I think that he is getting some beard now, Jean. You can't see it in the pictures, but some feathers are coming in under there. Time will tell, though. I was looking at early pics of my last Ameraucana cockerel and he didn't have much of anything beard-wise at five weeks old, either, but he did have a decent one later.
Kathy, I sold the blue Rock boy and his comb and wattles were very pink and prominent, so yep, I think the black one is a pullet. If not, then I'll have a nice boy to sell. She's really sweet.
Tiny, the black Ameraucana runt, will probably be beardless. Her face is completely devoid of anything at all, so that's why I think the BW cockerel will have a beard. Doesn't really matter much since I don't have any girls in the wheaten family for him anyway. Anything coming from him with my BBS Ameraucana ladies would qualify as an EE anyway, being mixed colors.
Hey, Jean, look at that red chick! I saw it hatch from a blue egg, so it's mama is a BBS Ameraucana and the only rooster, as far as I know, that got in with them was her BLRW rooster. If I posted that picture in "What Breed?", everyone would say it was a RIR chick!
Jean, do they usually have a good beard by five weeks old? On the ones I've raised, they seem to show up later on.
Here was my last Ameraucana rooster as a five week old chick--note the lack of beard here. By about 7 weeks old, he had muffs and the start of a beard:
Scout at five weeks
Scout at seven weeks, and you can see the muffs are out:
Scout at eight weeks old, getting his beard:
Scout at ten weeks with a nice beard on him:
