Lavender Ameraucana Breeders .... UNITE

[Finnie]

Yours does seem to have more red color than mine. And the skin is a lot more bumpier. How old is yours?

I tried to look at the tails of mine to see if there were differences. They all look like they are the same length and shape. I will go and look at the actual feathers for blockiness and pointiness.

Thanks!

 

[LavenderCrow]

Yours does seem to have more red color than mine. And the skin is a lot more bumpier. How old is yours?

I tried to look at the tails of mine to see if there were differences. They all look like they are the same length and shape. I will go and look at the actual feathers for blockiness and pointiness.

Thanks!

Hmm. I think we got them about a week or two before Thanksgiving. So, roughly two months. A lot of people try to judge by how long tail feathers are, but I had 2 Lavender Orps hens that hardly had a tail until a few weeks ago. The block/point is, imho, the best way to judge. But that's my opinion. I'm still somewhat new to chickens.

No problem!

 

[Finnie]

So yours are about the same age. The more I read, the more photos I'm seeing of the red skin color on the combs at this age. Since mine have none of that, I had been under the impression that redness doesn't start to appear until they get older. But now I have to wonder if I actually have all hens, and therefore am not seeing any red for that reason. Do you have photos of a male and female next to each other, for comparison?

I did go out just now to look at tail feathers, and they were all huddled down for the night. (They are in the garage, and I keep the overhead light on until "human" bedtime, so we don't continually blind them every time we go through there, which is a lot!) I'll have to check tails tomorrow when they are walking around.

 

[LavenderCrow]

Finger got close to the camera, sorry! It's the best I could take without busting out my dslr... Anyway, the rooster is on the right, hen on the left. He's noticeable bigger, too. Comb is more defined and red. I think you lucked out with all hens! Lol.

 

[Finnie]

Finger got close to the camera, sorry! It's the best I could take without busting out my dslr... Anyway, the rooster is on the right, hen on the left. He's noticeable bigger, too. Comb is more defined and red. I think you lucked out with all hens! Lol.

Thanks for the side by side photo. That really is a noticeable difference, isn't it? All of mine look like your hen, and none like your rooster. I guess it is pretty lucky, although I had been thinking I might try my hand at breeding them.

I did notice that tonight some of them had the beginnings of some pink, which weren't there this morning. But I wasn't sure if maybe the cold weather had pinked them up a bit. It got down below 20 in the garage today, with the door open. Then back up to 30 after I closed it, and that's when I was taking the photos.

I took a lot of tail photos to illustrate how they hold their tails and how sometimes they look "blocky" and sometimes they look more pointed. It depends more on whether they are holding their tails up, or letting them drop down. Down, they look pointed, up, they look somewhat like a paintbrush, with a square edge. Although there are a few that have their two top tail feathers sticking out just a bit longer than the rest of the "paintbrush". But even those two feathers look squared off or rounded, not pointy.

I'll add the photos, just in case any of the experts can point out anything we can learn from.

Here are group shots. You can kind of see how they are almost the same, but slightly different from each other:












The rest of these are all of the same one. (Dark Blue leg ring):



In the next picture, it's the one on the right:


Here it will be the one with its tail pointing up


And one more of the dark blue ring chick

 

[LavenderCrow]

From what I can see, it looks like all hens. The first photo, the one closest to the camera looks like it might have pointed feathers... But it may just be the way it's holding itself. I can't tell for sure.

 

[Finnie]

The rest of these are all of the same one. (Dark Blue leg ring):



In the next picture, it's the one on the right:


Here it will be the one with its tail pointing up


And one more of the dark blue ring chick

I carried the chicks out to their little run because it is sunny today, and while I had them in my arms I examined them very closely in the bright light. This one seems to have three very very thin rows of skin and not one thick row like I had thought from the earlier photos. So I'm pretty sure dark blue ring is a boy. (He is also the 1st one to start getting a hint of pink.)

It didn't occur to me to check them until after I had transferred two chicks, so I'll have to check those when it's time to take them back in. The remaining two might be females. But they look like they barely have any skin row at all, so I'm thinking that they are just slow in developing, and I will have to wait until they get more bumps to be able to tell if there will be one row or three rows.

 

[Finnie]

From what I can see, it looks like all hens. The first photo, the one closest to the camera looks like it might have pointed feathers... But it may just be the way it's holding itself. I can't tell for sure.

Well, I'm pretty sure from how they were walking around when I was taking the pictures, that that one closest to the camera is the dark blue ring boy. So you must have a good eye for what you are trying to find with the points. To me they all look fairly rounded.

 

[DrFarmersDrWife]

I caught my boy posing yesterday and snapped a few pics. I posted him a month or two ago and think he was too young to evaluate very well. He's about 10 months now.

He's my head rooster and has just recently become very protective of his ladies (one black and one lav AM). In fact I caught him driving a curious young barred rock out of his coop this evening! Wow he was fighting mad! Poor barred rock baby ran back to her own coop as fast as she could.

Anyway here are pics. Please let me know what you think!! I'm excited to hatch eggs later this year.

 

[LavenderCrow]

I caught my boy posing yesterday and snapped a few pics. I posted him a month or two ago and think he was too young to evaluate very well. He's about 10 months now.

He's my head rooster and has just recently become very protective of his ladies (one black and one lav AM). In fact I caught him driving a curious young barred rock out of his coop this evening! Wow he was fighting mad! Poor barred rock baby ran back to her own coop as fast as she could.

Anyway here are pics. Please let me know what you think!!

I'm excited to hatch eggs later this year.

Gorgeous boy!