range of different colors, and that is what I love about them. They aren't for show, but they are pretty birds that will add some color to your egg basket

 

[Adorkable]

Hi, I have a few questions for you all. I have a pair of Blue Ameraucanas and I was wondering if they are worth breeding. I would really be interested in breeding them, but I will only do so if they are close to the standard. I was wondering if some of you could take a look at my pair and my hens egg color and let me know what you all think.

I stared out with 5 Ameraucana chicks from a local breeder. I ended up with 1 hen and 5 cocks. I kept the hen and 2 of the cocks.



This is my cock when he was a cockerel - the one on the right, not the leaky blue on the left. I used the leaky one to make some Easter Eggers and Olive Eggers.


This is my cock bird today. He is moulting so not in the best shape.He seems to have nice muffs and a decent beard. Not sure about his type. I was struggling to try and get a nice photo of him so I appologize and will attempt to get more pictures if necessary.




These are his legs and feet. I think he has too much webbing on his feet. Does he? Is this something that can be bred out fairly easily if my hen has better webbing than him?




This is her when she was younger before she started laying. She isn't very friendly and is very skittish and wary of me. She was not hatched here so I'm hoping if I hatch out babies they will not be this way. From my experience the chicks that I hatch here tend to be much calmer and not very skittish than when I get day olds that were hatched elsewhere. Some of them have even been really friendly. Her tail isn't usually held this high.


This is her now. She isn't in the best shape at the moment... She's moulting and has been free ranging so some of her feathers are sun bleached. I had a feather picker that left all my bearded girls beardless, but I think her tail (well the feathers she has left of her tail) looks a bit better in this picture and as you can see her new feathers are coming in so you can see her color. I'm pretty sure I got rid of my feather picker.



This is her egg in the sun. Sorry about the farmgirl manicure.


This is her egg on the bottom in natural lighting.


Sorry for all the newbie questions, but I would like to begin breeding them, however I won't breed them if I feel like I'm doing a disservice to the breed.

 

[junebuggena]

They are pretty, but they have too much 'chocolate' to meet breed standard. If you really want to improve the breed, and keep to standard, these birds should not be used.

 

[Adorkable]

They are pretty, but they have too much 'chocolate' to meet breed standard. If you really want to improve the breed, and keep to standard, these birds should not be used.

I'm not sure what is or where they have chocolate. Can you explain a bit about that please. Thanks for the response!

 

[junebuggena]

It's the brown tint that they have. Blues are supposed to be, genetically, a solid black bird with a single dilute gene. There should not be any trace of any other color anywhere on the bird.

 

[Adorkable]

It's the brown tint that they have. Blues are supposed to be, genetically, a solid black bird with a single dilute gene. There should not be any trace of any other color anywhere on the bird.

Are you referring to the brown color on the female? She is badly sun bleached from free ranging if that's what you mean. My hen was that brown color all over until she lost some feathers and grew in new ones. I don't really see a chocolate color on them other than that or are you referring to something else that I may not be seeing?

 

[junebuggena]

I can see brown/red in his feathers in this shot.



And you can see the brownish feathers on her neck and very slightly on her wings in this shot.

And it only got worse as she got older. That's not because of the sun or dirt. She's just not solid blue.

If your goal is to breed show quality blue Ameraucana, these two should not be part of your breeding program.