Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[dak]

I got a call saying they were doing an article on ducks, and wanted to know if I wanted to advertise my ducks.

I wonder if they're getting the info off the Ameraucana Breeders Club page.

 

[Illia]

I just love lavender fuzzy butts! Even when they're still wet, they are cute as can be!

Adorably cute indeed!!

Are those whiter faced black ones splits or just blacks with randomly whiter faces?

 

[pips&peeps]

Illia, those are typical extended black chicks.

 

[dak]

I just love lavender fuzzy butts! Even when they're still wet, they are cute as can be!

Very cute. Wish I was getting that many Lavs. Hatching my split x splits is giving me only one Lav out of every four chicks hatched.
We do a little happy dance when a Lav hatches. Slow going, but hoping for some significant improvements. Seeing a wide variety of pigment on legs and beaks.

 

[AZBootsie]

I just love lavender fuzzy butts! Even when they're still wet, they are cute as can be!

These are adorable!! I was just drooling over your pics on the Easter Hatch-a-long thread last night. You have the most beautiful Lavs I have seen. All your hard work has really payed off.

 

[CRYSTALCREEK]

Thanks everyone. Illia the chicks are all sired by Lavenders so all the blacks are splits. I call the speckle faced ones "clown-faced" and haven't really been keeping those, so I guess I'm selecting against that in my program whatever it may be. I do so because they tend to have residual white in the wing primaries at adulthood (ok I only had one of these, but one is enough). Something to do with melanizers.....

For the genetics gurus, of which I am not, I believe I have a mix of EE/EE, EE/ER, and ER/ER. I have black chicks with black shiny lacquer looking legs and toes, just black dull legs, slate-y legs, and varying amounts of pink to orange-y pink on the toes. Just like Clare said, wide variability in the shank color.

My best split is producing lavs with a lot of yellow down seemingly all over the body. It still looks lav when dry, but has a wierd yellow-y color at hatch when wet. I selected against that the first hatch, but I'm growing one out now to see what happens with that. Maybe I'm keeping the wrong babies.

Clare I have I think maybe 8 fast feather females to show for all my hatches so far. I have 4 from Dec 1 that I will post pics of soon. They are super duper. These will be making splits for me this fall if all goes well.

Amy your cuckoo project is overwhelming. Sending patience and persistence vibes your way because that looks like a LOT of work.

My egg color still needs a lot of work. I have lots of greenies. I had a lovely F2 lavender who laid a perfect blue egg and she was taken by Mr. Fox a couple of weeks ago.

LAV BREEDERS:
I have had an awakening about eye color in lavs. Here I thought my lavs needed all this work with eye color, being as my adult birds consistently had too light eye color. I am hatching siblings from Smith splits that are both lav and split, and the splits CONSISTENTLY have darker eyes EARLY on, while their lavender full siblings have lighter eyes. So, it is my assumption that the dilution mechanism that is occurring with the feather, diluting black to lavender, is also occurring in the eye pigment. I must find time to research this more fully. If anyone knows or finds info about this please share. I am guessing that in order to have the properly colored "bay" eye, the blacks used to make splits will need to have eyes that are TOO DARK in order to get it right. I had a gypsy faced black 3 yrs ago that sure needs to be back in my barn right now to experiment with.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Please ignore the Bantam Welsummer right smack in the middle of this, but this is my batch of hatchlings from pipsandpeeps Chocolate project Ameracauna eggs. There are two more still drying off in the 'bator, but I am pleased with this hatch. 10 beautiful chicks out of 14 eggs!

The one in the top left of this pic is chocolate.

 

[Grumpypantsmomma]

Has any on ever had a pure ameraucana hatch with a vaulted skull?

 

[Illia]

Nope. Got pictures? You sure it's a vaulted skull? Is there a crest going on, or just a bump?

 

[AquaEyes]

Adorably cute indeed!!

Are those whiter faced black ones splits or just blacks with randomly whiter faces?

See, Illia, what I mean about the simple beauty of blacks and shades of gray? Now you can't make fun of me for my fantasy flock of "funny pastel-colored chickens."