I wouldn't raise them for meat birds--most take too long to mature and grow although I have a couple of cockerels from this year that grew big pretty fast.
I have a group of 17/18 week old chicks that are really small if you were to compare them to a Cornish X, which grow so fast they are...
Can you send pictures?
A lavender bred to a bird that is not lavender will not produce a lavender unless that (non lavender) bird carries the lavender gene. Lavender is a recessive gene--you need two of the genes for it to be expressed.
You said your two lavender hens produced 100% lavender...
Yes, they need more weight. If you look at them, particularly the cockerel, you see he is a triangular shape. A more rectangular shape is better for a meat bird. It's a maturity thing, too, since I think they all start pretty triangular shaped. You need width all the way back through the...
Per American Poultry Association's AMERICAN STANDARD OF PERFECTION under the paragraph Economic Qualities:
"A general purpose fowl for the production of meat and eggs, the latter having the distinctive blue shell coloration." Araucanas are also considered a dual purpose breed in the SOP...
How old are they? I'm going to preface this with reminding everyone that I am a novice, so any of my comments should be taken with a lot more than a grain of salt, maybe a tablespoon of sale. I would love for the experts to take my critique and show me where I am right and where I am wrong...
Yikes! Where can I read the genetics of all this?
I have the same problem with the bbs Cochins I am working with. I think the Cochin breeders can get away with the breeding birds that easily fade/bleach in the sun because, in general, they keep their show birds indoors all the time...
They are young birds, just four months old. They are getting more and more of a green sheen.
I would guess all my blacks, blues and splashes are based on gold. How can I tell?
Where would I get silver base from? Blue (and splash) are the colors I want to concentrate on. I do have a...
Blue to black produces half blue half black. One copy of the blue gene produces the blue color (as long as other genes don't hide it or further modify it). A blue parent has a blue gene and a black gene. When their cells divide into sex cells (either egg cells or sperm cells) their pairs of...
Also, some of the brown pigment is deposited in the calcareous components of the shell, not just the cuticle.
http://en.engormix.com/MA-poultry-industry/genetic/articles/protoporphyrin-shell-cuticle-brown-t2701/103-p0.htm
My LF Lavender Ameraucana from Paul Smith lays a blue egg with no green tint to it. She laid a LOT of eggs through the winter--usually five eggs a week--and most of the color has been depleted. She has a very, very pale blue egg now with no green.
I have to second this. My only dealings with him have been through the ABC and I found him extremely quick to respond and just a nice person to deal with. I've read some of his thoughts on the ABC forum and I really liked the way he thought about tackling a breeding problem that was being...
I know a lot of people who feel the same way. After I posted my question here, of could I use a black I had bought for a bbs breeding program for my lavender I asked the breeder, Paul Smith, who bred the lavender I also have. He said I could use the black on the lavender.
I'm going to have...
I don't know--I've never been involved in test breeding other than holding the hand of a very famous Collie breeder who had a recessive blindness in her lines and had the courage to test breed for it. I would think if the trait you are breeding for is a true recessive with no modifiers that...
That's part of the reason, I think, that everyone is so fussy on this list about what is and what is not an Ameraucana. You have to be meticulous with your breeding records or you--or worse, some innocent person many generations later--could end up with a bit of a surprise.
The only way you...