Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[dak]

Honestly in the long run it will be easier and cheaper to find some true bred white Ams to start fresh with. Never know when those legs will get right or pop up later down the road...IMO

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...lf-white-ameraucana-hatching-eggs-npip-ca-340

These seem easy enough to come by.

 

[pips&peeps]

Question.. I have two all white females. They have the wrong leg colouring, but besides that, how is their type, and how hard is it to improve the leg colour by breeding them with a proper coloured male? I was hoping to start a little project to see if I can improve on them, as Ameraucanas are very, very hard to find here. Until then, I will continue to call them EEs.

Here is one in question.

The eye color is wrong too, and you don't know what is under the white.....

I agree that it would be easier to start over. Barngoddess may be able to help you understand how to get a start with true ameraucanas since you are up North.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:
"Baker and Goodfellow" was showing a pretty decent LF white Ameraucana hen last year. (He even took his birds to Crossroads last year and did respectably with them.) I believe he sells hatching eggs. I should be seeming him next month. I'll ask him about his birds and the status of his eggs.

 

[TexasChickenUnv]

Woohoo! I have a partial answer to my PP about my Ameraucana Roo over my banty, and a Delaware Roo over an Ameraucana hen. Somebody laid a bluish green egg today! I just don't know which young lady is now a hen. Time to pull out DS's wildlife camera!

 

[chickenlover89]

does anyone know (approximately) when an ameraucana will start to lay?

 

[aoxa]

The eye color is wrong too, and you don't know what is under the white.....

I agree that it would be easier to start over.  Barngoddess may be able to help you understand how to get a start with true ameraucanas since you are up North.

What do you mean by 'under the white'? She has nothing under her white unless you mean by what could come from her. Her eyes are darker then the picture. The sun was really bright there. She does have a yellow beak, which is not wanted, right?

I'll just stick to the bantam Ameraucanas for now. Which by the way, started laying today!!! e

Oh and I will most likely just keep the standard EEs for colourful eggs and will sell chicks as EEs. I wouldn't sell chicks as anything other than what they were. If anyone here is coming to the national for 2013 (fall) I would be happy to wait until then for hatching eggs. Though I was considering going out to Woodstock for this years national. I am hoping to get a buff toulouse gander. If I can't find someone willing to sell me one, I might not even go. :/

 

[DMRippy]

Most, but not all, White Ameraucanas are recessive white and need two copies to express the white. Your pullet could be Dominate white and that covers ALL other colors. She could really be a red bird but the red is not showing because of the Dom White gene. That is the problem with EE.... you never know what you will get.... like a box of chocolates

Recessive white gives the best white from what I have read.

 

[aoxa]

Most, but not all, White Ameraucanas are recessive white and need two copies to express the white.  Your pullet could be Dominate white and that covers ALL other colors.  She could really be a red bird but the red is not showing because of the Dom White gene. That is the problem with EE.... you never know what you will get.... like a box of chocolates

Recessive white gives the best white from what I have read.

 

I have seen his breeding stock, and he did not separate colours or cull birds with the wrong coloured legs, beaks, etc.

At the time, I knew they were just EEs, but I wanted coloured eggs, and we don't have hatcheries here that ship them like in the US. I happily took them.

What I'm saying is that if I end up with a cockerel that is white and breed it back to these girls, wouldn't that end up with all white?

the two white genes are completely separate, nothing to do with each other.  rw is always rw, dw is always dw.   like a white jeep remains a jeep even if you get a white porsche and have both at same time.  they are a jeep and a porsche even if they are the same color visually..  the machinery is different. 

yes exactly, a rw chick had parents with the rw gene.  it will always be rw.  rw bred to rw always 100% rw, so a white silkie bred to white silkie will always produce all white silkies. no other color at all.  

all white silkies are recessive white..   because rw does not interfere with skin pigmentation.  dw does, and it is very hard to keep black skin on birds with dw because it blocks pigment in both feathers and skin.  (understand, this is omitting the paint silkies.. not sure if anybody has figured their genetics yet & they are very new)

the term 'recessive'  you can sort of think of it being 'weak' and have to be in 'pure form to show up visually'.

as for 'dominant'  think of it as 'strong, shows up visually in crosses'.

for example:

rw bred to black chicken- all black chicks.  (this white is "weak") 

dw bred to black chicken- all white chicks.  (its dominant personality says 'i am here!')  your chick is an example of this.

This was said to me on the topic of dominant VS recessive white. I am still a little confused about it :/

Soo is she a DW or RW?

 

[AinaWGSD]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...lf-white-ameraucana-hatching-eggs-npip-ca-340

These seem easy enough to come by.

In the US they are easy enough to come by (that seller is located in CA). However, the poster is in Canada and while it is easier to transport birds or eggs across the US-Canadian border than it is to say cross the border into England or Europe, it's still full of red tape and hassles. Most breeders just don't want to deal with it, so they won't ship eggs or chicks across the border.


Quote: Most likely, yes, although it depends on which type of white you are working with. Since recessive white requires two copies to result in white birds, breeding two recessive white birds together should always produce white chicks. If she's dominant white, that might throw a bit of a wrench into it though as she could have one copy of the dominant white gene and one copy of some other, unknown, color. Thus, not all of the chicks she produces would inherit the dominant white gene from her...they could also inherit whatever other color gene the dominant white is hiding. If the cockerel were also dominant white hiding one copy of some other color, then again not all of the chicks would inherit the dominant white gene from him either. If the cockerel were recessive white and the hen were dominant white with only one copy of the dominant white gene, then all of the chicks would inherit one copy of recessive white from the cockerel but since not all of the chicks would inherit the dominant white from the hen you could still end up with other colors.


Quote: Short answer, there's not really any way to tell without knowing for sure what color her parents were or doing test mating with a rooster of known genetics. If the person you got her from had no white birds that could have been one of the parents, then you can be fairly certain that she is recessive white. If there were a white bird or two that could have been the parent of your bird, then it could be either recessive or dominant (ie, she could be white because the white bird was dominant white and she inherited that dominant white gene or she could be white because the white bird was either dominant or recessive white and the bird that mated with it was a colored bird that was carrying one copy of the recessive white gene).

 

[dak]

In the US they are easy enough to come by (that seller is located in CA). However, the poster is in Canada and while it is easier to transport birds or eggs across the US-Canadian border than it is to say cross the border into England or Europe, it's still full of red tape and hassles. Most breeders just don't want to deal with it, so they won't ship eggs or chicks across the border.

John Blehm is familiar with the paperwork I believe, but White is not one of his colors.