Isabella coloring

[mufffin]

So I am totally new to this color. I have several Araucana young birds, just breeding age, that I raised up from day old chicks, was told the roosters they were out of (from several places), were lemon blues. VERY pretty birds! I have 2 cockerals this same color, and 2 pullets, and the rest are various colors but out of same roosters. I was thinking of penning the colored ones together, but need to ask if there are any issues with doing this? I know some dilutes can be terminal.
I am attaching some pics of birds that look like mine, not my pics.

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

So anyone know what would you get if you mixed blue wheaten Ameraucana x Isabel Ameraucana or isabel wheaten? I'd like to get blue wheaten and isabel but only keep a blue wheaten roo , would I still be hatching blue wheaten and isabel or blue wheaten and a blue wheaten isabel cross?

It is generally not advised to mix lavender and blue because the chicks can be very similar in appearance and it could really mess up someone's breeding program if they didn't know what they had. That being said, if you were just breeding for your own enjoyment and never sold anything from that line, it should still produce the lavender wheaten pattern in your 2nd generation. (First generation will be splits.)

However, the color is very popular and in demand and if you ever share pictures people will be asking to buy from you and it might be quite a lot of temptation to not sell! I would highly suggest tracking down a black wheaten cock from an all black flock if you want to do this. It would bre worth the trouble.

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

So I am totally new to this color. I have several Araucana young birds, just breeding age, that I raised up from day old chicks, was told the roosters they were out of (from several places), were lemon blues. VERY pretty birds! I have 2 cockerals this same color, and 2 pullets, and the rest are various colors but out of same roosters. I was thinking of penning the colored ones together, but need to ask if there are any issues with doing this? I know some dilutes can be terminal.
I am attaching some pics of birds that look like mine, not my pics.

Interesting, those do appear to be isabel rather than lemon blue. There are no fatal defects linked to the lavender gene but there are feather quality issues and i believe i see evidence of that in the male. It appears the feathers on his shoulders are still pin feathers, they haven't grown in yet? If that's the case, he has what we call "wing patch" which stunts growth of gold feathers on isabel birds. The other problem with lavender is called fray, where the feathers don't "zip" well and look messy and chewed up. This is usually most noticeable in the tails, however. Many lavender breeders breed back to black or brown (depending on the pattern) just to keep the feather quality in check because it's very difficult to actually breed these traits out.

 

[mufffin]

I have 2 Isabella Araucana roosters, 1 is extra, tring to decide which has best color. Main color is the same, but 1 has a lot more of the golden showing on hackle and rump feathers, so for those experienced with the color, which is recommended, more or less gold/cream? This is a very new color in Araucanas, I want to do it right.