Ameraucana color question

[OrpingtonManor]

I am fascinated by the EE/Ameraucana/Araucana debate. I think it's because no matter how much I read about it here, it doesn't get any clearer for me.

I have Buff Orpingtons.

My father has blue eyes. My mother has brown eyes. Mine are a strange shade of hazel that looks green one day, gold the next, (depending on what I wear) and always has a gray ring around the outside.

Aren't genes fascinating?

BTW -- beautiful birds, everyone!

 

[Solsken Farm]

Quote:
I have a pinto horse with one blue eye, and one half blue/half brown eye.

Brahma, don't let one troll ruin your views about these birds! I have EEs and Ameraucanas and I like them both. They are great in these cold climates.

 

[Birch Run Farm]

Quote:
I have a pinto horse with one blue eye, and one half blue/half brown eye.

Brahma, don't let one troll ruin your views about these birds! I have EEs and Ameraucanas and I like them both. They are great in these cold climates.

EE's, ameraucanas and araucanas are indeed excellent in cold climates. I think the araucanas lay as many eggs as my red stars. As far as egg color I have been keeping track on daughters from my one araucana pair that I started with last year. The hen lays a light faintly blue egg. Her two daughters lay different colored eggs than their mother. One lays a 'bluer' egg than mom. The other daughter lays more of a stone to blue-gray color.

The fact is sometimes even good breeders produce birds that confound predictions, such as my yellow green egg layer. The inside of her shell, even with the membrane peeled off is not blue.

I'm new to the breed and have few answers. I enjoy them a lot none-the-less. They are very personable birds, athletic, very cold tolerant and inquisitive. When I get one that hatches with bilateral tufts I feel like I got an early Christmas present.

 

[sugarbush]

Quote:
I am not saying that Araucana did not exist prior two acceptance as a breed. What I am saying is that they took the name of a large group of chickens which all originated from the same country and restricted the standard down so that only a select few of those birds fit the standard.

We can use the maran example if you like. Lets say they accept the maran as a breed, but only if they have pink toenails...or whatever....do you think people should stop calling all the other marans a maran? That is essentially what happened with the araucana and then again with the ameraucan. And then all the breeders start jumping down everybody elses throats because they are continuing to call their marans without pink toenails maran..... "those are not marans, those are dark brown eggers"

That is what this debate constantly sounds like. It is actually nice to leave the internet and venture out into the real poultry world and realize that most people still call all three araucana.

Now one thing you pointed out that we do agree on....the EEs have been bred for better production.... they where a mixed fowl to begin with so breeding for better production is not a big deal. They are selectively bred for egg color, but not to other breeds of chicken.....the color shades came naturally with these birds.

 

[Byrdj]

A Marans has to lay at least a 4 on the Marans color chart to be called a Marans period! It doesn't matter if the APA accepts them as a breed or not and that won't change when they do become accepted.

I suppose any chicken that carries the blue egg gene could be called an Ameraucana or Araucana since it lays a blue/green egg, but it's misleading since it doesn't meet the APA standard for the breed. Breed standards are set for a reason. What's to keep someone from breeding a bird carrying the blue egg gene with a leghorn and calling the offspring Ameraucanas or Araucanas?

 

[kaya's farm]

i had a white ee mother that i breed to a light brama father and they lay the darkest green egg i have ever seen. People I sell to have called it olive and it has the deepest undertone. I happen to love mutts of any sort, cross lots of frizzles with other chickens also.

 

[QuailHollow]

However do you manage to consider araucanas or ameraucanas to be INBRED?

I believe this can be loosely answered by asking the question; "What is the scientific definition of an organism which breeds true?"​

 

[QuailHollow]

Nevermind.

 

[hbarn]

I'm new to the chickens but have a grasp of genetics and can try to explain the eye color questions, maybe it has some corelation to egg color as far as showing how things can be masked or dominant.

In humans blue eye color is recesive to other colors to be expressed you must have two blue genes blbl. Brown eye is domninant BR, when present it expresses itself and masks other colors, for instance BRbl combination is a brown eyed person with a recesive blue gene. If a brown eyed man and woman with this genotype have children the outcomes could include , BRBR, BRbl, BRbl, blbl in that ratio. 25% chance homozygous brown, 25% homozygous blue, 50% heterozygous brown eyed children (who would carry the blue gene). Hazel eyes are dominant to blue but recesive to brown the same rules apply. Eye color is very simple genetics, color and patterns in livestock can be much more complex with genes which modify the expression of colors through dilution and other factors.

I'm guessing egg color genetics is farly simple but does anyone here know where we could find that out?

I currently have a lovely green egg laying EE hen and a gorgeous wheaten ameraucana rooster that I understand comes from blue egg stock and I would love to know more about it.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

There are at least 12 genes that determine egg colour, so it's not all that simple. Most are brown versus white genes--some darkening, some lightening. There is one gene that replaces a white eggshell with a blue one. All brown coating is a coating of pigment on top of the shell, the shell itself is either white or blue.