pips&peeps
There is no "I" in Ameraucana
I hatched lots of chicks and only kept the pullets with very little or no striping in the hackles. But, like I said I had tunnel vision and lost lots of other qualities in my birds.
From what I have heard from other long time breeders once you start cleaning up the hackles you run into more problems with red breakage/lacing in the breast and thighs. And then I lost my muff and beard color and I also lost some color in the tails of my hens.
I need to go back and find out who had that dark blue wheaten pullet with the very good tail. It would be worth getting some birds from her line to make some crosses to get tail color back.
From what I have heard from other long time breeders once you start cleaning up the hackles you run into more problems with red breakage/lacing in the breast and thighs. And then I lost my muff and beard color and I also lost some color in the tails of my hens.
I need to go back and find out who had that dark blue wheaten pullet with the very good tail. It would be worth getting some birds from her line to make some crosses to get tail color back.