Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[TherryChicken]

Can't wait to get my wheatens and whites

 

[Chicken5555]

This may sound like a really dumb question..... at what age do Ameraucana cockerels typically learn how to properly inseminate a female? My seven month old seems to fall forward and fertilize the shoulders instead of, well, you get the picture.

 

[Chicken5555]

This may sound like a really dumb question..... at what age do Ameraucana cockerels typically learn how to properly inseminate a female? My seven month old seems to fall forward and fertilize the shoulders instead of, well, you get the picture.

I've had 18 med/large eggs in the incubator for eight days. I saw veins in only one during candling today so I decided to crack them all open. Only one was developing and the others were all duds. Any ideas when I can expect my Wheaten cockerel to properly do the deed?

 

[Saris]

WOOOOOO My splash Ameraucana Sage has laid her first egg!!!

 

[samouw]

I've had 18 med/large eggs in the incubator for eight days. I saw veins in only one during candling today so I decided to crack them all open. Only one was developing and the others were all duds. Any ideas when I can expect my Wheaten cockerel to properly do the deed?

Give him time, he'll figure it out.

 

[Chicken5555]

WOOOOOO My splash Ameraucana Sage has laid her first egg!!!

OH, SO PRETTY!!! Lovely egg too. Congratulations.

 

[MrsBachbach]

My black Ameraucanas are 18 weeks old now. I've kicked out one cockerel with red leakage and one pullet with purple sheen from my breeding program. Please help me pick which female would compliment Maxson's features the best and therefore would be the best mate for him.

The first 2 photos are of Maxson



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pink tag



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white tag - (her tail is not bent, she was wiggling it)

Why limit yourself? Mate both with him (unless you have another male), tag the chicks and see what you get. Sometimes you get nice birds from not so perfect parents and sometimes you get not so perfect offspring from nice parents. When that happens, I usually wait for the grandbabies because something nice usually pops up there.

 

[MrsBachbach]

@chickenmomma16
I personally would not breed the beardless, but I am just starting my Ameraucana breeding program and so far the experts have told me not to worry about some of the things that I've been worrying about LOL

For example, my only black Ameraucana with a perfect comb also has purple sheen. The purple makes her a cull, but it's sort of a bummer to me because all the others have slight imperfections in their combs. The female I have that has the best beard has a mildly bent comb. It drives me nuts because I feel like I should worry about the comb but my other female, overall, just isn't as good as the one with the mildly bent comb. So, yeah, I totally get where you're coming from.

Susan Mouw (the breeder I got my beauties from) suggested to me that the first step in choosing the best birds is to blur out the details, look at the overall confirmation of the birds first. If the major stuff looks good, then move on to the details. If you look at a bird's general shape and it does not scream "Ameraucana" then don't breed it. I believe she would tell you not to breed the beardless. The thing about recessive genes is that they are hard to get rid of once you have them. One copy of a recessive can linger in a bloodline for generations and you wouldn't even know it's there until you cross the recessive carrier to another carrier.

Beardless is not recessive. It simply means the bird isn't carrying a gene for it. It can be bred in. Mate a beardless bird to one you are sure is carrying two copies of gene and all the offspring will have at least one copy. You can even mate a beardless one to a bird carrying one copy and you still have a 25% chance of hatching some with one copy. From single copy gene birds you can work toward double copy gene birds. It can be done but there will be some hatches and culling along the way.

 

[MrsBachbach]

Personally, I wouldn't use beardless... and not sure I would use any related ones either... as one who has had beardlessness pop up and been fighting it, it is a major pain to fight to get out... jmo...

If it's popping up you have one or some in there that are single copy even though they look double. I know what you are talking about. I wouldn't get rid of a good looking bird just because it has a single copy or in her case nothing, especially if the rest are lacking in color. There is a very good chance that the rest in her flock are single copies and she will just end up producing more beardless birds with no color too! If her only problem is the muff'/beard gene, why bring in outside birds that could be other issues. Breeding for perfection is a long, long process. It gets even longer when you introduce something else into the flock. One very well known breeder said muff/beard is the easiest thing to fix with some time and hatches. It's not recessive. It's the recessive genes that are harder to fix.

 

[MrsBachbach]

I need to run something by everyone... Please bear with me. I have some WBS chicks from an early June hatch and 3 of them are beardless (2 pullets and a cockerel). When I first got them I thought no way I would keep the beardless ones long but there is a pullet and a cockerel that keeps making me second guess myself. The reason being is they have the most color in their tails and the cockerel in his breast, the cockerel is maturing the fastest, he has a super broad back and the best leg color of all my boys (even split 8 cockerels 8 pullets), he is also really dark, he was the first to get a full black chest, and he has the least amount of red coming up through his tail. Nice comb too, even pea comb from day one. So there is a lot of things pulling for this guy and it's not making it easy to cull him. I just need some advice... Here is the full sister (these 2 were the result of a single mating) to the cockerel showing the color of her tail in comparison to another pullet with the most color of my bearded girls. The rest of the 6 bearded pullets have less and less color.

Full sister to mentioned cockerel:

Darkest tail of my bearded Wheaten pullets



My gut says to just bite the bullet and cull all 3 of the beardless ones and just count it as a loss. The second beardless pullet is the only chick from one breeding pen too. But under what circumstances would allowing a beardless Ameraucana to be a breeder be acceptable? If ever?

I don't know what the rest of your flock looks like, but if you check my responses to other posters on this you will get my imput. I would keep at least one of those nice colored birds and work with it. You would be looking to improve color in the colorless ones and beards in the best colored ones. You could put it with one of your males that has the best muff/beard. The second one also has good color, barring anything else wrong, you could just use her and scrap the first if you want, but don't be surprised if you do hatch some beardless chicks, your birds could have single copies beard/muff genes. Keep an eye out for black in hackle in females. It does tend to show up in the females and males. More in the males. When choosing your male, also consider the one with the less black in hackles. So, as far as the beard/muff question, yes you could use them it just depends on how much hatching, culling and working with them you want to do.