Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[Ray_n_Debi]

I hatched four little wheatens a couple of weeks ago. I just wanted to add a few more blue egg layers to my flock. I had a silver pullet. I think she is beautiful, but you could not handle her. I ended up re homing her since she was not to happy in my mixed flock. I decided to try wheatens because from what I read they have some of the best egg color and are not as flighty as the silvers.

Well I have to say I am quite taken with these chicks. I like friendly birds and these babies are definitely that. They always jump on me and love to be held. They fall asleep in my hand all the time. They are making me rethink what breeds I want to work with. I am really liking their personalities.

I do have a question. Do the blacks have similar personalities to the wheatens? As in not flighty and being friendly.

Mine do. I love my Ameraucanas!

. They come to greet me and are very friendly!

 

[ashandvine]

I was thinking about crossing blue AM with Lav for improvements instead of black-- I just like the blues better and if I am going to experiment I figure I should like what I have, but I am not clear on whether blue/lav splits occur the same as lav/black splits. Help??

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

I was thinking about crossing blue AM with Lav for improvements instead of black-- I just like the blues better and if I am going to experiment I figure I should like what I have, but I am not clear on whether blue/lav splits occur the same as lav/black splits. Help??

It does work the same way, and you will actually get both blue/lav split and black/lav split, but be prepared to be told not to do it on this thread....(but do it anyway, you'll get some REALLY nice birds)

Also, you will need to breed very carefully after you make the cross, and grow out what you have before you sell chicks most likely, because if you choose to cross the resulting offspring together, you'll get black, blue, splash, and lavender, and some will be split, and some won't, and you won't know who is and who isn't unless you test breed them. I would recommend making the cross, and then only breeding the blue/lav splits back to lavender.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:
I think Silkie folks must do it. Both my Silkie (lavender) splits are dark blue. I asked on a Silkie thread about the practice but didn't get a response.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

I hatched four little wheatens a couple of weeks ago. I just wanted to add a few more blue egg layers to my flock. I had a silver pullet. I think she is beautiful, but you could not handle her. I ended up re homing her since she was not to happy in my mixed flock. I decided to try wheatens because from what I read they have some of the best egg color and are not as flighty as the silvers.

Well I have to say I am quite taken with these chicks. I like friendly birds and these babies are definitely that. They always jump on me and love to be held. They fall asleep in my hand all the time. They are making me rethink what breeds I want to work with. I am really liking their personalities.

I do have a question. Do the blacks have similar personalities to the wheatens? As in not flighty and being friendly.

I can't comment on Wheaten personalities because I've never had them but I do know my blacks (and blues) are NUTTY friendly. Both males and females. I don't seem to have enough lap space for all of them!!!

(I have the odd bird that would prefer not to be touched - tolerates it but would prefer hands off - but I wouldn't call them flighty.)

 

[heatherscooby77]

GO FOR IT!!!!!!! We won't know until we try. There is the chicken calculators, but what happened before that was around? I thought about doing the same thing. Especially because I have some blues that have awesome body type, but they don't have the darn lacing or edging. I really want to buy some chicks, but it seems like everyone is done hatching, or has to many orders to fill. I am trying to stay away from the ones that have the blonde on them. You also need to have black chickens, to get the nice blues. Splash rooster, black hens, all blue chicks!!!!!!!!!

I was thinking about crossing blue AM with Lav for improvements instead of black-- I just like the blues better and if I am going to experiment I figure I should like what I have, but I am not clear on whether blue/lav splits occur the same as lav/black splits. Help??

 

[Goose and Fig]

I've always been told that sure- blues may improve your lavs, BUT lavs will mess up your BBS. I wouldn't want to pass that kind of poor feather quality onto any other variety, and it can lead to confusion down the road.

That being said- I outcrossed mine to marans and it seems to have helped a little bit. Egg color may suffer slightly, but getting rid of the fretting would be well worth the effort, IMO.

This is one of the project birds (juvenile), taken a few weeks ago. Some of you may have seen this on FB or ABC :

 

[BarnGoddess01]

I've always been told that sure- blues may improve your lavs, BUT lavs will mess up your BBS. I wouldn't want to pass that kind of poor feather quality onto any other variety, and it can lead to confusion down the road.

That being said- I outcrossed mine to marans and it seems to have helped a little bit. Egg color may suffer slightly, but getting rid of the fretting would be well worth the effort, IMO.

This is one of the project birds (juvenile), taken a few weeks ago. Some of you may have seen this on FB or ABC :

This is actually VERY helpful! I have loads to work with in the B/B/S pen (so no lavs or splits will be sneaking in there) but I need help in my lavender pen so this helps!! Thank you!

 

[heatherscooby77]

Is the fretting the sort of cuckoo look? If not what is it? I love learning new stuff!

I've always been told that sure- blues may improve your lavs, BUT lavs will mess up your BBS. I wouldn't want to pass that kind of poor feather quality onto any other variety, and it can lead to confusion down the road.

That being said- I outcrossed mine to marans and it seems to have helped a little bit. Egg color may suffer slightly, but getting rid of the fretting would be well worth the effort, IMO.

This is one of the project birds (juvenile), taken a few weeks ago. Some of you may have seen this on FB or ABC :

 

[AinaWGSD]

Is the fretting the sort of cuckoo look? If not what is it? I love learning new stuff!

No, the sort of cuckoo look on that bird is actually barring. Fretting is very small dark flecks, just a little darker than the rest of the feather color, usually most noticeable in the hackles. Here's DMrippy's rooster from about 3 pages back. It's not really obvious, but he does have some fretting if you look closely. It's not the most obvious example of fretting, just the first one I came across as I was going back through posts.