Easter Eggers-What breeds do YOU prefer to cross your Ameraucanas with?

[draye]

My favorite EE cros is EE to EE. I have a few that are Ameraucana EE crosses.
As Far as beardless goes I have 1 that is beardless and a Olive Egger that is beardless. I get a bearedless one to hatch out once in a while, I don't usually keep those though, I really like the bearded ones best.

 

[Ridgerunner]

and to get good eggs make sure the leghorn or other is a roo and amaricuana is a girl

teh male gene carries the egg quantity

I've never heard of this. Could you please give a reference or link to where you read this. Thanks.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The blue in an Ameraucana is the Blue/Black/Splash (B/B/S) type of blue. It should be pure for extended black and it is split for the blue gene. That means it has one blue gene and one not-blue gene. It can give either the blue or the not-blue to its offspring, but they will all get an extended black.

The way the blue gene works with extended black is that two not-blue genes gives you a black bird, one blue gene and one not-blue gene gives you a blue bird, and two blue genes gives you a splash bird. If your Ameraucana rooster is a true Ameraucana, it will give an extended black gene to all of its offspring and may or may not give a blue gene to its offspring.

I'm not sure what "blue" the Andalusian or Maran have. I think the Maran is the same Blue/Black/Splash genes as the Ameraucana, but I think the Andalusian has a different genetic make-up to get blue. But I'm not 100% sure about either one. If it is the same B/B/S genes, you will get some black, some blue, and some splash from this cross. You should also get blue, black, and splash if you breed two B/B/S Ameraucanas.

Buff is a bit tricky. There are different ways to make buff and it can have some interesting effects. In theory, crossing a B/B/S blue Ameraucana with a Buff Orpington will give you blue and black offspring, but I would not be surprised to see a lot of buff on it too. I've seen pictures of really pretty chickens with a cross between a buff and black.

Your Speckled Sussex hen should give you both black and blue chicks. You could easily get a few red or gold feathers scattered in there, especially with the male offspring, but these should be pretty basic black or blue.

Your B/B/S rooster over a Barred Rock hen will give you sex links. The males will be barred and the females will not be barred. Some chicks will be black and some will be blue. You should be able to see the spot real well on the black chicks but I'm not sure you will be able to on the blue chicks. I think you will be able to but I haven't had any blue chicks so I'm not sure what the down actually looks like.

The way the egg color genetics work, the Ameraucana should be pure for the blue gene and it should have no brown. There is one pair of genes that determine the base egg color, either blue or white. Blue is dominant, so if the bird has just one blue gene, the base color will be blue. But there are a lot of different genes that determine brown. How these different brown genes go together determines what shade of brown gets put on the egg. This might help explain how it works.

Base blue + no brown = blue
Base blue + brown = green
Base white + no brown = white
Base white + brown = brown

Chickens inherit these genes from both parents. If your Maran lays dark brown eggs, you should get olive green eggs from that cross.

Since the blue egg gene is dominant and a true Ameraucana is pure for the blue egg gene and has no brown, all his offspring will have one blue egg gene. So they will all be either blue or green, depending on what the hen contributes in the way of brown.

I don’t know if the beard or muffs are dominant or not. I can’t help you with that.

 

[QuailQT]

I do a Leghorn Cross all the time. I don't think it really make a difference whether you us a pullet or roo for the cross. They will get genes from both parents.... like olive eggers do.

In my siggy is my Super Blue Egg Layers and there are pics of mine if you want to look.

Very pretty birds!

 

[DMRippy]

Quote: Thanks... expecting eggs any day

 

[1muttsfan]

The B/BL/Splash color is also known as Andalusian blue, originating in that breed (as opposed to self-blue, also called lavender after the gene that regulates it)

 

[chicks@feathers]

Cross them with Marans and you get the olive egger

 

[QuailQT]

The blue in an Ameraucana is the Blue/Black/Splash (B/B/S) type of blue. It should be pure for extended black and it is split for the blue gene. That means it has one blue gene and one not-blue gene. It can give either the blue or the not-blue to its offspring, but they will all get an extended black.
The way the blue gene works with extended black is that two not-blue genes gives you a black bird, one blue gene and one not-blue gene gives you a blue bird, and two blue genes gives you a splash bird. If your Ameraucana rooster is a true Ameraucana, it will give an extended black gene to all of its offspring and may or may not give a blue gene to its offspring.
I'm not sure what "blue" the Andalusian or Maran have. I think the Maran is the same Blue/Black/Splash genes as the Ameraucana, but I think the Andalusian has a different genetic make-up to get blue. But I'm not 100% sure about either one. If it is the same B/B/S genes, you will get some black, some blue, and some splash from this cross. You should also get blue, black, and splash if you breed two B/B/S Ameraucanas.
Buff is a bit tricky. There are different ways to make buff and it can have some interesting effects. In theory, crossing a B/B/S blue Ameraucana with a Buff Orpington will give you blue and black offspring, but I would not be surprised to see a lot of buff on it too. I've seen pictures of really pretty chickens with a cross between a buff and black.
Your Speckled Sussex hen should give you both black and blue chicks. You could easily get a few red or gold feathers scattered in there, especially with the male offspring, but these should be pretty basic black or blue.
Your B/B/S rooster over a Barred Rock hen will give you sex links. The males will be barred and the females will not be barred. Some chicks will be black and some will be blue. You should be able to see the spot real well on the black chicks but I'm not sure you will be able to on the blue chicks. I think you will be able to but I haven't had any blue chicks so I'm not sure what the down actually looks like.
The way the egg color genetics work, the Ameraucana should be pure for the blue gene and it should have no brown. There is one pair of genes that determine the base egg color, either blue or white. Blue is dominant, so if the bird has just one blue gene, the base color will be blue. But there are a lot of different genes that determine brown. How these different brown genes go together determines what shade of brown gets put on the egg. This might help explain how it works.
Base blue + no brown = blue
Base blue + brown = green
Base white + no brown = white
Base white + brown = brown
Chickens inherit these genes from both parents. If your Maran lays dark brown eggs, you should get olive green eggs from that cross.
Since the blue egg gene is dominant and a true Ameraucana is pure for the blue egg gene and has no brown, all his offspring will have one blue egg gene. So they will all be either blue or green, depending on what the hen contributes in the way of brown.
I don’t know if the beard or muffs are dominant or not. I can’t help you with that.

I'll take some chick pics when I get some. Thank you for the great info! i don't know how someone can keep all of this straight! I have read it probably 3 times already and I'm sure I'll refer back to it again and again.

 

[Ridgerunner]

This is what I was talking about with your Speckled Sussex hen cross with the Blue Ameraucana rooster. This is actually a rooster from a Speckled Sussex rooster over a Black Australorp hen cross, but I'd think your cross will give a similar result. All my roosters from this cross had these random colored feathers, sometimes gold like this and sometimes darker red, but all the hens were pure black. The major difference is that I'd expect some of yours to be black and some blue.

But you never really know until you hatch some. You can sometimes have surprises. The parents are not always as pure as you sometimes think.

Good luck! You should get some interesting chicks.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

I'm working on a Production Easter Egger project by which I mean that I want an EE that productively lays a large sized egg with good shell qualities and a nice blue or green color. I have a tractor of nine EE girls of various color and patterns (mostly dark) and two white EE roosters (they could be described as Ameracaunas) to contribute the blue egg genes. To contribute better productivity I mixed in a tractor of commercial White Leghorns, another of ISA Brown commercial red sex-links, and a commercial White Leghorn rooster.

I ended up hatching more or less equal numbers of eggs from the three tractors (52 in all) and what did I end up with for feather color and pattern?

Overwhelmingly white though some have interesting black leakage in a sort of paint pattern.

There are two with the vaguely bald eagle pattern of dark brown over white like you see to the right and two with the pale gold over white like the one in front of him. The rest are overwhelmingly white with some scattered black leakage.

They're only about seven weeks old now so I expect colors and patterns to change a bit more after they molt out their last set of juvenile feathers, but I don't think it's going to be a big change.

I'll start culling out the boys over the next several weeks. The girls are going to take longer because I really want to see what I've got. If I could get the best of all possible worlds from this I'll eventually end up with a yellow skinned bird with a single comb that lays a large pretty blue egg and lots of them. It would be nice if htey could all be the size of a good dual-purpose breed too, but I'll settle for a Leghorn body if they get their comb too. We'll see.