Splash Amerecuana

[Rhodebar Lover]

Fingers crossed. Thanks! Wondering, is she a blue egg layer? If she is indeed a she.

Yes, pure Ameraucanas lay blue eggs

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Yes, your bird looks to be a pretty little girl.

However, she is not Ameraucana as Splash is not a recognized color for a true (Standard of Perfection) Ameraucana. The Ameraucana Society people are very particular about that.
http://www.ameraucana.org/gallery.html (you can see the 8 accepted colors for Ameraucana...and Splash is not one of them).

That means she is a project bird and thus a hybrid Easter Egger by default, so you can't technically say "Ameraucana." Many breeders are breeding for Lavendar Ameraucanas, and hope to have that color admitted to standards in time. Splash is an outcropping of the Blue with Black crossings in the process to get diluters to get Lavender (if I have my genetics down right for that).

As to will she lay blue eggs. Most likely she will as she has a pea comb. The blue gene lays close to the pea comb gene on the allele, so most times those that are pea comb also have the genetics for blue egg shells.

As to whether she inherited a full set of 2 blue genes depends on what the original breeder used to get the splash color, ie if they kept within Ameraucana lines to breed for the color, or they brought in another breed to shorten the process to get to Splash or Lavender which would have introduced the potential for other egg colors.

LofMc

 

[keesmom]

Yes, your bird looks to be a pretty little girl.

However, she is not Ameraucana as Splash is not a recognized color for a true (Standard of Perfection) Ameraucana. The Ameraucana Society people are very particular about that.
http://www.ameraucana.org/gallery.html (you can see the 8 accepted colors for Ameraucana...and Splash is not one of them).

That means she is a project bird and thus a hybrid Easter Egger by default, so you can't technically say "Ameraucana." Many breeders are breeding for Lavendar Ameraucanas, and hope to have that color admitted to standards in time. Splash is an outcropping of the Blue with Black crossings in the process to get diluters to get Lavender (if I have my genetics down right for that).

As to will she lay blue eggs. Most likely she will as she has a pea comb. The blue gene lays close to the pea comb gene on the allele, so most times those that are pea comb also have the genetics for blue egg shells.

As to whether she inherited a full set of 2 blue genes depends on what the original breeder used to get the splash color, ie if they kept within Ameraucana lines to breed for the color, or they brought in another breed to shorten the process to get to Splash or Lavender which would have introduced the potential for other egg colors.

LofMc

While splash is not an accepted color, blue is. Splash is a natural possibility from a blue x blue or a blue x splash breeding. Splash is merely a bird with 2 copies of blue. It has nothing to do with lavender, as lavender is an entirely different diluter.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

While splash is not an accepted color, blue is. Splash is a natural possibility from a blue x blue or a blue x splash breeding. Splash is merely a bird with 2 copies of blue. It has nothing to do with lavender, as lavender is an entirely different diluter.

Thank you...I knew my memory was failing me in there.

Yes Blue is accepted, and yes, Splash would be a natural color possibility from that.

Interesting that Lavender is a different diluter that doesn't produce any Splash...I'll read up more on Lavender.

LofMc

 

[keesmom]

Thank you...I knew my memory was failing me in there.

Yes Blue is accepted, and yes, Splash would be a natural color possibility from that.

Interesting that Lavender is a different diluter that doesn't produce any Splash...I'll read up more on Lavender.

LofMc

Blue is an incomplete diluter of black only - 1 copy results in blue, 2 results in splash.

Lavender is a recessive diluter of black and red. So one copy does not express itself, and 2 will.

The complicating factor is that one gene does not preclude the other, so it is possible a bird can be blue/splash AND lavender. However anyone seriously breeding for lavender breeds to black only to prevent the muddying of the gene pool, and serious breeders of blue avoid lavender birds.

 

[Sstewart]

You all are so funny! And here I am still happy it is a girl! When I hatched her, she was label splash ameracuana. She was in a blue egg. Thank you for all the shared knowledge!

 

[Lady of McCamley]

You all are so funny! And here I am still happy it is a girl! When I hatched her, she was label splash ameracuana. She was in a blue egg. Thank you for all the shared knowledge!

And that's the most important thing...you are happy with what you have...she is a lovely splash pullet....and she should lay pretty blue eggs for you.

I personally go for the egg color too and will even breed "mongrels" to get prettier egg colors.

Chicken keeping is making it what you want it to be, and as long as you are enjoying your birds, it doesn't matter what the labels are (unless you are selling to others, then it matters).

Have fun with your new birds.

LofMc

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Blue is an incomplete diluter of black only - 1 copy results in blue, 2 results in splash.

Lavender is a recessive diluter of black and red. So one copy does not express itself, and 2 will.

The complicating factor is that one gene does not preclude the other, so it is possible a bird can be blue/splash AND lavender. However anyone seriously breeding for lavender breeds to black only to prevent the muddying of the gene pool, and serious breeders of blue avoid lavender birds.

@keesmom
Thank you for sharing, really good knowledge to know...I am working on my Splash/blue genetics as I have a Splash French Marans that I am going to breed to a Barnevelder roo so that I can have blue laced darker layers...they will be "mutts" but I already have a Barnevelder rooster (my other Barny turned out to be a rooster too, darn it) so I will need to do something for the darker egg color than breed Barny's....the Marans roo wasn't a very nice fellow, so I got rid of him, so no breeding Marans...and unfortunately my Rhodebar roo was Wheaten, so no breeding Rhodebars....amazingly all the other chicks were female!

So, I'm going to use what I've got and developed a plan for breeding to color code my projects....if the breedbook genetics are true...(I've been running scenarios)

Barnevelder over my Rhodebars and RSL's will produce first generation Red Laced/incomplete barring for utility brown layers, various tints
Barny over my Blue Isbar will produce black or blue olive eggers
Barny over my Splash Marans will produce blue laced dark brown layers

My egg cartons sell well when I have a good array of color.

That's all first generation...after that I will have to think through what I want to do genetically....I want egg color, and if possible, keep feather color indicative of their purpose so I can tell at a glance who I've got doing what....thus far I've done that with breed choices, but now I think I'll do it with my own breeding program since it makes it so much easier to get fertile eggs for my broody hens.

Always enjoy your input.

To original OP, thank you for your patience as we hi-jacked the thread a bit.

LofMc

 

[Sstewart]

Updated photos and questions: She is 9 weeks old...and everyone agrees that she is a she...BUT she goes toe to toe with the roos in the morning. She fluffs her muff out like that one dinasaur in Jurasic park (the one that spits acid). Maybe a sibling thing but I now she's a bit older, should I be concerned?

 

[Rhodebar Lover]

She still looks like a pullet