Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[pips&peeps]

Soooo ..... A female can be chocolate in color but will not pass that on, right? And you can't breed a chocolate hen to a chocolate carrying rooster and expect to get chocolate pullets any more often than if the hen were not chocolate in color? But if you breed your chocolate gene carrying rooster, the chicks are gender determinable by color, chocolate = pullet, black = cockerel, OR maybe black could be either because that pullet chick didn't get the chocolate gene?

Boy is genetics confusing!

Yes, she can pass it on if she is chocolate. It's just a female cannot be split. She is either chocolate or she is not.

 

[junebuggena]

Hatchery easter eggers are mutts. They have not consistently been bred to conform to any standard and have been outcrossed to brown eggs layers, etc to improve laying ability and vigor over the years. That is why you get so many different shades of eggs from them.

http://ameraucanabreedersclub.org/history.html
The originally imported birds never layed just blue eggs.

 

[Chicken5555]

I have a question for all of you educated people
I got three Blue Ameraucana pullets from a friend. I was wondering why one has a nearly solid black pea comb with a black face, solid black legs, black spots on the ear lobes and a nearly all black beak, one has a pink pea comb with black legs, and another has a pink pea comb with black specks and solid black legs. Are they poorly bred Ameraucanas or could they have some other breed in their background?

 

[jerryse]

I have a question for all of you educated people
I got three Blue Ameraucana pullets from a friend. I was wondering why one has a nearly solid black pea comb with a black face, solid black legs, black spots on the ear lobes and a nearly all black beak, one has a pink pea comb with black legs, and another has a pink pea comb with black specks and solid black legs. Are they poorly bred Ameraucanas or could they have some other breed in their background?

This occurs in some breeds . It is often referred to as mulberry comb or Gypsy face .

 

[Chicken5555]

This occurs in some breeds . It is often referred to as mulberry comb or Gypsy face .

Thank you for your reply. I will be researching this for sure.

 

[Chicken5555]

This occurs in some breeds . It is often referred to as mulberry comb or Gypsy face .

I found a thread on BYC that mentions gypsy face. The person was trying to breed the trait out of their red-brown Ameraucana birds. I guess the Ameraucana pair that my friend has might be culls? or not-to-standard Ameraucanas? Not that it's a bad thing or anything. I understand that Ameraucana is a very young breed and still a work in progress.

 

[Sylvester017]

I'm so sorry for your loss.

TY for your kind thoughts!

My Wheaten Ameraucana cockerel has arrived and is hanging out in his quarantine area with some food and his vitamin water. After Garfunkel's quarantine is up and he has proven to be healthy (which I'm sure he is), he'll get to move in next door to the main flock.

That is so exciting - I love the name!

Our three month old Wheaton Americaunas are pretty spoiled. These birds deserve to be spoiled! Great sweet personalities!

Update, I started out with 13 and I lost one pullet. Out of the 12 left. I ended up with 6 pullets, 4 Wheaten roosters and 2 Blue Wheaten roosters.

I think! I miss our Taffy girl every time I see a brood with Blue Wheatens! Lovely birds.

Here's a few pictures of our girls. I'm not sure if they're Ameraucana or Easter egger mutts.

You have some of the prettiest EEs and took nice photos. Are they laying yet? What colors are their eggs?

I have a little runt chicken.



I had a little runt pullet shipped to me with her sister. The runt didn't live past 21/2 weeks after we got her but we raised her sister to 3 yrs old. I wish you luck with this little cutie!

 

[hockeyfish]

Thank you! They haven't started laying yet. I'm expecting eggs any day now. We're excited to see what colors we get!

 

[LameyInn7423]

Thank you! They haven't started laying yet. I'm expecting eggs any day now. We're excited to see what colors we get!

I have EEs and AMs, and love them both. The EEs lay more, and larger, eggs. If they are hatchery EEs, the eggs will most likely be various shades of light green, maybe light blue. Once I started breeding my EE rooster back to those girls I started getting more variety of color, even one that lays almost pink. My AMs are beautiful birds, but I started with EEs that I thought were AMs just like so many other people. I eventually got my first real AMs, but the EEs were what led me to the breed. The fun of EEs is that when you start breeding them, you will get a wide variety of colors in the birds. Yours look very nice

 

[Chicken5555]

I have EEs and AMs, and love them both. The EEs lay more, and larger, eggs. If they are hatchery EEs, the eggs will most likely be various shades of light green, maybe light blue. Once I started breeding my EE rooster back to those girls I started getting more variety of color, even one that lays almost pink. My AMs are beautiful birds, but I started with EEs that I thought were AMs just like so many other people. I eventually got my first real AMs, but the EEs were what led me to the breed. The fun of EEs is that when you start breeding them, you will get a wide variety of colors in the birds. Yours look very nice

After I got my flock of mostly olive eggers + one EE and a few Ameraucana girls, I decided that I had to have a wheaten cockerel. You are right about the gorgeous variations that EE and OE can be. My favorite mix right now is my half blue wheaten Ameraucana and half cornish cross. The one copy of dominant white from the cornish cross covered all the black/blue color from the Ameraucana, but his shoulders and chest have rust colored blotches. His tail is longer than everyone else's in the coop and there are is a light dusting of black hackle feathers growing in. He is gorgeous. I can't wait to mix my new wheaten with the leghorns to see if I get a similar outcome.

Have you ever done a chi square to figure out what genes your rooster carries? It could be fun. Here is an example of one. In this crossing, the chicks all grow up to lay different color eggs, including pink! If the hen lays green eggs (blue + brown) and her chicks grow up to lay two shades of blue, pink and green eggs, the rooster could be a carrier of the blue and white genes.