Hobby Breeding — Steps involved to create Barred Ameraucanas?

[Percheron chick]

I thought about that. My BR pullet lays a light brown egg, but the light brown pigment over a blue egg would still make it look olive/green, right?

correct.
Going white +blue will result in a pale blue and the fix will be just adding strong blue pure Ameraucana .

 

[cluckingheck]

It wouldn’t be overly hard, it would be fine to do blue x light brown

So, I do have some white leghorn pullets. Breeding my BR rooster to them would produce an even lighter brown egg? Or would it be about the same? I know with white eggs, there’s no pigment painted on and blue eggs are the same way. Since the shell of brown eggs are already white, i image that cross wouldn’t do much to change the egg color, if at all.

 

[JadeFarms]

So, I do have some white leghorn pullets. Breeding my BR rooster to them would produce an even lighter brown egg? Or would it be about the same? I know with white eggs, there’s no pigment painted on and blue eggs are the same way. Since the shell of brown eggs are already white, i image that cross wouldn’t do much to change the egg color, if at all.

Well white may just make the blue eggs too light. I would stick to blue x brown.

 

[JadeFarms]

To get olive eggs you have to do blue x very dark brown. That’s why people do Easter Eggers/ legbars/ameraucanas x maran a to make olive Eggers.

 

[cluckingheck]

correct.
Going white +blue will result in a pale blue and the fix will be just adding strong blue pure Ameraucana .

How hard would it be to fix if I just used the light brown egg layer? Would I ever be able to breed out the brown pigment?

 

[JadeFarms]

How hard would it be to fix if I just used the light brown egg layer? Would I ever be able to breed out the brown pigment?

Very simple, your F1 would most likely lay blue.

 

[cluckingheck]

Very simple, your F1 would most likely lay blue.

Ah, okay! I guess this is just the kind of bridge I’ll have to cross when I get there. It might be a bit until I’m actually able to do anything. Daria is making me wait for those blue eggs ( she’s 34 weeks old now and still no eggs )

 

[JadeFarms]

Ah, okay! I guess this is just the kind of bridge I’ll have to cross when I get there. It might be a bit until I’m actually able to do anything. Daria is making me wait for those blue eggs ( she’s 34 weeks old now and still no eggs )

Mine waited till she was like 9 or 10 months to start laying I’m working on a cuckoo ameraucana project.

 

[Nigel27]

So, I could breed any gender of the F1 offspring with the best qualities to the ameraucanas? I didn’t know if doing a black ameraucana over a female barred F1 offspring would produce the male barred & black female sex-link? Sorry, have a very limited understanding of chicken genetics

It would be better not to create a sex link because it’d be harder to make barred ameraucanas. Do BR over ameraucana.

Very simple, your F1 would most likely lay blue.

F1 would all be heterozygous for blue eggs (assuming mom is homozygous) second generation x would be quarter homozygous blue, half heterozygous(blue dominant) and quarter heterozygous brown. F2 generation would be where combs would start popping up and those birds would be far less likely to be carrying the blue gene(not the same gene but closely associated in Araucana breeds). So to assure your cock has at least one blue gene keep one from F1 generation or hatch sex link w heterozygous blue laying mom for cock stock. Or you could end up with half brown layers

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

Is there any reason you aren't looking to get a barred Ameraucana from an established line to bring this into your flock? There are existing barred Ameraucanas that pretty much meet standard in every way except shank color—it's proving darn near impossible to get slate shanks on barred birds.

I suspect it would be easier to acquire a spare cockerel or some hatching eggs from barred ameraucanas than it would be to track down a barred holland or *good* barred leghorn. You absolutely CAN NOT use white leghorns for this.