Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[jajeanpierre]

If she is an EE, I would be interested in knowing, if a girl, what color egg she lays. I'm just wondering if an EE with yellow legs can lay a blue/green egg.

Why not? According to the American Poultry Association's Standards of Perfection, the white Araucana has yellow legs and beak. The blue egg is in their written standard.

My understanding is that a green or willow colored shank is the result of yellow skin and some melanizers added to the top layer or deeper in the skin. Why would the melanizers be associated with the blue-egg-laying gene?

 

[jerryse]

Why not? According to the American Poultry Association's Standards of Perfection, the white Araucana has yellow legs and beak. The blue egg is in their written standard.

My understanding is that a green or willow colored shank is the result of yellow skin and some melanizers added to the top layer or deeper in the skin. Why would the melanizers be associated with the blue-egg-laying gene?

Cream legbar also lay blue eggs and have yellow legs . Leg color and ear lobe color are not indicators of blue eggs . For that matter you can get blue eggs with any type comb . Yes pea comb and blue eggs are linked but it is not ironclad .

 

[jajeanpierre]

About 5 weeks ago, I adopted several new babies, including a lavender Ameraucana. She's the sweetest and one of the smartest of the chicks. Well, I hope it's a she. I know it's hard to tell, but her stance, hackle feathers and saddle feathers all seem more pullet-like to me, but I'm no expert...just a hopeful chicken mama. She loves to snuggle and is always the first to jump out to me and likes to hang out in my lap, on my shoulders, and lately she's been trying to sit on my head. I sure hope she's not a roo. If she is a he, I hope it's a quiet one (oxymoron, I know), or my neighbors surely won't be happy, and I surely would be heartbroken.

My experience has also been that the overly friendly, "in your face" chicks are cockerels until my latest bunch of chicks. I have two splash pullets that will jump up in my face if I bend over to look in their pen. They were hatched and raised by a broody Ameraucana, so I don't know if their overly inquisitive demeanor is the result of normal socialization from before hatch to "weaning." Incubator hatched/brooder raised chicks are not raised normally, so I would expect some differences in their personalities.

Prepare yourself for this chick being a cockerel, but you can still hope it's a pullet.

I would suggest you not allow this bird anywhere near your face. Chickens peck at a lot of things, and you risk eye damage from a chicken. They are not parrots, that might bite you. Chickens peck and a peck from a chicken has a lot of force behind it--you risk having your eye basically stabbed. They are very fast and you won't be able to protect yourself. If you have ever seen what a chicken is capable of doing to a snake, you will know your eye is no match for a chicken, even a small chicken.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Cream legbar also lay blue eggs and have yellow legs . Leg color and ear lobe color are not indicators of blue eggs . For that matter you can get blue eggs with any type comb . Yes pea comb and blue eggs are linked but it is not ironclad .

The blue egg gene is physically close to the pea comb gene on the same chromosome. When sex cells divide to produce either the egg cell or the sperm cell, they divide by meiosis and the genes on the chromosomes are mixed up. It isn't a case where every gene separates from its chromosome and then comes together on the new reformed (I almost want to write "reformatted") chromosome, instead they tend to be separated into blocks of genes. The pea comb and the blue-egg gene are physically close enough on the chromosome that they are usually in the same block of genes so are inherited together.

 

[jerryse]

The blue egg gene is physically close to the pea comb gene on the same chromosome. When sex cells divide to produce either the egg cell or the sperm cell, they divide by meiosis and the genes on the chromosomes are mixed up. It isn't a case where every gene separates from its chromosome and then comes together on the new reformed (I almost want to write "reformatted") chromosome, instead they tend to be separated into blocks of genes. The pea comb and the blue-egg gene are physically close enough on the chromosome that they are usually in the same block of genes so are inherited together.

So true . It is a good rule of thumb that they travel together . Isbar are single combed and lay green eggs and cream legbar lay blue with single comb . Over the years of experimenting I have had blue eggs with rose , cushion , and polish crosses that had buttercup type comb .

 

[ChickenLeg]

Some pics of my 2 blue wheaten bantam trios, one trio will be 2 years old in the spring, the other trio will be 1 year old.
Each trio has a BW male, a BW female, and a W female.

 

[MrsBachbach]

Why not?  According to the American Poultry Association's Standards of Perfection, the white Araucana has yellow legs and beak.  The blue egg is in their written standard.

My understanding is that a green or willow colored shank is the result of yellow skin and some melanizers added to the top layer or deeper in the skin.  Why would the melanizers be associated with the blue-egg-laying gene?

I'm not very familiar with other breeds. It was just a question and something I wondered about. There may be no connection at all. I just noticed on a few select birds that lighter legs ended up being lighter color in the egg.

 

[hotlipshens]

I have ams from 4 different breeders. Most arrived day of hatch but the blacks were 3 weeks old when I bought them and the lavs were 12 weeks old. None are laying yet. Both sexes were quite friendly but my pullets even more so than my cockerals as they've aged - they are now all about 5 months.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Some pics of my 2 blue wheaten bantam trios, one trio will be 2 years old in the spring, the other trio will be 1 year old.
Each trio has a BW male, a BW female, and a W female.

How hot was it when those pictures were taken?

Regardless of how hot it is, the cock birds' wing carriage is really bad. I would replace both those birds. The hens wings don't thrill me either, but if it was 95F, I would understand for a few, but most of your birds seem to have the wing carriage/body carriage more akin to something like a Sebright. An Ameraucana should have a medium-length back that is slightly elevated at the shoulders. The impression I get from the photos is that your birds have short backs that are quite elevated at the shoulders. That is my impression. I hope those who truly understand the breed and are not a novice as I am will comment.

 

[jerryse]

Some pics of my 2 blue wheaten bantam trios, one trio will be 2 years old in the spring, the other trio will be 1 year old.
Each trio has a BW male, a BW female, and a W female.

















I like this hens tail and back . Hatch all you can from her . She is the best one you have .Breed a son back to her .

Several people were looking for blue wheaten bantams this past spring . So you at least have something to work with . Yes you have quite a list to improve . Someone may trade with you just to get the blue wheaten gene . Some good wheaten stock would be the best and quickest way to go . I see a nice white rooster . Now everyone will say don't use white and it is good advice . However I have used white in the past on every project color I have worked on while developing the Ameraucana bantams . It is true you don't know what white is hiding color wise but you will find out by crossing . Still I would hatch a few from that hen and white rooster . Just to see what you get . The white bird has a better type . A son bred back to her could produce some better blue wheaten .