Ameraucana genetics question

[The Birb King]

I have a breeding flock of 5 Lavender Ameraucana hens, one Lavender Ameraucana rooster, and 2 splash Ameraucana hens. I hatched a bunch of Lavender chicks this year, and I was able to hatch out 2 Blue Ameraucana chicks by breeding the splash and Lavender together. So when the Blues get to breeding age, what happens when I breed them with the splash and lavenders? Would that make Black Ameraucanas? It would be cool to breed them and make some new colors!

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Worst thing to do is breed blue to lavender makes just a mess as with splash

 

[The Birb King]

Worst thing to do is breed blue to lavender makes just a mess as with splash

Why what color does it make?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Breeding them to the Splash hens would just make Blue and Splash Ameraucanas. About half of them will carry a lavender gene, but because it's recessive there's no way to tell which without test crossing them to Lavender later.

Breeding them back to Lavender will make some Blacks carrying lavender, some Blues carrying lavender, some Lavenders, and some birds that are both Lavender and Blue. Now, most advise against crossing Lavender and Blue because it can be very difficult to tell a Lavender from a bird that is both Lavender and Blue, but near as I can tell there's nothing necessarily wrong with doing so just for fun or for your own flock. You will want to be sure if you sell them to tell anyone who buys those birds that they could be both, as many prefer to avoid such birds for breeding.

 

[The Birb King]

Breeding them to the Splash hens would just make Blue and Splash Ameraucanas. About half of them will carry a lavender gene, but because it's recessive there's no way to tell which without test crossing them to Lavender later.

Breeding them back to Lavender will make some Blacks carrying lavender, some Blues carrying lavender, some Lavenders, and some birds that are both Lavender and Blue. Now, most advise against crossing Lavender and Blue because it can be very difficult to tell a Lavender from a bird that is both Lavender and Blue, but near as I can tell there's nothing necessarily wrong with doing so just for fun or for your own flock. You will want to be sure if you sell them to tell anyone who buys those birds that they could be both, as many prefer to avoid such birds for breeding.

Do you mean they could be carrying blue and lavender genetics, or the color will be a mix of lavender and blue? I suppose whatever hatches hatches next year, and I just won't show the bad looking ones.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

The ones I refer to as both Lavender and Blue are expressing both genes. But, from my understanding, they can look almost indistinguishable from birds that are just Lavender without Blue.

 

[I Like Turkeys]

Not my photo. I saw this posted in an ameraucana group though, helping to differentiate Lavenders from Lavenders with the blue gene.

I agree that you shouldn’t breed blue and lavender varieties if you‘re serious about breeding(if you’ve just got a pet flock and you clarify with others what you’ve got, who cares.). If you’re breeding To standard, it just inevitably messes up the coloring of both varieties, and presents a very difficult challenge to breed away from. I agree that if you sell chicks, 100% clarify that they could have both genes. Birds with both genes aren’t something a dedicated breeder would want in either a lavender or blue pen.

 

[The Birb King]

View attachment 3639414
Not my photo. I saw this posted in an ameraucana group though, helping to differentiate Lavenders from Lavenders with the blue gene.

I agree that you shouldn’t breed blue and lavender varieties if you‘re serious about breeding(if you’ve just got a pet flock and you clarify with others what you’ve got, who cares.). If you’re breeding To standard, it just inevitably messes up the coloring of both varieties, and presents a very difficult challenge to breed away from. I agree that if you sell chicks, 100% clarify that they could have both genes. Birds with both genes aren’t something a dedicated breeder would want in either a lavender or blue pen.

Ok that makes sense. Should I try to seperate the blues and lavenders?

 

[I Like Turkeys]

Ok that makes sense. Should I try to seperate the blues and lavenders?

If you’re breeding to the standard, yes. if you aren’t, it’s up to you whether to separate or keep the birds together.
BBS(Andalusian blue) blues and splashes should be kept separate from lavenders in the case of breeding to the standard.

In that case of breeding to standard, unless you want lavender hiding around in your blue flock for generations, and to have to go through a lot of extra breeding in order to get rid of it, you would be best off moving your LavenderxSplash chicks to a pet flock, and not breeding them. In the long run, it’d be easier to get a blue or black male from a BBS flock and breed him to the splash hen.

If you don’t want to do that, it’d be a lot more complicated to remove the lavender gene from your flock. Essentially though, you’d take a rooster from the LavenderxSplash cross and breed him back to the Splash hen. You would have to test all of those backcross chicks for the lavender gene, and remove the ones who carry it from the breeding flock.
https://iqbirdtesting.com/lavendergene IQ bird testing offers lavender gene testing, but it’s pricy. That, or you’d have to test-breed to see if they carry lavender, which can be trickier.

If you want to keep them together though, and see what lavender birds with blue look like, that’s your own choice. Those birds just can’t really be exhibited as lavender or blue though. Itd be best, if you sell, to clarify 100% that the birds could have both genes.

 

[NagemTX]

View attachment 3639414
Not my photo. I saw this posted in an ameraucana group though, helping to differentiate Lavenders from Lavenders with the blue gene.

I agree that you shouldn’t breed blue and lavender varieties if you‘re serious about breeding(if you’ve just got a pet flock and you clarify with others what you’ve got, who cares.). If you’re breeding To standard, it just inevitably messes up the coloring of both varieties, and presents a very difficult challenge to breed away from. I agree that if you sell chicks, 100% clarify that they could have both genes. Birds with both genes aren’t something a dedicated breeder would want in either a lavender or blue pen.

I think the lavender with blue expression is a very nice color. I don't think it will ever become an approved color tho. Too many people in the clubs are against it.

Note they are starting to have issues with the introduction of the ermine color. The problem is arising because you can get all white birds through having two dominant white genes. This is a problem because Ameraucana whites are based off the recessive white gene. Getting them mixed with dominant white is bad news for the color.