Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[DFCottage]

Hi all, I wanted to show my 4 month old roo, Sam. I am new to wheatens, so I wondered if anyone has some input on this guy. He's a great size, bigger than my pullets of the same age. But he's so far been a super roo, and I'm hoping he's a good enough example of the variety that I could use him for breeding next year. His shanks are a tiny bit washed out in this pic.

 

[Illia]

He's pretty good!

He appears to have white earlobes (big no-no) but his beard is a rare color (black.

) and he doesn't appear to have excessive white fluff at the tail, that's always really good. Body looks good too.

His hackles have a lot of black in them though, but beyond that and the white comb, those are what I see. How's his eye color?

 

[DFCottage]

Eyes are a red-orange color. Another member PM'd me about the ear lobes as well, and I took a look at another pic (that I didn't use my high powered flash!) and it's not bright white.. kind of a pink-fleshy-grey color. I just did some digging and it turns out ear lobe color should be red.. is that correct? I have 2 other roos at home, a blue wheaten and another wheaten, from a separate breeder. They both seem to be much smaller than this guy was at that stage, hopefully its just that they're taking their time to mature. Shame, I really liked this guy. I'll check the other ones too for lobe color.

How dominant is that lobe color in genetics? I've got 3 roos right now and have to get rid of 1, so if it's this guy that's fine, maybe I should get pics of my other 2

 

[Illia]

I'm not sure how dominant it is, really. I think it depends on egg color, too. For example a white lobed white layer x red lobed red layer may be different from a white lobed blue/brown layer x red lobed blue/brown layer.


Yes, earlobes should be red.



I'd look over your other guys for evaluation. They may be small, but part of it is likely a dominance thing. I've got a handful of EE boys I'm choosing right now for who to keep for a project, and my final choice is the second smallest, even though I want a bigger bird - But I know he'll grow bigger, he's just towards the bottom of the pecking order at the moment.

 

[dwegg]

I just hatched 10 chicks..splash, black and blue

 

[Backwoods Bntms]

Five week old blue wheaten, pullet or roo? thanks

 

[Christie Rhae]

Quote:
Not that I am any kind of expert but from what I have gleaned from BYC I am voting... roo. I have a 6 week old blue wheaten pullet. She is much much lighter than your chick.
This is her in the front.

 

[chickee]

Quote:

Welcome to the Ameraucana thread! It has been very helpful to me. I have learned a lot on here about my Ameraucanas

 

[SteveH]

Quote:
There's a lot to like about him, but unless that beard and muffs have been plucked, I would question if he was heterozygous for it.

 

[Illia]

red4x4 - Definite roo.



SteveH - Agreed. I just assumed it was plucked, as that seems common among Wheatens.

My Wheaten girls are homozygous, but they day I get to actually see their muffs. . . .