Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[Goose and Fig]

Its a girl! Finally.

Had a hard time getting a shot of just her- this gang is together all day, every day.

 

[chickee]

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Congratulations!

These buffs produce mostly boys! Looks like 3 out of my 4 buff x wheaten project chicks are roosters!

Good news is they are feathering in buff

 

[Illia]

Yep, they do that. My Buff x Wheatens are turning out better in color right now than my pure Buffs.

I've got a conformationally UGLY cockerel right now who is a very dark reddish buff who has a lot of bright khaki/splash type color in his tail, tipping some feathers around his thighs, and has some pretty pale undercoat.

 

[chickee]

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I hope these guys turn out as nice as yours

I am actually excited about this project. The buffs are kind of ugly as teenagers but get better with age. My two girls turned out beautiful and are some of my favorites

Now, to continue to work on egg color, do I breed the pullets back to their wheaten dad, then their offspring to a good buff rooster from a good colored egg? What was your breeding plan going to be?

 

[Illia]

I was planning to do F1 x F1 or if I can find some more Buff stock, the best F1's with a good Buff male over them.

F1 x F1, when using birds not too closely related, will throw a lot of variance, but in big enough batches you'll see what you're looking for as they mature. After color and conformation, egg color is the next thing to wait on. Which is why I always like using the best parent hens, especially on the Wheaten side.

Here's my ugly pure Buff cockerel I mentioned - (his wing is normally lower as is his tail, but he still does normally have a raise butt and tail, U shaped general outline, and long legs which of course his body might catch up with though, who knows)

Tail detail.

And here's a not so great photo of one of my Buff x Wheaten pullets. Since I'm sadly not doing Buff anymore, at least, not anytime soon, I'll be using this girl for another project. If and when I get back into Buffs (still got all my chicks and my original Pips&peeps hen) I'll continue her with the project and find more Wheatens to coutcross with. I've got my eyes on a couple sources.

Pardon the ground, it's winter so all the chicks stay within 40 ft of the coop and tend to wreck the grass in doing so.

 

[jeremy]

Is that Splash in his tail Illia, or Khaki? He's from a Buff X Buff mating?

 

[Illia]

Buff x Buff. Either you're looking at khaki or you're looking at blue AND khaki or dun. Or just splash. His hatch-mates started out with pale tails and bits of wing, too, but it all disappeared on them as they grew. He still looks like this.

 

[jeremy]

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Weird. I wonder what made him express that color like he did. Do you plan on breeding to try and find out what color it is?

Where could the deep red color have come from too?

 

[Illia]

Plan on breeding that ugly thing? No, sorry.

I know it makes one so curious, but, his body at least right now is just too terribly put together. but, he's got another couple months before it's freezer camp time, so, maybe he'll prove himself worthy of a test mating.

 

[chickee]

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Thanks for your input

That sounds like a good plan. My 2 buff pullets are both from Meredith so I better see if I can talk my friends mother out of a couple of her Blehm buff pullets to make that other F1 line to cross with

I think your rooster is pretty

Bet he would make some very pretty EEs