Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[slick4591]

Thank you!

 

[desertmarcy]

Quote:
Splash birds can be shown in AOV if you really want to show. Anyone breeding birds with the andalusian blue gene (the gene that is responsible for the blue color in Ameraucanas and many many other breeds) is going to have to deal with splash and black birds. Splash birds may not be as desired for showing, but they can be useful for breeding...a splash hen and a black rooster will produce 100% blue chicks, no black or splash. Lots of people keep the splashes, and many people actually think they are prettier than the blues.

Crests are not part of the breed standard, therefor a DQ. Neither Ameraucanas or Araucanas have crests (at least not in the US, in the UK and I believe other European countries Araucanas can have crests and actually look a lot like the birds you have). In the US, the presence of a crest indicates that the birds are mixed with another, crested breed. It is not common because it is not a trait that is present in the breed to begin with and has to be introduced through cross breeding. Using the male on the two young pullets would create EE, not a good idea if your goal is to show your birds but just fine if you just want interesting blue/green egg layers.

Thank you for your reply, that clears things up a little. I haven't decided what to do with the two young pullets yet, they haven't started to lay yet, but I expect they will pretty soon. The crested hen, she was a terrible layer, I got a few from her and haven't seen an egg for months, if that is typical of that strain (whatever it is), then I don't think I want to use the male. I know this is the Ameraucana thread and not the EE thread, and maybe I should post this question somewhere else, but what do people usually use to get colored eggs if they just have female Ameraucanas? I have an extra Spangled Russian Orloff cockerel with too much white so I'm not using him to breed with my Orloffs, but I was thinking that might make an interesting cross.

At least the Orloffs also have beards and muffs. Does anybody know if the offspring from such a cross would lay blue or green eggs? I'm tempted to do this as an experiment and give me time to decide if I want to keep these 2 gals. The other two are going to be meals for us, I'm afraid. I'm not showing, but it was my goal to have show quality chicks to sell---but that's off the table for now for this breed.

As an aside, do you think I should contact the seller that sent me these eggs and give her feedback on what came from them? Not as a 'I want my money back' kind of feedback, just a 'hey, these were advertised as show quality and look what hatched, something else is in the background of these birds' kind of feedback. Thank you all.

 

[Katydid2011]

I would love to get some constructive and instructive feedback on my Ameraucanas. I have a black roo, black pullet, and two lavender split pullets, all shown below. (Please excuse the EE in the last photo, she's obviously not one of the birds I want feedback on.

) I purchased them from a local breeder. They are 26-weeks old in the pictures below.

 

[admhotel]

Quote:
As a breeder I would want to know if I have something weird poping up. Most serious breeders would like to know I would think. There are probley some out there that would take personally, hopefully if you word it correctly they will understand that it is constructive criticism(sp) and not be hurt by it.

On the EE question, you could breed them to the marans and make some Olive Eggers.

 

[just2rosey]

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I am an ameraucana newbie, so I won't say to much. But I just had to say WOW !!

The lacing on those blues is awesome!! Very pretty! I have one blue pullet and she isn't nearly as nice as those.

 

[Katydid2011]

Quote:
I am an ameraucana newbie, so I won't say to much. But I just had to say WOW !!

The lacing on those blues is awesome!! Very pretty! I have one blue pullet and she isn't nearly as nice as those.

Thank you! I'm a newbie when it comes to Ameraucanas too. I think this lot is lovely, too, but I don't know how to properly assess them as Ameraucanas. I'm reading, watching, learning. :0)

 

[Goose and Fig]

Quote:
I am an ameraucana newbie, so I won't say to much. But I just had to say WOW !!

The lacing on those blues is awesome!! Very pretty! I have one blue pullet and she isn't nearly as nice as those.

Thank you! I'm a newbie when it comes to Ameraucanas too. I think this lot is lovely, too, but I don't know how to properly assess them as Ameraucanas. I'm reading, watching, learning. :0)

They look good. Tail might be a bit high on the roo, but he looks hearty and healthy.As long as he's got personality you like, I wouldn't hesitate to use him as a flock leader. The blue girls and black girl seemed to have a little bit of a "pinch" in thier tails, but it might just be the angle of the pics. You want them to look like an upside down "V" when you view them from the back.

 

[Katydid2011]

Quote:
Thank you! I'm a newbie when it comes to Ameraucanas too. I think this lot is lovely, too, but I don't know how to properly assess them as Ameraucanas. I'm reading, watching, learning. :0)

They look good. Tail might be a bit high on the roo, but he looks hearty and healthy.As long as he's got personality you like, I wouldn't hesitate to use him as a flock leader. The blue girls and black girl seemed to have a little bit of a "pinch" in thier tails, but it might just be the angle of the pics. You want them to look like an upside down "V" when you view them from the back.

Ah, thank you for the input. The girls tails look exactly like an upside down "V" from the back but you're right about the angle of the pictures making them look pinched. The two lighter girls were sold to me as Lavender Splits - part of a (Cloverleaf Farm) breeding project. Are they actually blue? What's the difference between the two visually (I know that blue is a recognized color and lavender is not).

 

[pips&peeps]

They look pretty nice. The tail on the rooster looks good to me. You have to find the level area of the back and go 45 degrees off of that in a picture.

The only thing I see is that the cock bird looks like he may have gold leakage on his head by the comb.... it could just be the lighting. If he does, I would use him until you get a good enough bird to replace him.



On the birds with the crests, I had some like that when I was breeding the original Harry Shaffer lavender birds. So, they are probably carrying lavender from that original line a few years back. I culled all of mine that showed up like that and didn't have anymore after the first year.

This is why I don't like it when people use others names to sell birds.....

I didn't put their breeding pen together and neither did Paul Smith.

 

[pips&peeps]

Quote:
They look good. Tail might be a bit high on the roo, but he looks hearty and healthy.As long as he's got personality you like, I wouldn't hesitate to use him as a flock leader. The blue girls and black girl seemed to have a little bit of a "pinch" in thier tails, but it might just be the angle of the pics. You want them to look like an upside down "V" when you view them from the back.

Ah, thank you for the input. The girls tails look exactly like an upside down "V" from the back but you're right about the angle of the pictures making them look pinched. The two lighter girls were sold to me as Lavender Splits - part of a (Cloverleaf Farm) breeding project. Are they actually blue? What's the difference between the two visually (I know that blue is a recognized color and lavender is not).

Lavender is recessive and takes two copies to express. Generally as breeders we don't recommend breeding lavender to blue, but there has been some talk that doing so would get rid of the "ticking" we have seen in the lavender variety. I haven't done it yet, but was planning to this year.

Blue has lacing and different shades of blue, lavender is supposed to be a nice even shade of light blue.