Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[Sylvester017]

Just get yourself a small chocolate Orpington bantam or LF. Chocolate is sex linked so a : chocolate orpington cock over a black ameraucana hen will give you = chocolate pullets and black cockerels split chocolate. OR black cock ameraucana over a chocolate orpington hen will give you only black cockerels split chocolate and pullets that are worthless for the project since they will only be pure blacks and will not produce any chocolate offsprings. This is a very simple project for producing chocolate color but you will have to correct leg color, combs, and the production of muffs and beards plus the feathers will be loose from the Orp and need to tighten them up, not to forget egg color as well.

I have been trying to understand what "split" chocolate or "split" black means and haven't been able to figure what it means so I'll ask straight out -- if someone could explain it in not-too-technical terms?

Also, with using a Chocolate Orp for breeding I would think the Chocolate Ameraucana ultimately will have more greenish eggs rather than bluish eggs -- sort of the way Lavender Amers seem to be laying more greenish also. Not that there's anything wrong with greenish shells but we really enjoyed seeing the blue shells from our Blue Wheaten.

 

[Sylvester017]

I'm really sorry Sylvester. I guess maybe the reason she got aggressive is that she was not feeling well. Kind of a protection mode perhaps. Sure would be nice to know what happened to her given 3 is not that old for a chicken.

I've been talking to a Midwest breeder. She said she has a breeder friend that raises Ameraucanas and seems to get a short lifespan from her Amers too. I've had 3 Amers from different breeders and Taffy is my longest-lived Amer at 3-yrs-old. While my friends' EEs are 5 and 6 yrs old they are still well and laying eggs altho less frequently in their older years.

Yes, Taffy's sudden witchy behavior was very uncharacteristic of her usual sweet submissive nature these past few weeks. Like the vet said she was hiding an illness and as it progressed made her more agitated - poor thing. When we had her isolated in-house to care for her last few days she was back to her old sweet self. When it got very difficult to coax her to eat/drink we decided to end her suffering. DH and I said our good-byes at the vet's office and figured that was a gentler way to go. It wasn't easy losing her but certainly less traumatic at the vet's compared to losing a chicken to a fox or a hawk as some owners have unexpectedly had happen to their birds

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[pips&peeps]

I have been trying to understand what "split" chocolate or "split" black means and haven't been able to figure what it means so I'll ask straight out -- if someone could explain it in not-too-technical terms?

Also, with using a Chocolate Orp for breeding I would think the Chocolate Ameraucana ultimately will have more greenish eggs rather than bluish eggs -- sort of the way Lavender Amers seem to be laying more greenish also. Not that there's anything wrong with greenish shells but we really enjoyed seeing the blue shells from our Blue Wheaten.

A split to "something" generally refers to a recessive gene the chicken is carrying and does nothing to change the bird's outward appearance.

Lavender is simple recessive gene and it take two copies of the gene to turn the black feathers to lavender. The gene also dilutes the red/gold. So a bird split to lavender is generally black in color, but carries the lavender gene and can pass it to their offspring.

There is no such thing as split to black.

I started my bantams using a black ameraucana over chocolate orpington hens. The cross of using the ameraucana cock bird over the hen works best for carrying the egg color forward than the other way.


Chocolate is a sex linked recessive gene. The males can be split to chocolate - carrying a copy of the gene but are visually black, but females cannot carry it. With the chocolate gene the females are either chocolate or they are not.

Hopefully you can understand it.

 

[Sylvester017]

A split to "something" generally refers to a recessive gene the chicken is carrying and does nothing to change the bird's outward appearance.

Lavender is simple recessive gene and it take two copies of the gene to turn the black feathers to lavender. The gene also dilutes the red/gold. So a bird split to lavender is generally black in color, but carries the lavender gene and can pass it to their offspring.

There is no such thing as split to black.

I started my bantams using a black ameraucana over chocolate orpington hens. The cross of using the ameraucana cock bird over the hen works best for carrying the egg color forward than the other way.


Chocolate is a sex linked recessive gene. The males can be split to chocolate - carrying a copy of the gene but are visually black, but females cannot carry it. With the chocolate gene the females are either chocolate or they are not.

Hopefully you can understand it.

I understand it much better than trying to research it on my own. I couldn't find anything to explain "split" and there definitely was someone who said "split black" in another thread so thank you for your patience to explain it

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[Cluckcluck1215]

Hello!i was wondering,do I have Americana?here is a pic:

 

[junebuggena]

Hello!i was wondering,do I have Americana?here is a pic:

The pic isn't showing, but a few things may help you figure it out. First of all, if you purchased it from a feed store, it's probably an Easter Egger. Secondly, if no color/variety was specified at purchase, it is probably an Easter Egger.

 

[Cluckcluck1215]

Here:

I'll get a better one in a min.

 

[Cluckcluck1215]

 

[MuscovyMadness]

Near impossible for me to judge by the pictures but as another member said.....if purchased from a feed store it would be an Easter Egger........ although many misleadingly advertise as "Ameraucana".

 

[FowlStuff]

Near impossible for me to judge by the pictures but as another member said.....if purchased from a feed store it would be an Easter Egger........ although many misleadingly advertise as "Ameraucana".

I agree with both of you.
Check the photos of day-old chicks on our Ameraucana club's Photos page (http://AmeraucanaAlliance.org/photos.html) and if your chick doesn't look like one of them chances are it isn't an Ameraucana.