Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

Nice first egg.. Do they change with time?and get more blue in color?

Ameraucana eggs can be a range of blues and therefore that is why it is important to buy from a breeder who is selectively breeding for good egg color.
I wanted to repost something Tailfeathers wrote on egg color on another thread.

"I often hear this term "Robins egg Blue" stated. Personally, from everything I've seen and everyone I've talked to that is heavily involved with the Ameraucanas, that term is over-stated and "sky blue" is a much better term. The term "Robin's egg Blue" I believe often causes disappointment from buyers who get eggs and find they are lighter than what they expected.

"Secondly, while a particular hens eggs will change "shade" slightly throughout their cycle (or with other changes such as in diet, extreme cold or heat, even environmental changes that cause stress), they will not change "color". A blue egg is not going to turn green nor vice versa. My blue egg layers stay blue egg layers. My lighter blue egg layers stay light blue egg layers. "

"Again, personally I have found that the "cycle" doesn't have anything to do with egg color but rather the things I mentioned above. That and the frequency of lay. The more often a pullet or hen lays, the lighter the eggs tend to be - BUT it does not vary "towards the end of the cycle". If I have a hen that gives me 4 or 5 eggs a week, they are all colored the same. The same on Monday as they are on Sunday. The same at the beginning of the month as the end of the month. If I have a hen that gives me 1 egg a week (which I do. Ugh!), it is the same color each time - and btw, it is a deeper blue that the one who lays more. This just makes sense as the more pigment that is stored, the more can be transferred to the egg all else being equal. "

and he suggests asking a potential seller
"What does your breeding program consist of and how do you go about it? I wonder if there is a bunch of hens thrown in with a pen a male and then eggs are collected or sold in bulk or are individual parents selected for specific traits and each progeny then followed up on to determine the results?"

This doesnt seem to be done that much on all the colored layers and its a pet peeve of mine that people sell eggs with no idea of what color the offspring will lay.​
 
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Nice first egg.. Do they change with time?and get more blue in color?

no that will be her color forever but it is pretty
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Here is a blue wheaten that Mahonri may be interested in: (Sorry about the quality of the photo, I missed a step when saving the cropped photo. And, it's really muddy here, lots of rain.... )

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See the nice clean hackles on this guy. I only got two of them this year. One is already put aside for breeding.



And here is a couple blacks, I don't know if they are black or split blacks. The are toe punched if split.

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Thanks ahappyhen and cottagegarden. This breed is new to me, lots to learn about them. Lots of colors in this breed. I am liking the blacks the best.

If I am going to get into this breed, I want like to do it right. So keep me flyin straight
 
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What is "split black"? And what does "toe punched" mean?

Carrying the recessive lavender gene. And a toe punch is a hole punched in the web of the foot to indentify different lines in your flock.
 
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There great I took your advice and tarped the coop after I lost the pullet. They are very bright and alert and one of the pullets has been exporing the nest box and should lay soon! I am also getting him two more girlfriends directly from the Smiths in Texas. I also bought an incubator. Thanks so much for helping me get these beautiful birds they are great.

Henry
 

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