The Ameraucana Thread: Where everything and anything about the breed can be discussed (APA, Non-Stan

[Tailfeathers]

The Beard is beard and muffs. The no beard lost the muff/bearded gene - just something the hatcheries do when they loose one of the genes necessary for fuzzy faces. Some of them even look like they have a single comb??? One breeder of Wheaten Ameraucanas also lost one half of the bearded/muffs gene - but she notes it when she sells eggs/chicks that they may only have one gene - and to remove the chicks not showing super fuzzy faces at birth and not use them for breeding. She is working on fixing that though.

Ironically, I just had a pretty indepth discussion about this very topic with Mike Gilbert on the ABC Forum. According to Mike the muff/beard gene is one gene although he indicated on some of the other genetic threads he's following there is some discussion about whether that is actually the case. He's already forgotten more about genetics than I'll learn in a lifetime so until I hear differently from him, I'm going with it being a single gene. It is referred to as Mb or mb and each parent contributes one gene. So it can be either homozygous or heterozygous.

So the above isn't technically correct. No beard birds didn't lose the muff/beard gene, they just came from two heterozygous parents that did not contribute a Mb because Mbmb (hetero) would still be bearded and have muffs. Though they would be more sparse than a homozygous bird. Therefore, the one breeder of Wheaten Ameraucanas, in my opinion, is jumping the gun to advise calling any chicks "not showing super fuzzy faces at birth" and "not use them for breeding".

I say this after my discussion with Mike about using a Splash Wheaten cockerel that I'm almost 100% positive is Mbmb (hetero). I don't have time right now to go into it all so suffice it for now to say there are some very good reasons for using a hetero muffs/bearded bird. Several in fact.

God Bless,

Royce

 

[ChickNmamma]

Quote:
Thank you, I was trying to avoid the technical stuff in my answer, and I didn't remember the gene for muffs/beards off the top of my head, just remembered that they were thought to be one gene. Its why I wanted to see a bird that had one and not the other - in case there actually was two genes...

The breeder also has a hetero rooster and an hetero hen - so she is throwing clean faced chicks. To avoid more generations of clean faced is why she recommended not using the non or low fluffy faces in breeding programs. She is trying to get back to homozygous and is doing single breedings now I believe to isolate them. Giving this information to her customers allows them to make the decisions about using them or not, and backyard chicken owners probably shouldn't use them if they want to procreate their birds in a casual manner.

If you have an otherwise excellent bird with hetero muffs/beards I could see why you would want to use him. I know you keep great records so you won't have problems. You can breed back to homozygous if you choose in a few generations and still keep all you have gained.

If you will share the information if there are any problems with homozygous MB/MB I would appreciate it, thanks.

 

[pips&peeps]

On the ee's it more likely that a single mb carrying bird was bred to a bird without a muff and beard.

 

[ChickNmamma]

On the ee's it more likely that a single mb carrying bird was bred to a bird without a muff and beard.

I am pretty sure the hatcheries created their own hetero birds even if they started with the homo birds when they crossed in the leghorn for better egg production. Crossing in leghorn again in a future generation to the hetro birds wiped it out in some cases. Sure a lot of clean faced birds coming from one hatchery that supplies my feed store. I don't even go look any more

Of course, on a good note - I have a BETTER place to look now!

Thanks BYC and ABC website!

 

[Hangtown Farms]

My favorite part of the season.Broodies with chicks.5 and 1 still trying.6 for 6.Silver bantam.This was a test mating.Checking to see who was throwing off markings.None here.I found out it was 1 rooster and he went to a sale.

they look great

Here are some brown red bantams for reference.

brown red is such a pretty color. I can not wait to get some

 

[salt and pepper]

Got mites again in one of my coops, don't know where it's coming from!

It's only one coop that always has them, the others have stayed clear of mites, but that one ALWAYS get's the mites first, and then spreads it to the others, I've tried spray, powder, DE, frontline, and I'm out of ideas!!! Thinking of trying seven next, the weird part is I've never seen any symptoms from the birds, no feather loss, eggs, scabs. depression, nothing from them, just little brown bugs in the coops, almost look like baby spiders....

 

[cmitchell]

Here is my pure Blue Ameraucana rooster. His tail feathers were rudely plucked out by a pen mate but they are growing back.

 

[Outrun Acres]

Here is my pure Blue Ameraucana rooster. His tail feathers were rudely plucked out by a pen mate but they are growing back.

What a pretty boy!

 

[Outrun Acres]

Well all my Ameraucanas have been sick recently. I don't really know what was wrong with them. They started losing weight so I took them out of the coop and put them back in the brooder. When I picked them up, there crops felt very squishy like they were full of water. I have been giving them Duramycin for the past 3 days and it seems to be working. I think I will also worm everybody before I reintroduce them into the flock. I still need to post some pictures of them. I don't think I have posted pics of them since they were day olds.

 

[Outrun Acres]

Is it very common to get clean faced birds from a supposedly reputable breeder? Two of my birds (full brothers) are both clean faced. Other than that they are big beautiful boys. They are almost twice the size as the other roosters I hatched out. She only has Ameraucanas, and has her birds separated in breeding pens. (I saw the facilities and her birds first hand). I think I am going to outcross these birds to some of my EE's that are close in color and type to the Ameraucana standard. I know some people may frown upon that. It just seems that these birds are all a little too closely related. They were difficult to hatch and haven't thrived like other breeds I have hatched.