Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[Renee97038]

I'll try to get some pics Sunday. Thanks.

Ok, here is a picture of my Blue Ameraucana roosters that have the gold/brown bleed through color. They are 3 months old. Anyone know where this gold color comes from?

 

[hotlipshens]

I believe red on the wings is only seen on roosters and comes from autosomal red. Looks like gold leakage on the neck, too, which would mean he is also carrying at least one copy of gold - you want silver gene(s).

 

[jajeanpierre]

I believe red on the wings is only seen on roosters and comes from autosomal red. Looks like gold leakage on the neck, too, which would mean he is also carrying at least one copy of gold - you want silver gene(s).

(Note, I'm a novice, and have very little knowledge/understanding of the genetics of chicken color/patterns.) I think virtually all the blues in the breed are gold based. Where do you get silver based birds from and how can you tell? Doesn't the gold give you the beetle green sheen? What color sheen would a silver based black be?

 

[Cynthia12]

She's a pretty one. The cheeping noise does change as they mature, but it's still cute.

I find that .. to me at least...some start sounding like ducks when their voices change, it's pretty funny. I go out and hear, quack, quack..and ask, who's voice is changing? Ey? ... Response...quack.. The ones that sound like this are the ones with the deeper cluck cluck when it finally comes around. I have a NN like that right now. Deep cluck..she was a quacker.

 

[hotlipshens]

No, the better bred BBS ams are silver based. Beetle green sheen is seen on birds with silver genes and purple sheen seen on those with gold.

 

[hotlipshens]

I like this web site: http://sellers.kippenjungle.nl/page0.html

 

[Renee97038]

No, the better bred BBS ams are silver based. Beetle green sheen is seen on birds with silver genes and purple sheen seen on those with gold.

OK, now I understand about the gold base not being desirable. So, I have another Blue in the same group that shows no gold. I have no idea if he came from the same cock and hen though as the others, he was just bought from the same breeder. I will just have to breed him with my other Blues to see if I get any gold in the offspring then go from there.

I'm curious about the blonde/gold in the neck feathers. I have some Lavender Ameraucanas from a completely different breeder and some of those hatched out with blonde color on some of them. The black ones out of that breeding had a definite green sheen so I assume from your info they have silver in them. So how did both silver and gold get into the same batch of hatching eggs?

If gold is not desirable, why are breeders offering chicks and hatching eggs with pictures of their flock showing a blonde leakage color in them?

And how do you find ones with silver only?

Thanks for any help on this.

 

[hotlipshens]

Silver is dominant to gold. It is also a sex linked gene meaning hens have one copy while roosters have two copies. Hens are either Silver or gold. Roosters can be Silver, golden (Ss) or gold. Leakage is a DQ for most solid colored birds so I'd buy from breeders who show. The best blacks seem to come from breeding black to black only for many generations. Lavenders have feather issues and usually need to be bred to another color to combat the feather issues. Most breed lavs to blacks to keep things simple - it produces black chicks split to lav that can be bred to other lavs or splits to produce lavs. Since gold is a recessive, it can take many generations to minimize and you can never be sure to be rid of it. Your other blue could genetically be a golden I suppose - if he carried one Silver (dominant) and one gold (recessive), he wouldn't show the gold.

Do you have any photos of your lavs? I'd love to see the gold leakage - my girls have a silvery sheen to them, esp their heads but I only have them as egg layers.

I'm new to ams this year but love them. My blacks have a beetle green sheen but are from a breeder who only had them to make black splits and doesn't show. I sold my black roos and will only hatch eggs from my black girls for people who don't want to show, just want some nice ams. My replacements will come from blues bred to blue and splash all from an ABC known listed breeder who marks his chicks so I know which breeding pen each bird came from and won't be breeding hatchmates. My lavs are also from an ABC listed breeder. Your best bet is to go to a local show and find a willing mentor or buy hatching eggs/chicks from an ABC classified ad. Good luck!

 

[hotlipshens]

A friend just bought "blue wheaten splash ameraucana hatching eggs" - when she showed me photos of the parents I had to tell her they are EEs. Many people are completely ignorant of what they are supposed to look like and sell mixes that were sold to them as purebreds while others simply committ fraud to make a quick buck.

 

[magdelaine]

I find that .. to me at least...some start sounding like ducks when their voices change, it's pretty funny. I go out and hear, quack, quack..and ask, who's voice is changing? Ey? ... Response...quack.. The ones that sound like this are the ones with the deeper cluck cluck when it finally comes around. I have a NN like that right now. Deep cluck..she was a quacker.

Ha ha, it will be good to have some variety in the sounds coming from various chickens. I was inspecting the Blue Copper roo yesterday...I had him up on a nesting box and was feeling his conformation up under his wings and such (I swear he liked it) and the Ameraucana girls got up there with him, peeping and cheeping, and insisted I "inspect" them too. They really make me smile. Here's another pic of one of the girls.


I'm really going to want more of these, for breeding purposes. Since there is so much chicanery concerning EEs being sold as Ameraucanas, is there anyone here who breeds WAs that would be willing to sell me some hatching eggs at some point? Where should I look? I'd prefer local (CA) if possible but that's not neccessary.