Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[marchick]

I thought I would post better pictures. This is what I have to work with!!! Any thoughts? I have one darker blue roo but he didn't come out for the photo shoot. They are almost 9 weeks old.

 

[DnDFarm]

That is another big problem with blue...They are supposed to have "lacing", yet most are satisfied with whatever edging they can get, plus you have breeders that perpetuate the problem by breeding their blues and blacks together as if they are the same variety.
There are some bantam blue Ameraucanas with pretty good lacing and one of more breeders trying to do it right with LF blue.

I understand that you went with the Lav/self blues because the blues don't breed true, but my understanding, and my attempt, is to improve my blues using black. It's a recognized color, and I can get more blues breeding black to splash than I can breeding blue to blue. If those are too dark, then I will try something else. I may be a fancier, but I'm trying to improve my birds. You and others did the hard work, I understand and appreciate that.



Edited by Staff

 

[LaPoulet]

Good point. I'm new to this breed and recently got BBS Ameraucanas. I did not know there was a difference between blue black and black.

 

[TwoCrows]

Please, lets not point fingers and argue here. Stick to discussing and posting pictures about the breed. There is no need to attack each other.

Thank you for your cooperation.

-BYC Staff

 

[Saris]

I thought I would post better pictures. This is what I have to work with!!! Any thoughts? I have one darker blue roo but he didn't come out for the photo shoot. They are almost 9 weeks old.

Those are pretty!

 

[FowlStuff]

I understand that you went with the Lav/self blues because the blues don't breed true, but my understanding, and my attempt, is to improve my blues using black. It's a recognized color, and I can get more blues breeding black to splash than I can breeding blue to blue. If those are too dark, then I will try something else. I may be a fancier, but I'm trying to improve my birds. You and others did the hard work, I understand and appreciate that.



Edited by Staff

You won't hear any condescending, derogatory tone coming from me here. I just stated some facts as usual. Please go by what I say and not what others say I say or their interpretation of what I say. I don't use the dancing emoticons, but also avoid all caps and large bold fonts. I believe we are all fanciers here, although some are breeders, some are exhibitors, some are newbies/novices, some just raise chickens, etc. and most fall into more than one area.
This forum has a rule about pointing you to other forums for more in depth information on the subject, so email me if you want that (no PM please).
Your black cross may improve type and other traits, but unless they have the needed genes for lacing it won't help that area.

 

[DnDFarm]

You won't hear any condescending, derogatory tone coming from me here.  I just stated some facts as usual.  Please go by what I say and not what others say I say or their interpretation of what I say.  I don't use the dancing emoticons, but also avoid all caps and large bold fonts.  I believe we are all fanciers here, although some are breeders, some are exhibitors, some are newbies/novices, some just raise chickens, etc. and most fall into more than one area.    
This forum has a rule about pointing you to other forums for more in depth information on the subject, so email me if you want that (no PM please).
Your black cross may improve type and other traits, but unless they have the needed genes for lacing it won't help that area. 

John, I really do respect you, and that's a helpful answer. So even if I do darken my blues, which is happening, that won't affect the lacing? That's a gene independent of color?

 

[marchick]

Those are pretty!

Thank you!

 

[lakones]

I am new to this breed and have tons to learn about them. I thank all of you that share you knowledge so freely for others like me to learn from.

 

[samouw]

Honestly, I'm trying to figure that out myself. As John likes to point out, I'm a novice fancier rookie

This is my first year mating these birds, and all I know is that my hens are light, with weak edging. That's why I'm using black, in hopes of darkening the blue and giving a more pronounced edging. Oz's chicks are showing strong edging, I just hope that as they age they aren't so dark that the edging blends in with the rest of the feather. That's why I'm really curious to see Susan's blues when they start filling out. It looks like we have the two extremes, and one may be better than the other, or the optimum may lie in the middle. That's the great thing about this forum. We can compare and share information

I think you're on the right track here. While I've never bred a blue (yet - as my first blues just hatched this year from purchased eggs ), from what I have read and studied, and experienced with dilutes in other species (Dobes have a dilute gene that turns black to blue and red to fawn), it is my experience and reading that lead me to believe the more you continue to breed blue to blue, the more "dilution" you are applying to the affected color - in this case, black - and the weaker the color will get.

As to the edging on the blues in Ameraucana, a paragraph on the kippenjungle page (http://kippenjungle.nl/basisEN.htm), states "Most common after that is Blue, being the heterozygous form of Splash. This a gray dilution of black that has a nice contrast with the gold and red tints of the chicken's groundcolor, which it does not affect. Blue tends to be uneven, dark edged or speckled with black and can be darkened by melanizers up to flat black." (emphasis added). This would imply that the edging we look for in the Ameraucana blues is not a pattern gene, like the Andalusian, or even a separate gene, but is the natural result of the dilution gene that lightens the black. To me, that means that edging, or spotting (Splash), or other unevenness of color, will continue to exist no matter how much the black has been diluted, but perhaps we just can't distinguish it as well if the blue has become too light or too dark.

It looks like the chicks you were showing a picture of earlier have a lot of the melanizer going on - which can be a good thing. If bred back to blue, or splash, you'll be lowering that melanizer level, while retaining the effects of the heterozygous dilute (blue). You may end up with a range of blue that is all over the map - from very light to very dark, but I would postulate that you might end up with a very consistent blue coloration with nice edging - especially if you breed them back to splash.

Note - this is just a theory,, based primarily on reading, but it will be fun to see what you get next year from those dark blues! My new blue chicks all came out blue x blue breeding pens, so I, especially, will be interested in what happens, once my chicks start growing out adult feathers and I see what I have to work with next year.