barring in juvenile buff ameraucana roo [photos]

[1000islandspoultry]

I have a juvenile buff ameraucana roo that appears to have some barring on him. The foot and leg colour seem to be consistent with the ameraucana standard so far and the breeder has not seen any evidence of barring in their breeding flock of buffs. A suggestion has been made that this is not true barring, and will molt out when the adult plumage comes in.

I'll keep this fellow and see how the legs/barring develops with age.

I'm wondering if anybody else has seen barring in their ameraucanas?

He is the lower bird in this photo, shown with a "normal" bird of the same age

And the third bird on the far right in this photo

 

[Illia]

It isn't technically barring, it's actually "pencilling" or "smutty color" shal I say, except versus the normal black case, yours probably have homozygous dun (khaki colored) thus instead of having unwanted smutty black on the tips, it's a khaki color. It's common in Buff Ameraucanas, in fact crossing them out to solid colored birds really shows it up, as you can end up with dun colored offspring.

It will disappear as the birds grow up, but in some, you may continue to see signs of the lighter khaki color in the primaries or tail.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

If I were you, I would somehow mark that bird, wing band, leg band...however, just to keep track of him as he grows so you don't confuse him. If you use him for breeding, you'll know what his chicks might be throwing.

 

[1000islandspoultry]

oooh, ahhhh, smutty birds! sounds so much better when you say "dun" is a possibility

 

[Illia]

I'm confused, haha.



I mean they're smutty/sooty/pencilled/whatever you want to call it, and dun at the same time.

 

[1000islandspoultry]

oooh, a new colour....."Smuttyduns" ! Then again, me thinks he will also look good on the bbq. I'm not sure I have space for another project.

but if this guy is really homozygous dun, crossed him to say...a black...then crossed the F1s could I get some dun birds? then dunxdun = chocolate (the dun chocolate kind, not the sex linked recessive chocs) ????

 

[stitch_b]

I've got a week old that I think has the same thing going on. I kinda like it but I don't plan on showing and may not bye able to keep (him). I can already make out three rows in the comb so not getting my hopes up...

 

[Illia]

Chocolate and Dun are two completely different genes. Dun works a lot like blue, where dun (the chocolate-mimic) is heterozygous like blue. On a Buff, it is practically invisible. Khaki is the homozygous version, like splash, and is what is shown on the birds in question. Then of course there's black.


Crossing a khaki to a black (buff bird with tiny, tiny hints of black on it or tiny hints of darker color) gives birds with very proper Buff coloration. Crossing khaki to a dun (a normal looking Buff when closely inspecting feathers) gives both dun and khaki.

One way you can test your birds' possibilities of carrying dun genes in the first place, if you have the time, is by hatching a couple out-crosses. I've done an accidental Buff Ameraucana x Black Cochin before and ended up with several dun colored birds and one black, meaning the Buff hen was heterozygous for dun. I know for a fact though that my current cockerel is homozygous - He's got apparent khaki in his tail and never thrown chicks with any signs or hints of black when bred to other Buffs.

 

[1000islandspoultry]

Thanks so much for your information - I'm new to these guys so appreciate it very much! I have black, buff, white, lav and wheatens - so I could easily do the buff x black test to see if it has the dun genes and it might be interesting from a learning perspective.

From how I interpret what you are saying, a buff bird with the khaki gene could actually be beneficial in a breeding flock in order to maintain a good buff color (and eliminate any noticible traces of black that shows through the buff). But then again, if I have lots of buff roos to choose from that are solid already with none of the "smutty barring" should I just keep one or two of them as my breeding roo? I'm trying to figure out in the long run what roos would be better to keep as I don't have a lot of space for multiples.