Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[heatherscooby77]

Hi, I just found this thread and am excited to read everything. Until I can get thru it all I was wondering if anyone who has shown ameraucanas would take a look at my blue rooster and give me your opinion on his quality. He is our first Ameraucana so I hope I got a good one.

I am hoping to breed them at some point.


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[pips&peeps]

My biggest concern was not that my wheatens are laying green eggs but that I received and incubated very pretty light blue eggs and this first egg laid was green not blue. Though my hens look very nice I wonder what is going on.

Poo poo happens. Sometimes the genes don't line up the way we expect. There will always be brown egg genes lurking in the ameraucana since they were created from birds that laid brown eggs. I've had it happen to me. No big deal.

 

[MonicaAndHer6]

Just a question for those of you who have had Ameraucanas for a while. I purchase Wheaten Ameraucana eggs that were a beautiful light blue and hatched them and got 6 pullets. One pullet just started laying, finally...question is this first eggs is not blue at all it is very green. Will they lighten up to be blue after a few are laid or have I a problem with my pure Wheaten Ameraucana. This picture does not even show how dark green the egg really is.

My hen was giving me green and they turned blue. In my scenario it is possible

 

[MonicaAndHer6]

Green and blue

 

[CackleJoy]

Poo poo happens. Sometimes the genes don't line up the way we expect. There will always be brown egg genes lurking in the ameraucana since they were created from birds that laid brown eggs. I've had it happen to me. No big deal.

Isn't it entirely possible for a new chicken to lay a different colored egg until she gets settled in as a layer? I know it is true with Marans. Also, would diet affect egg color? I have one who always laid a lovely blue egg. Robins egg blue. Then one day it was a murky green. I went whaaaaa?!

I was told it was because winter was coming. I was also told that chickens eggs will get darker towards the moult and then lighten back up with new feathers. I wasn't sure either was true. Then her eggs went right back to nice blue eggs again. Why throw the odd one? IDK. Maybe this one greenish egg will not be a lifetime color for the chicken. I'd wait before panicking.

 

[pips&peeps]

When the egg takes longer to go through the reproductive tract it can get more green. The brown gets coated on last on an egg, blue is the actual color of the shell. Brown is a "paint".

 

[wannabeefarm]

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  will try to post picture.

 

[wannabeefarm]

New egg, I have pictures now. For your opinions. Sorry so long, I was reading though the pages as to what to look for. I tryed to cover everything needed for a good assessment.

 

[wannabeefarm]

I would like to take a moment to thank everyone for your imput. Sorry about the picture thing, my phone is low on space so it loops me back. It does the same on FB. I did manage a picture of him as my avatar. Maybe that will help. Again thanks for taking time
to help.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Poo poo happens. Sometimes the genes don't line up the way we expect. There will always be brown egg genes lurking in the ameraucana since they were created from birds that laid brown eggs. I've had it happen to me. No big deal.

I found this discussion on blue and green eggs fascinating and since I knew absolutely nothing about what makes eggs blue, I did a quick Google search and came up with this article:

http://scratchcradle.wordpress.com/2012/07/01/gms1-genetics-of-egg-color/

Here's some of what I found:

A white egg is normal for wild chickens and is represented genetically by "o."

A blue egg, besides containing all the normal minerals of a white egg, also contains oocyanin which is a byproduct of bile. Genetically, blue eggs are represented a "O." I would expect a purebred Ameraucana to be genetically OO. An EE might be Oo. The blue egg is dominant over the wild-type white egg.

As Pips&Peeps said, brown color is a paint that is added at the end of the whole egg production process. The brown can be washed or sanded off the egg since it is just a surface coating unlike the blue which has oocyanin incorporated right into the egg shell itself. There are a lot of genes that influence how much brown pigment (protoporphyrin) is laid down. There are even genes that inhibit the expression of brown pigment. A coating of brown over blue will give some of the green colors, ranging from light green to dark olive green.

I only have two Ameraucanas laying eggs, but I am going to try sanding the eggs to see how the color differs between the sanded and unsanded portion of the same egg. I may try washing them and scrubbing them, too.

I would be interested to know what would happen if the person with the extremely green egg sanded a part of it. Perhaps the green is really just a light coating of brown pigment on top of a blue egg.