Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[samouw]

samouw,
You should test mate all you cock birds for sure to a bird that has no muffs and beards. You can use any breed hen to do this. One hen to one cock bird and hatch at least 10 eggs. This will expose the ones that are only carrying one gene for muffs and beards and give you at least a cock bird that is pure to use. You can do the same with the hens but if you have 10 hens it would be a large task to do so.

Hi Shaffer and thank you for your response. I do know how to test the genetics - I just wanted to make sure I had it correct

 

[RoosterLew]

Does the Mb gene have a dosing effect?

 

[DMRippy]

Thanks DMRippy! Tradition is usually rooted in reason...doing things "the old way" often avoids unforeseen problems. Would you mind telling me the basic differences...not trying to start any debates, just trying to learn.

I don't know all the differences..... and you will hear that black is black is black but there are some genes under there you can't see....... Blues should have lacing, plus the silver vs gold thing. They say the genes are different and i will take the old timers word for it.

 

[MrsBachbach]

I could easily be mistaken   Chicken color genetics is so much more complicated than any other species I've dealt with and I still need to learn so much. 

I have some blacks which are from black to black for a number of generations...one chick had some gold leakage and they all have the beetle green sheen.  I've only kept the pullets for their eggs.  My blues and splashes are from Paul Smith.  I'm hoping to breed blue to blue to have blacks I might be able to use for BBS.  I thought I read on the ABC forum that those blacks might have the purple sheen...green being red/gold based and purple being NOT red/gold based and probably assumed silver.  My impression was the learned folks there didn't think it mattered much for BBS and that black prob isn't needed to keep lacing anyway but it is all so new to me.  Would love to learn anything you wouldn't mind teaching me!

According to this site, the purple or green sheen is due to feather structure:

Some perceived feather colors actually are due to the structure of the feather rather than to pigmentation. That is, the purple and beetle green sheens seen in some poultry are due to the way the feather structures reflect light rather than to the presence of pigments.[/I

https://www.extension.org/pages/653...or-small-and-backyard-flocks:-an-introduction

 

[hotlipshens]

Thanks again DMRippy. My blacks are from a local breeder who also has lavs but doesn't show. I'm smitten with all my ams but hope to only breed a few of the best I have and it is obvious even to a newb like me that my Smith chicks have great breed type.

 

[hotlipshens]

Fascinating Mrs BachBach - thanks! All my ams seem much slower to feather than my orps and wellies which helps not at all with the gender guessing game

 

[dstokely]

Fascinating Mrs BachBach - thanks! All my ams seem much slower to feather than my orps and wellies which helps not at all with the gender guessing game

Out of my 15 P. Smith chicks, I have 5 definite males. I am still questioning one black one, but I am afraid it will be a hen. I really needed a black cockerel, but instead I have 3 blues, 1 blue wheaten and 1 lavender. I am happy with all of them, but, I did not need the 3 blues. As they get older, I will be asking opinions of the blues so I can decide which cockerel to keep. They are 16 weeks and no one is crowing yet.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

Out of my 15 P. Smith chicks, I have 5 definite males.  I am still questioning one black one, but I am afraid it will be a hen.  I really needed a black cockerel, but instead I have 3 blues, 1 blue wheaten and 1 lavender.  I am happy with all of them, but, I did not need the 3 blues.  As they get older, I will be asking opinions of the blues so I can decide which cockerel to keep.  They are 16 weeks and no one is crowing yet.

I have wanted a black hen so bad. Never had one. I either hatch no blacks or they all turn out to be males. Even the ones other people pick out to send to me I can get just one Pullet.

Just hope for a hen-I always gets rooster when I do that!

 

[hotlipshens]

LOL ccccchickens! DStokely I wish I had your problem...out of 5 Smith blues, only 1 is looking like a pullet...2 blue cockerals would be nice but not 4 or 5. Mine are just about 8 weeks - when is the best time to evaluate them?

 

[dstokely]

LOL ccccchickens! DStokely I wish I had your problem...out of 5 Smith blues, only 1 is looking like a pullet...2 blue cockerals would be nice but not 4 or 5. Mine are just about 8 weeks - when is the best time to evaluate them?

I thought I would wait until they were filled out more. Maybe another month or so. Surely I will know by then if I have a black cockerel, not three hens. I am not complaining about my pullet to cockerel ratio, I just wanted one black cockerel. I do have three beautiful splash hens, a beautiful wheaten hen...not sure if she is blue, wheaten or splash wheaten at this point. I have a pretty lavender pullet and two pretty blue ones. I really have no reason to be pining for one I do not have.