Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[ChickNmamma]

Quote:
Americana/Araucana is what the feed store and hatchery call their version of the Ameraucana (beards/muffs, tails and hopefully blue eggs). I believe they use the name to sell their mutts, just as they use the Rhode Island Red and Barred Rock names. The Americanas derives from the parent stock of both the Ameraucana and the Araucana - but all the colors are mixed and they have added other breeds over the years (like leghorns to up the egg production and get larger eggs) which have distorted the bird to something completely unlike the Ameraucanas or the Araucanas. At least the Araucanas can say those aren't their birds because the hatchery ones have tails and muffs/beards instead of ear tufts - with the Ameraucanas the distinction is much harder for the uninitiated to see. Green legs are a give-away that the bird is mixed (yellow skin on their legs). The body shape on the hatchery birds is much more wild type, but that isn't as easy to point out. The easiest difference to show is the colors - because the color genetics from the hatcheries are all mixed up so none of the colors match the Ameraucanas - except for the Wheaten cock bird which comes close to the mixed wild-type birds. So by mixing colors of Ameraucanas you do the same thing the hatcheries have done to the colors and that is a step in the wrong direction and towards more confusion.

Does that help?

 

[ChickNmamma]

Quote:
It depends on the extent of his gold leakage (how bad it is). If it is really bad then he would be considered a cull - and therefore called an AM Easter Egger. He will make pretty Easter Egger chicks. If the leakage is minimal and he has other really good points over another rooster then I would use him to try and get a son without the gold leakage. Once you have that then replace him with his son.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

Pretty bird......but aren't there variations in the appearance of birds of the same variety? I also have Black Copper Marans and some have much more copper on the head than others, some have more feathers on the leg/toe, some have more sheen than others.......but they are all still Black Copper Marans.

Not challenging anyone here but, if I bred a BC Marans to a Cuckoo Marans, they would still be Marans, just not one color or the other. Breeding 2 color varietys of the same breed does not generally change the breed. Just curious as to why would this be the case for Ameraucana's.

No two birds are going to look compeltley identical. But the first bird is not a blue wheaten, it is that simple. If you cross Blue and black you get 50% blue and 50% black offspring. But if you cross say a silver in a blue then ou no longer have an accpeted color so it by default becomes an easter egger. Every breed may not be that way but that is the way ameraucanas are. Not every color you cross is going to give you an accepted color. there have benn a ton of good discussions on here about crossing colors and such.

ABC website ww.ameraucana.org

 

[Audio51]

Americana/Araucana is what the feed store and hatchery call their version of the Ameraucana (beards/muffs, tails and hopefully blue eggs). I believe they use the name to sell their mutts, just as they use the Rhode Island Red and Barred Rock names. The Americanas derives from the parent stock of both the Ameraucana and the Araucana - but all the colors are mixed and they have added other breeds over the years (like leghorns to up the egg production and get larger eggs) which have distorted the bird to something completely unlike the Ameraucanas or the Araucanas. At least the Araucanas can say those aren't their birds because the hatchery ones have tails and muffs/beards instead of ear tufts - with the Ameraucanas the distinction is much harder for the uninitiated to see. Green legs are a give-away that the bird is mixed (yellow skin on their legs). The body shape on the hatchery birds is much more wild type, but that isn't as easy to point out. The easiest difference to show is the colors - because the color genetics from the hatcheries are all mixed up so none of the colors match the Ameraucanas - except for the Wheaten cock bird which comes close to the mixed wild-type birds. So by mixing colors of Ameraucanas you do the same thing the hatcheries have done to the colors and that is a step in the wrong direction and towards more confusion.

Does that help?

I had noticed the difference in the spelling and, in reading the earlier posts in the thread, had picked up that they were not the same thing. I had initailly posted a picture of my Roo and was advised that he was an EE, not an Ameraucana. He was a hatchery bird I bought at the feed store so hadn't expected he would be a pure anything. The 2 new ones...are you saying neither one looks like a pure Ameraucana? Or just the first one?

 

[ChickNmamma]

I had noticed the difference in the spelling and, in reading the earlier posts in the thread, had picked up that they were not the same thing. I had initailly posted a picture of my Roo and was advised that he was an EE, not an Ameraucana. He was a hatchery bird I bought at the feed store so hadn't expected he would be a pure anything. The 2 new ones...are you saying neither one looks like a pure Ameraucana? Or just the first one?

They both appear to me to be color mixes, sorry. The Buff colored bird has blue in her tail and wings - and the Wheaten colored bird has buff wings. That happens with a color cross. For breeding purposes the Buff could be bred back to a Buff male and the Wheaten could be bred to a Wheaten and hope the crossed genetics don't throw too many variables in there. That cross is probably one of the closest ones that can be sorted out in a few generations. Other color crosses.. well they are awful.

Since you aren't breeding them it doesn't really matter, call them AM EEs on the forum and Ameraucanas at home if you like - they look much nicer than the Americanas from the feed stores - and you have your pretty blue eggs.

 

[Audio51]

They both appear to me to be color mixes, sorry. The Buff colored bird has blue in her tail and wings - and the Wheaten colored bird has buff wings. That happens with a color cross. For breeding purposes the Buff could be bred back to a Buff male and the Wheaten could be bred to a Wheaten and hope the crossed genetics don't throw too many variables in there. That cross is probably one of the closest ones that can be sorted out in a few generations. Other color crosses.. well they are awful.

Since you aren't breeding them it doesn't really matter, call them AM EEs on the forum and Ameraucanas at home if you like - they look much nicer than the Americanas from the feed stores - and you have your pretty blue eggs.

OK...thanks for the feedback!

 

[Angel16]

It depends on the extent of his gold leakage (how bad it is). If it is really bad then he would be considered a cull - and therefore called an AM Easter Egger. He will make pretty Easter Egger chicks. If the leakage is minimal and he has other really good points over another rooster then I would use him to try and get a son without the gold leakage. Once you have that then replace him with his son.

It's not to bad right now i'm not sure if he will have more growing in later ( he is 7ish month old) but right now it looks like this ( he looks like this but with 7 or 8 feathers of gold scattered on his neck and 5 or 6 scattered just before his tail)

 

[Yvonne13]

At the top of her head you can see she doesnt have many feathers, do you think she is molting? Ive started noticing this in the past week.

 

[DMRippy]

At the top of her head you can see she doesnt have many feathers, do you think she is molting? Ive started noticing this in the past week.

Pretty Easter Egger..... do you have a roo? it looks like where a roo was holding on to her head while mating.

 

[Yvonne13]

Pretty Easter Egger..... do you have a roo?   it looks like where a roo was holding on to her head while mating.

Thank you! I just recently got a roo, my other hens do not have this though; maybe he just really likes her lol