Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[puredelite]

I put EE's into two different classes- (1) The so-called "mutts" that are a product of mating a known carrier of the blue egg gene with any other breed to produce more blue or green egg layers and (2) EE's that, like my flock, are chickens that have been bred and culled to be consistent in their traits. Mine lay only blue eggs, have green legs and usually produce slight variations of either silver or red colors. It has taken me 12+ years to achieve this. For this reason I don't consider them mutts. Nightowl505- Those are some really nice colored EE's you have there, please don't be offended when folks refer to them as "mutts".

 

[NoseyChickens]

Here is a picture of my White roo Jack Jr. He is about 5 1/2 months old. He is the sweetest boy. Opinions?

 

[1muttsfan]

Would appreciate any comments the experts might have on these 5 young birds - they are around 9 weeks old, from a breeder who is also a show judge, so hopefully they are purebred ams. Thanks!

All 5

 

[nightowl505]

that you Puredelite for your kind words, i don't think there mutts they are beautiful birds and our babys

 

[rhs7111]

Quote:
I think this comment is SPOT ON and worth repeating!

I don't consider EEs who are bred to produce blue eggs to be mutts, either. Small breeders and a few of the better hatcheries are maintaining flocks and breeding with good blue egg color as a goal. This is NOT the same as breeding any ol' blue/green egg layer to any other random chicken. EEs are not Ameraucanas, but frankly, EEs were used to create the breed Ameraucana, so I get ticked off by the underylying implication that EEs are lesser birds. They are NOT. They are bred for blue egg color, and often other characteristics. Ameraucanas are bred for other standard traits, as well as blue eggs...although the comment that not all EEs lay blue eggs is certainly applicable to Ameraucanas as well...not ALL Ameraucanas lay blue eggs, plenty of them lay blue/green eggs and some even lay pale cream eggs...and there is a mention of a purebred Ameraucana showbird doing the latter, on the Ameraucana website forum. I've seen photos of Ameraucana eggs that were less blue than my EE eggs. That said, I have a very few, the extreme minority, of my EE hens who lay a lovely light seafoam green egg, and I happen to like those green eggs too...they make for a pretty variety in my egg basket. All brown, blue and white can be boring. I'd also love an EE who lays a pinky-brown egg, for even more egg basket variety, but I don't yet have one.

Soooo, I sum it up by noting that good EEs are indeed bred for a quality blue egg color, while other breeds such as Ameraucana and Araucana are bred for egg color plus other breed standard traits. Frankly, I love the color diversity of the EEs feathering, but I do think that all well-bred EEs should indeed have green legs, and lay blue or blue/green eggs.

Anyway, great post, Puredelite!

 

[jeremy]

Quote:
They look like Silver Ameraucanas to me.

It looks like 2 boys and 3 girls.

ETA: I'm no "expert" though.

 

[1muttsfan]

Thanks jeremy, yes they are silver, 2 cockerels and 3 pullets. Was hoping for some feedback on type

 

[Goose and Fig]

Quote:
Pretty! I think they are too young still to really jusdge on type. Great beards though!

 

[1muttsfan]

Thank you, they are really very sweet tempered, love it when those young fellows start trying to crow.

 

[just2rosey]

I have a question about selecting breeding stock from lav splits. I have two blue 6 wk old ameraucana chicks which came from a flock of lav splits, they are beautiful with full cheeks and neat pea combs. The only problem is that they don't have solidly black legs. One has black legs with some spots of green pigment on its feet, and the other has legs that are black on the front and green on the back. These are my favorite two chicks, they have the best personalities, and are just beautiful. Would you use them in a breeding program, and how would you use them? How difficult will it be to breed back to solid black legs? I didn't know they were lav splits when I bought the eggs, so I hadn't planned for this, but they are so nice in every other way. Right now I think one is a pullet and the other a roo, but if both turn out to be roos I will probably only keep the best one. My plan right now is to breed them to black pure stock. Thanks for any advice.

Blue/Lav split Ameraunas