Ameraucana with a speckled sussex pattern?

BookWorm243

Songster
9 Years
Oct 13, 2010
2,132
12
171
Franklin, NC
I was talking with a friend about how I love the ameraucana breed and they like the coloring of a speckled sussex and it brought up this question. Has anyone ever thought about trying to create a speckled ameraucana? Is it possible?
 
Last edited:
There is a mottled Ameraucana project that a few people are working on. They are just black mottled though. I thought about doing a black mottled bantam project using a Mottle d'Anver.
 
I wouldn't cross anything that has yellow skin or lays a brown egg unless I really had to because its so hard to breed out. I would wait until the Mottleds are more available and then try to developed a speckled from there. You would have to create a more mille fleur type because speckled is just the Mille Fleur with the mahogany gene. but you would have to have mottled and then a more maghogany colored chicken to get that. I would cross a mottled Ameraucana with a speckled sussex that way you would only have to worry about egg color but alot of project colors have that problem
 
Quote:
I wasn't suggesting a cross, I was suggesting a substitute! LOL.

A Tolbunt Polish would be a good cross for creating a speckled-LOOKING Ameraucana, but they're rare as hens teeth so good luck with that. The pattern on the Tolbunt Polish appears similar but is a combination of lacing and mottling...nevertheless, you get a tri-color pattern on a mahogany base so it's pretty close. Plus you'd have the dark legs, possibly the beard, and the white egg shell to avoid too much interference with the blue egg gene.

I guess it boils down to WHY you like Ameraucanas. If it's the puffy faces like it is with me, I find the Orloffs to be the best of both worlds. (I like puffy faces and eye-popping patterns.) If it's the blue eggs, you'd have to create your own.
 
Quote:
I wasn't suggesting a cross, I was suggesting a substitute! LOL.

A Tolbunt Polish would be a good cross for creating a speckled-LOOKING Ameraucana, but they're rare as hens teeth so good luck with that. The pattern on the Tolbunt Polish appears similar but is a combination of lacing and mottling...nevertheless, you get a tri-color pattern on a mahogany base so it's pretty close. Plus you'd have the dark legs, possibly the beard, and the white egg shell to avoid too much interference with the blue egg gene.

I guess it boils down to WHY you like Ameraucanas. If it's the puffy faces like it is with me, I find the Orloffs to be the best of both worlds. (I like puffy faces and eye-popping patterns.) If it's the blue eggs, you'd have to create your own.

True, any brown egg layer or yellow legged/yellow skinned bird is a bad idea.


Tolbunt Polish are an interesting thought, and yes, the beard will stay, the blue eggs will not be harmed (granted you're using a blue egg laying Ameraucana parent) and the body is relatively close, closer in fact in both body and weight than many other breed options out there. The crest is easy to eliminate, too. Personally I'd much rather see the lacing on a Tolbunt color in Ameraucanas than your run of the mill "spangled" mottled or Mille Fleur color. The lacing just adds to the amazing elegance, plus they have the darker reddish brown instead of a normal orange brown color. I don't think it is mahogany in play though.

I agree though. If you like the winter face and the mottling, why not just go with Orloffs? Or D'Anvers? Or D'Uccles? And Easter Eggers are an easier thing to go with too.
wink.png
In fact, take lacing for example. Have a Silver Laced Wyandotte, cross it with a silver duckwing or even golden duckwing Easter Egger and you get a VERY pretty green egg layer.
smile.png
 
Wow...I've been breeding blue egg laying polish (EEs)... now I'm going to have to get some tolbunts to create some speckled Ameraucanas......
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom