Feather and egg colors in EE, Ameraucana, & Araucana?

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Columbian is the name of a gene that causes reverse color next to the rachis of a feather. Look up Delaware chickens and pay attention to the neck and hackle feathers. That is a good example of the effect of Columbian.

The combination of Columbian plus Melanotic plus Pattern genes is what makes single lacing as in Silver Laced Wyandottes. If you take away the Columbian gene, the combination of Pattern and Melanotic gives a double laced effect similar to the EE chicken posted. I have a couple of double laced chickens which just means that I have not yet stabilized Columbian in the breeding population.

My birds lay blue eggs. That is what I have been working to achieve since 2013. I want single laced Silver Laced Wyandottes that lay large blue eggs. This means I have a lot of work to do to reduce the influence of the porphyrin genes. In other words, I have to turn off the brown pigment that causes olive eggs. I have two genes in my birds to do this. The first is the intense white gene from the blue egg laying Brown Leghorn parent. The second is the disabled porphyrin biopath again from the Brown Leghorn parents. The genetics involved are complex but I am very close to having a stable breeding line that looks like Silver Laced Wyandotte and lays blue eggs. Along the way, I had to go through a phase with a lot of hens that look like Golden Laced Wyandottes but laying blue eggs.

Delawares aren’t the best example of columbian, since they also have barring. Columbian rocks, light sussex, and light brahmas are all good examples of silver columbian.

 

[lh123]

Got it, thanks!

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Emma, actually, the type of color & pattern I like looks much closer to the wild Red Jungle fowl hens than the Wyandot. To me anyway. I think the confusion is my misunderstanding of what "barring" or "lacing" is. I'm not familiar with pattern terminology.
https://what-when-how.com/birds/red-junglefowl-birds/
So, I guess this is what people refer to when they say they are trying to breed away from wild type coloring. I think they're really pretty.

Barring is white stripes/bars on individual feathers. Here are some examples.

Barred cream gold duckwing- cream legbar (not my picture).

Barred blue with leakage- mixed breed.

Barred black- barred rock (not my picture).

Barred black- Dominique.

A couple examples of lacing.

Silver laced- silver laced wyandotte.

Golden laced- gold sebright.

 

[lh123]

Barring is white stripes/bars on individual feathers. Here are some examples.

Barred cream gold duckwing- cream legbar (not my picture).
View attachment 2580685

Thanks RAA. That's clear. I guess I'm not looking for either. The patterns I like are black or dark brown over light brown or gold. Like the neck feathers in the CL. or reversed light and dark. Or just vertically lined darker striping on the neck combined with the wild type pattern on the rest of the bird. Is this partridge or pencil patterning?

I think I'm looking for precisely the color variations that Ameracauna breeders tried so very hard to get away from and succeeded. lol.

EDIT to include photos from random online search. I like the ones that are lighter in front, like the 4th photo. They look more like older type early chickens to me.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Thanks RAA. That's clear. I guess I'm not looking for either. The patterns I like are black or dark brown over light brown or gold. Like the neck feathers in the CL. or reversed light and dark. Or just vertically lined darker striping on the neck combined with the wild type pattern on the rest of the bird. Is this partridge or pencil patterning?

I think I'm looking for precisely the color variations that Ameracauna breeders tried so very hard to get away from and succeeded. lol.

EDIT to include photos from random online search. I like the ones that are lighter in front, like the 4th photo. They look more like older type early chickens to me.

That pattern is mixed, so doesn’t exactly fit a specific variety. It could be called “partial penciling” or “messy double lacing”. Though the second to last picture looks like a gold duckwing.
Your best bet to get chicks of that color is to get a bunch of brown EE chicks. If you don’t end up with any that look like that, you could cross in a penciled or partridge chicken with your EEs to create that mixed look.
Though I’ve also seen columbian x partridge/penciled crosses that looked much the same as those EEs.

 

[lh123]

That pattern is mixed, so doesn’t exactly fit a specific variety. It could be called “partial penciling” or “messy double lacing”. Though the second to last picture looks like a gold duckwing.
Your best bet to get chicks of that color is to get a bunch of brown EE chicks. If you don’t end up with any that look like that, you could cross in a penciled or partridge chicken with your EEs to create that mixed look.
Though I’ve also seen columbian x partridge/penciled crosses that looked much the same as those EEs.

Thanks RAA, very helpful! I was picking out the lighter chipmunk looking chicks before as much as possible and didn't get too many of that color.

Partial penciling/messy double lacing is good enough by me. I'm thinking of getting a cream legbar for consistent egg color or trying to find a roo from an EE breeder consistent egg color. Maybe I can even find an EE breeder who has already done some work for that coloring. IDK about the Ameracaunas, I think the coloring has been well bred out. Plus CL should be good egg laying genetics. I did find one old Austrian breed with that primitive coloring that layed white eggs, but it's a rare chicken breed and I don't think they're in the US. Will have to look further.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Thanks RAA, very helpful! I was picking out the lighter chipmunk looking chicks before as much as possible and didn't get too many of that color.

Partial penciling/messy double lacing is good enough by me. I'm thinking of getting a cream legbar for consistent egg color or trying to find a roo from an EE breeder consistent egg color. Maybe I can even find an EE breeder who has already done some work for that coloring. IDK about the Ameracaunas, I think the coloring has been well bred out. Plus CL should be good egg laying genetics. I did find one old Austrian breed with that primitive coloring that layed white eggs, but it's a rare chicken breed and I don't think they're in the US. Will have to look further.

That particular mixed coloring isn’t in ameraucanas. Here are a couple threads with pictures of EEs from chicks to adults that might help you- https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...umage-chicks-vs-adults-post-your-pics.308323/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/easter-eggers-growth-from-chicks-to-adults.893749/.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Hello, I'm hoping to move and be in a position to get chickens within a year. I've had Easter Eggers in the past and really enjoy them, but would like chickens that all lay blue or blue/green eggs. I also like a feather color variation in the EEs very much- a gold color with darker markings on the feathers. Below is a pic I found on a quick google image search that has that feather coloration.

A few questions, if anyone has any feedback?
1. I don't see that this color matches any of the Ameraucana recognized colors??? A little confused here- personally I think these are very pretty chickens and I always picked chicks that I thought might be that color as adults.
2. If I remember right the chickens I had that were that color tended to lay green or light brown eggs- not blue. Or ??? maybe it was just one hen that I tracked down which eggs were hers?? I don't remember. What color eggs do your gold/black hens lay?
3. is this color a throwback to a different breed? They look kinda sorta like cream leghorns but not really.
4. I picked chicks at feedstores that I thought would be that color but didn't always make the right choice. Does anyone have photos of chicks that turned out to be that color variation?

Next chickens I get I'd like to try breeding them for that color and blue or blue green eggs. Just for myself- it's something I'd enjoy. I know I won't have the time or space in my life to create a good breed. I just want healthy and color in my backyard.

The color pattern just looks Partridge Brown to me.

 

[lh123]

That particular mixed coloring isn’t in ameraucanas. Here are a couple threads with pictures of EEs from chicks to adults that might help you- https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...umage-chicks-vs-adults-post-your-pics.308323/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/easter-eggers-growth-from-chicks-to-adults.893749/.

Thank you soooo much!!

 

[MysteryChicken]

Here's some silver pencilling.