Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[WalnutHill]

Lovely hens. Put feathers on the last girl's legs and she would look like a Salmon Faverolles.

Good eye. Her daddy is half Salmon Faverolle and half Am.

 

[abbevilleoz]

Good eye. Her daddy is half Salmon Faverolle and half Am.

He's a handsome roo! That's a pretty pair! How many toes. Have you bred her back to him?

 

[Robert01]

In my bator one chick hatched and another is cracking. The hatched one is not fully fluffed but is running into all the other eggs and won't sit still, should I take her out now? Should I wait till the other chick comes out so she can have a friend? Does it matter how many times she runs into the other eggs? Is this bad for the other eggs?

 

[bruceha2000]

Bc I ordered 3 EE, and the eggs were very blue, but I read somewhere only ameraucanas produce blue eggs so I wasn't sure?!

Cream Legbars also lay blue eggs. Still pretty rare in the USA.

Quote:
The USA SOP does. They have different SOP in England and Australia.
Australia: https://chickilife.wordpress.com/breed-profile/

Tailed and tailless Araucana in Australia are considered to be separate variants of the same breed. Thus the difference between "here" and "there" is that two separate breeds were developed here from the same groups of birds that had ancestry in the birds originally brought from South America (which were not even a pure 'breed' by the time they were first imported) and they were messed with through the earlier part of the 1900s with no actual breeding plan so there is no "pedigree" one can go back to. The group that wanted to further the tufted rumpless birds got into the APA first and kept the name Araucana. Those that wanted to further the muffed, bearded and tailed bird had to come up with another name to get their birds into the APA and Ameraucana was chosen.

(As best I can remember from reading information from some of the people who actually developed the Ameraucana breed)

 

[junebuggena]

In my bator one chick hatched and another is cracking. The hatched one is not fully fluffed but is running into all the other eggs and won't sit still, should I take her out now? Should I wait till the other chick comes out so she can have a friend? Does it matter how many times she runs into the other eggs? Is this bad for the other eggs?

Leave it in. The activity of the hatched chicks will encourage those still in the eggs.

 

[Sylvester017]

Cream Legbars also lay blue eggs. Still pretty rare in the USA.


The USA SOP does. They have different SOP in England and Australia.
Australia: https://chickilife.wordpress.com/breed-profile/

Tailed and tailless Araucana in Australia are considered to be separate variants of the same breed. Thus the difference between "here" and "there" is that two separate breeds were developed here from the same groups of birds that had ancestry in the birds originally brought from South America (which were not even a pure 'breed' by the time they were first imported) and they were messed with through the earlier part of the 1900s with no actual breeding plan so there is no "pedigree" one can go back to. The group that wanted to further the tufted rumpless birds got into the APA first and kept the name Araucana. Those that wanted to further the muffed, bearded and tailed bird had to come up with another name to get their birds into the APA and Ameraucana was chosen.

(As best I can remember from reading information from some of the people who actually developed the Ameraucana breed)

You have a gift for good explanations!

 

[Red Banks]

What is an Ameraucana Chicken? http://ameraucanaalliance.org/faq.html#One
A chicken is an Ameraucana when it meets the American Poultry Association’s (APA) Standard Ameraucana breed description AND meets a variety (color) description or breeds true at least 50% of the time, whether the variety is recognized or not. There are actually two breeds of Ameraucana: bantam and large fowl.

We also have a definition for Easter Eggers, so whether it is a so-called project variety or not it is of isn't an Ameraucana by definition. There are some that said lavenders were Easter Eggers because they weren't a recognized variety, but again it isn't true according to definitions.

This is from John Blehm, we just had this conversation a couple of nights ago. Lavenders are Ameraucanas, not EE.

 

[bruceha2000]

Quote:
That is somewhat curious. Why bother to try and get a new color into the SOP if a bird is, by definition of the "or" clause within the AND clause, an Ameraucana? And why fuss about "Lavender" vs "Self Blue"?

 

[WalnutHill]

That is somewhat curious. Why bother to try and get a new color into the SOP if a bird is, by definition of the "or" clause within the AND clause, an Ameraucana? And why fuss about "Lavender" vs "Self Blue"?

I am not an Ameraucana breeder, though I will have some purebred Ameraucana and Araucana here shortly. I do have several EEs, some of which meet the SOP for Ameraucana type but not with standard colors because they are mixed birds. Every time a new color is developed it comes from outcrosses with other breeds, essentially a planned blending of the gene pool to bring in desired traits, followed by work to rid the new crosses of undesirable, non-SOP traits.

I find the notion that a bird isn't a breed unless it is decreed to be even if it comes from pure parent stock, and that it may be a breed even though it is known to be intentionally mixed breeds a generation or few back, a bit unfriendly. My backyard pairings breed true over 50% of the time. I am sure that if I selected carefully I could bring up a line that met a color standard, but I would not feel right calling them Ameraucanas knowing they were mixed. And if I took the time and effort to raise pure Ameraucanas only to be told they were Easter Eggers because they were not the right color or the shanks were a little off, I would firmly believe that the standards were corrupted.

 

[Red Banks]

That is somewhat curious. Why bother to try and get a new color into the SOP if a bird is, by definition of the "or" clause within the AND clause, an Ameraucana? And why fuss about "Lavender" vs "Self Blue"?

It is all a mystery to me, I am still trying to unravel it all but so many people have different ideas about this. I read that many Araucana breeders use tailed Araucana to help in their lines. There are tailed in this country. They are from breeding Araucana to Araucanas. I have one. They lay blue eggs and they are Araucanas, not EEs. What I never understood is if you breed two Ameraucanas why don't you get Ameraucanas. If I bred two purebred dogs of the same breed even if they have terrible confirmation, disqualifying faults.... they are still purebred whatevers. Why isn't it the same for chickens? A Marans without leg feathers for instance. Are you going to say it isn't a Marans?

Forgive me if this sounds like a rant. It isn't meant too. Just questioning the state of the union.