Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[pamperedamber]

Black is solid black. Yellow Orange tag is very clearly Blue.

Thank you very much.
He is so much darker than the others that i was not sure. He has started to mate so I will be pulling eggs to check for fertility.

 

[cree57i]

Could I get some opinions of this cockerel. He is 9 months old.




He is on alert in this picture.

 

[EastNashChick]

Just got a new Android and hoping I can actually submit photos from my mobile device to the forums again! Things look OK from this end. These are my black AM rooster, Orion, and one of my blue AM hens, Jolene. We are currently not getting any eggs but we have 5 hens and two roosters currently, so I know that's not helping us start back up any more quickly for sure!

 

[EastNashChick]

To cree571 -

I'm a novice and don't show, but he's absolutely perfect to me! Gorgeous type, posture, and what a perfect comb! His feathering seems a bit loose with his tail looking a bit picked, but could be other birds, or sleeping next to the coop wall can damage them. Really a minor flaw anyway. I think he's excellent.

 

[cree57i]

To cree571 -

I'm a novice and don't show, but he's absolutely perfect to me! Gorgeous type, posture, and what a perfect comb! His feathering seems a bit loose with his tail looking a bit picked, but could be other birds, or sleeping next to the coop wall can damage them. Really a minor flaw anyway. I think he's excellent.

Thank you. He has a very small coop . There are only 5 of them in there, but it is full. I am still learning about AM's and appreciate the much more educated appraisals from you guys!

 

[samouw]

Ok, crash course in (very) basic genetics, without getting into meiosis, mitosis, halitosis..or any of those other -osis terms that muddle things up.

There are basically two types of genes - dominant and recessive. Each chicken, for that matter each of us, has two copies of every genetic trait. One side comes from the male parent and one comes from the female parent. A dominant trait is a bossy trait - it's going to show its stuff, even if only one side is the dominant one. A recessive trait is the wallflower - it has to be coaxed out in public, and then only if it is holding hands with its twin.

Without getting into incomplete dominance, crossing over, epistatic, codominance, or any of those other complicated processes by which new, and truly unique individuals are created, lets say that we have a trait called "lavender". Lavender is a true recessive, so it will only show its face in public if it is paired with another just like it. If the dominant "lavender" gene shows up, it keeps the weaker, recessive side in a corner.

When referring to various genetic traits, it is easier to express them as letters, rather than spelling them out completely. And, typically, the recessive is expressed as a small letter, or "l", and the dominant, bully, side is expressed as a capital, "L". So, if both parents can only contribute a dominant "L", the baby will have "LL", or be "homozygous dominant" and will not express, or show, any lavender coloration. Are you with me so far?

Now, let's say that one parent is this homozygous dominant, but the other parent is carrying one dominant "L" and one recessive "l". That recessive "l" is not going to be expressed in that parent, because the bully "L" is keeping it in the corner, but it can share that "l" with its children. Since the other parent can only contribute the dominant "L", those children that receive the recessive "l" from this parent will all be "splits" - or heterozygous with the "Ll". Of course, those children, just liked its mixed parent, will not show lavender coloration.

But, if you take that mixed "Ll" and breed it to another "split" "Ll", then there is a possibility that each parent will contribute the recessive "l" to one, or more, of its children. Those children will be "ll", or homozygous recessive. And guess what color they will be? Lavender. Since there is no bully dominant trait to keep it in a corner, those shy little twins will march right out in public and say, "here we are!".

One of the most useful tools in contemplating genetics is the Punnett Square. It was developed a very long time ago, by an early geneticist named, of course, Reginald C Punnett, who was also the Professor of Genetics at the prestigious Cambridge University. It is a very simple little tool for calculating the odds of, either getting what you want from a breeding or anticipating what you don't want. Here is how it works.

L​

L
L​

l​

I've put the letters representing each parent's genetic indicators for lavender - the male across the top (in blue) and the female down the side (in red). Remember our male is homozygous dominant, "LL" and our female is heterozygous, or "Ll" - also known as split for lavender.

In each square I copy the corresponding letter from each parent, so in the first "child" row and in the first "child" column, I copy the blue "L" from above and the red "L" from the left. And I continue that process until all the "child" squares are full.

L​

L
L​

LL​

LL
l​

Ll​

Ll​

Two of the four child squares are "LL", or homyzygous dominant, just like their daddy. Two of the child squares are "Ll", just like their mom. None of these children will be lavender, but two of them, or 50%, could pass on the lavender trait.

You can play with this Punnett Square to see what other possible combinations can be achieved. Each child square represents, statistically, 25% of the children from that breeding.

Ok, I'm moving away from the podium for a while. Hope this helps.

Ok...bringing this back up and blowing off the dust. In another thread, someone stated that "blue does not breed true" and I showed, using the Punnett Square, how it actually does breed true. Just as a side note - any color variety approved by APA/ABA must breed true, in order to have ever been accepted into the Standard. While I used "L" for lavender in this example, we can do the same thing with blue, using the letters "bl" for blue. The difference is that "bl" is one of those dominant genes that, even if alone, will show itself. Since blue is dominant, we show it in capital letters - "Bl" and since every chick gets one copy from the dad and one from the mom, we show it twice - "Blbl". Note that the second copy of the blue gene is in lower case, which denotes the recessive (or "shy") version of the blue gene. Because blue is dominant, only one copy needs to be present in the dominant form for the chick to be blue. In fact, if both copies are in the dominant form "BlBl", then the color genetics gets a double dose of the blue dilution gene and the chick will be splash.

Here is what a blue cockbird over a blue hen will produce, using the Punnett Square:



So, from this we can determine that a blue cockbird (Blbl) bred to a blue hen (Blbl) will produce, statistically, 25% black (blbl - no blue dilution available), 25% splash (BlBl - double dose of the blue dilution gene) and 50% blue (Blbl - just like the parents)

 

[FowlStuff]

Just so no one is mislead, note that blue (Bl) does not breed true and the APA/ABA does not require that breeds and/or varieties breed true, only...
Quote: http://www.amerpoultryassn.com/ARTI...Laws Adding Breeds-Varieties to Standard.pdf
Read more here...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/683425/lavender-ameraucana-breeders-unite/2590#post_18013745

 

[samouw]

...that it produces not less than 50% of all specimens reasonably true to type, color, size and comb.

exactly

 

[samouw]

2017 New Member Drawing!
​

Every year, at our National Meet, we put all the new member's names, that have joined since the last National, into a hat and draw out one winner. So far, since we started this program, we've shipped out two incubators, and one Eco Glow 20 Brooder Heater.

This year's award will be this Premier 1 Brooder Heater, 12"x12", for up to 20 chicks, with the cover! These are the heaters that I use and love them!

Members do not need to be present to win. Drawing will held at our 2017 National Meet, at the Minnesota State Poultry Show, 10/28-29/2017, Hutchinson, MN.

To enter, just join the ABC! You can join online at ameraucanabreedersclub.org/membership.html

 

[rb roosting]

For a variety to recognized it only has to breed true 50% of the time. Blue does not breed "true" it breeds "true 50% of the time" the other 25% is splash and the other 25% black.