Easter Eggers-What breeds do YOU prefer to cross your Ameraucanas with?

[Jennsbirds]

Would there be any advantage when trying to promote the blue egg gene along with good egg production to start with a true Ameraucana rather than using EE's? Barnyard EE's are alot cheaper than buying a true Ameraucana and there seams to be lots of genetic diversity out there.

I'm trying to find a way to do that. I want to breed a blue Ameracauna to a Wyandotte and an Austra, but my mom does not want a roo. I'm looking for either someone with a roo that carries the blue egg gene and the right colors (black, white, or both) for feathers or who will by my roo and is willing to stud him to my hens later.

 

[metalbone]

So i just happened across this thread as I was curious what people were coming out with with crosses. I run all Buff Orpingtons for my main layers. I have some residual other types but only 3 non BO layers. I also have one Americauna Rooster that I got as a prize from McMurray Hatcheries.

I decided a while back to start hatching my own rather than buying just because it was something interesting to do. My original rooster wasn't anything special but he was very pretty and his offspring were pretty if not a little small. SO when i got the Americauna I was like Hey this should be interesting. I live in an area that is largely populated by foxes coyotes and hawks so keeping chickens is an inherently difficult process. I tend to provide more food for the wild life than I would like but part of the natural process I suppose.

Anyways I digress. After getting the Americauna I began wondering, the BO's lay great eggs in my opinion and from what I have read of the Americauna so do they. I am more crossing them out of curiosity than anything else. Unfortunately out of the 15 AM/BO crosses I have only two left. It was interesting to see how different they all were though. Some had really puffy beards while others had none, some were white, some were gold like the BO with some speckling.

From what I saw from the 15 original hatchlings they are going to be beautiful birds. Beauty aside though I am curious to see how the eggs turn out as well as the size of the birds as I do cull the roosters for the freezer.

Here are the two remaining chicks out of the original 15 crosses. They are currently 4 months.






Excuse the tail feather or rather the lack there of. PapaRoo was recently in a tussle with a fox. He won sort of sacrificing his beautiful tail feathers. Any way he is papa and the two pics above him are his 4 month old offspring. The gold doesn't seem to have the speckling, but has small sideburns. The white has speckling but no beard or sideburns.

I am not scientific by any means but I though I would share my musings and such. I have 9 more being sat on currently so I am curious how they will turn out. Broody hens make the best incubators.

 

[foghorn8ladies]

I have an Ameraucana, Lucy, which she lays blue, green and sometimes pale pink eggs. The daddy is a Buff, Big Foot. Now I have Rodan, my husbands name, hoping to be a girl. "She" is 3 months old, how can I tell if it is a girl and what colored eggs will I get?. Rodan is buff with black on "her" tail tips, very small cone and no waddles.

 

[draye]

I have an Ameraucana, Lucy, which she lays blue, green and sometimes pale pink eggs. The daddy is a Buff, Big Foot. Now I have Rodan, my husbands name, hoping to be a girl. "She" is 3 months old, how can I tell if it is a girl and what colored eggs will I get?. Rodan is buff with black on "her" tail tips, very small cone and no waddles.

First off a hen will only lay one color egg her whole life. so all three colors are not coming from her.
Color of a chikcen will not tell you what color egg a hen will lay. You'll just have to wait and see what color she lays all depends on the cross done to prioduce her and which genes she inheirited from the parents.

 

[ajesus92]

I'm sorry to barge in here, but I wanted to know if someone could help me identify if my hen is a cross breed or just a pure breed Ameraucana. I have look up the breed, but haven't found not one that look like mine!

 

[draye]

I'm sorry to barge in here, but I wanted to know if someone could help me identify if my hen is a cross breed or just a pure breed Ameraucana. I have look up the breed, but haven't found not one that look like mine!

Not positive but looks to be some kind of barred colored chicken. Very pretty.

 

[jlhowland]

My broody hen has just hatched out 4 leghorn/AM crosses. Sire is AM and hen is WL. I am so excited to watch them develop and see how they turn out! I'm most hopefully that the broody's own egg will hatch. She's a bantam Buff Brahma crossed with the AM roo. I bet that bird would look awesome. And maybe the brahma would mellow out some the AM traits such as "spazoid!"

 

[desertfeathers]

Has anyone tried breeding the Amarauna with a Milie Flure breed color? Would like to learn how to breed this to an Ameraucana color eventually.

 

[desertfeathers]

Ridgerunner,
Those are the colors of my OE roos that came from White AM roo over FBCM hen. And all the hens were black. Kind of bummed as I was hoping for some with more color to them.

 

[farmhand]

I have two EE's from Belt hatchery, same lot of 200 birds from the feed store. One lays green eggs which I'm breeding with a splash copper Marans. The other lays a cream egg. Would a cross with a Cream Legbar result in green or blue eggs? Or any other creative crossing ideas with a cream EE egg? The cream egg is lighter than the picture looks.

Also if I use my Cream Legbar over the green egg hen, should the results be a darker green?