Ameraucanas in a Nutshell (looking for pictures of Ameraucanas with defects and quality birds)

[Sc_chickengirl]

@NagemTX thankyou for sharing pictures of your birds! I will definitely use these. Also I love that you are working with that color...I haven't seen many silver Ameraucanas. I sort of got used to the Silver Duckwing color when I was breed OEGB. I love it.

 

[Sc_chickengirl]

I've always thought Satin here was a pretty good example of Black Ameraucana. Love the spread of her tail and how she carries it in movement.
But feel free to use for either case, we just won't tell her.
Her main SOP flaw is dark (brown) eyes.
From breeding her in mixes, I found that she has really strong melanizers (helpful for other purposes like addressing leakage, so I like it). She traces back to John Blehms line, but through other breeders.

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"Wide Tent" Tail
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The green shine on Black Ameraucana can be amazing in person. It's very difficult to capture in a photo because of the prismatic way the light shifts over it... but I did my best and you can see some of if here...

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And here she is as a bit of a senior now (4) with one of her mix daughters she never weaned. Still the shiniest of all.

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She's a beauty. Thankyou for sharing.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

Large Fowl Silver Ameraucana male. Defects here are crossed sickle feathers in the tail and white tips on the tail feathers

Makes him an EE then doesn't it?

 

[NagemTX]

Makes him an EE then doesn't it?

No it does not. It makes him an Ameraucana with defects. None of witch are disqualifers.

 

[NagemTX]

Disqualification traits are yellow on the bottom of the feet, no muffs or beard and having ear tuffts.

The bantam hen I have would be disqualified but is still an Ameraucana. As she can fix other issues in a silver bantam Ameraucana line. The two males I have are P/p but have full beards and muffs. She can fix the combs as she is a wonderful P/P comb that is well shaped. She also lays a nice blue egg.

I made a post regarding silvers in this thread regarding how bad a shape they are in. Very few people work with them. Defects will be present because of this. Breeding, true breeding is hard work. You can't just turn out perfect copies of an SOP. Even from great show birds. You have to start somewhere for every breed.

 

[Sc_chickengirl]

Makes him an EE then doesn't it?

No he is still an Ameraucana. I have sold some Ameraucana roosters I've had before as EEs or to be used as such because they were not fit to be used in a good Ameraucana breeding program.
Most birds that come from hatcheries will be sold as the breed but will be a very poor example of it and are sometimes not pure.
I know a lot of good breeders, especially ones that work with blues will mix andalusions and other breeds with their Ameraucanas to enhance certain traits and create better birds closer to the standard.
It's just a balance of pairing birds up to complement one another and culling heavily.

 

[NagemTX]

Hope this helps. I have the APA as well.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

No it does not. It makes him an Ameraucana with defects.

I thought that was basically the definition of Easter Egger. If an Ameraucana comes out of an egg with a rose comb he's an Easter Egger

 

[BantyChooks]

I have photos somewhere of silver ameraucanas with roach back and a dressed photo of one with a crooked keel. Posting to remind myself to look.

 

[BantyChooks]

I thought that was basically the definition of Easter Egger. If an Ameraucana comes out of an egg with a rose comb he's an Easter Egger

But no bird adheres to the standard perfectly - so if you’re doing that for defects and not DQs then, following that logic, no bird is an Ameraucana.