Ameraucana Genetics Clarification

[Slothinc]

Blue and Lavender- I'm pretty sure sit on different alleles so just bc a bird test homozygous for lavender doesn't mean it isn't also blue

Thanks! So maybe they are all blue with lavender. I realized that the feather shafts are all blue on the top of the feather and white on the bottom of the feather. Not sure if that is the same for blue birds or not?

 

[RememberTheWay]

Thanks! So maybe they are all blue with lavender. I realized that the feather shafts are all blue on the top of the feather and white on the bottom of the feather. Not sure if that is the same for blue birds or not?

I'm not sure. I know I read a while back ( but unconfirmed) that lavender birds Are supposed to have white shafts and a blue bird has dark or blue shafts. I have noticed this with my own birds. The new stock I purchased of bantam Ameraucana especially so, but they came from a very well known long time breeder. I need to look at my other large fowl lavender to confirm. But I do suspect possible issues with those birds- mainly being gold based and not silver which I am working to correct this season with a silver based black rooster. Anyways, I purchased chicks from some last year that were supposed to be lavender bantam Ameraucana. But early one I noticed that they both had white shafts AND blue/dark shafts (but only on a few feathers) I never tested those birds for lavender but they grew out to look either blue or maybe splash. I suspect that they were splash and lavender but I can't confirm that bc I never tested them. I don't have them anymore for various reasons. I did read the other day another breeder saying that dark shafts isn't necessarily always indicative of blue being in the genes with the lavender but that if you see dark shafts you should definitely test breed the bird. She also said that to remove blue (which is actually fairly simple bc it's a dominant gene) that you should breed your questionable birds to blacks. All the offspring will be black or blue. ONLY keep the blacks and get rid of the parents too. Breed the blacks together and you will start to get non blue true lavender birds. This will take a few generations of course but blue can definitely be removed from a lavender line. Personally, I would make sure to breed a silver based black rooster so you are killing two birds with one stone- 1- removing blue from your program and 2- fixing the base of your birds at the same time. If you don't know if your females are gold/silver then you would only be able to keep female offspring to ensure you only move forward with silver based blacks that first generation. Of course of you Decide to work on both removing and ensuring silver bases it will complicate the process bc you would only be able to keep female at first. I would then breed those females back to the father and work from there probably