Lavender Ameraucana Breeders .... UNITE

[Shaffer]

Harry this is one of my original birds hatched from your eggs lol!!! She is nice and hasn't been culled after several years so that should tell you something.

I have a couple of lavs now that are the resulting offspring from my Smith splits. I will post pics later when I take some. I have one female I like pretty well. I did learn from breeding half brother to half sister from same cock that recessive white is in the genotype. I'm growing out two of those white ones just because I think they are interesting. I don't know if they are genetically lav or splits, but phenotypically they are WHITE. The leg color is very light; lighter than the lavs.

Cindy,
I was using a Smith bird on some of them and that hen looks more Smiths than the ones I kept for myself. You should have been using her to the ultimate for more offsprings with that nice of feathering. I have been getting some real nice Lav Orps but most of my Ameraucanas are a bit fluffy yet. I think I still have her mother which I am still using but no eggs now they stopped laying and only gotten a few chicks for next year that will be keepers hopefully. Good luck and you are fortunate to be working with Paul on these.

 

[CRYSTALCREEK]

That is a really nice muff on that age chick; most likely homozygous and will pass on muffs even when bred to a clean faced bird. A definite keeper there. Thanks for sharing!

Harry I lost a lot of enthusiasm this past 12 months especially with the lack of support from some founding members in the ABC of the lavender effort. I almost ditched the project entirely. I still have some very good birds and will keep trucking along, but three pens of birds was too much for me to handle and still enjoy. I had to scale back to make it more enjoyable again. I have a Dec pullet I like. I will have to get a picture of her. I also have two splits out of my Smith split hen I call "Showgirl" who are very nice, but I'm thinking they weren't fast feathered chicks as I had red bands on their right legs, which usually means "cull;" I will have to go back and look through all my notes and see if that is what I meant or if I actually had a hatch date labeled by red bands.....

I am growing out some Blehm chicks to see if any can add some merit to the genepool here; so far nothing is jumping out at me. I like that chick Barngoddess posted very well. It may be another generation before I have double muffs like that. Was working on other structural issues first; and I believe most of my breeders were hetero for muffs so getting good full muffs is only a one in four chance around here.

Clare (dak) is another working heavily with Smith birds to improve the genepool....she was hatching some nice babies earlier this year; we need to get her on this thread and see where she's at with those juveniles....

 

[CRYSTALCREEK]

I thought since I have a sequence of photos of one particular bird I would post them here, to show development over time. This male had a very nice tail upon maturity, but is one of those birds that was slow to get one....I think the consensus we reached was the presence of the K gene, which I am still not entirely convinced is a bad thing, although I have been working to select against the presence of K for a year now. The male I have presently still carries one copy, I believe, so I may be spinning my wheels with regard to "K".

Anyway, here he is chick to chopping block; he is no longer with us. This bird did get quite blonde with age in the sickle and hackle areas with sun exposure in free range situation

In addition to K+, he was heterozygous for muffs/beard, and he carried recessive white. Never know what's in those genes! Most of my birds will have this guy in the background somewhere.....

 

[Shaffer]

Cindy,
I only have one Lavender Ameraucana rooster left since I lost my two best two years ago. All the males I used this year were tested for recessive genes. Since I have Orps it is easy to test mate without carrying over odd birds to do so. I still have 3-4 year old females that I started with and I kept going back to birds from my old EE's I started with since my Orps never have crooked beaks, feathered legs, bantam size or color issues as bad. I will PM you with my thoughts. Harry

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Cindy,
I only have one Lavender Ameraucana rooster left since I lost my two best two years ago. All the males I used this year were tested for recessive genes. Since I have Orps it is easy to test mate without carrying over odd birds to do so. I still have 3-4 year old females that I started with and I kept going back to birds from my old EE's I started with since my Orps never have crooked beaks, feathered legs, bantam size or color issues as bad. I will PM you with my thoughts. Harry

Harry,

If you are willing, I don't think any of us would mind if you shared those thoughts with us .... I KNOW, I'd LOVE to learn ....

Barb (in Canada)

 

[Shaffer]

Well this was a private message but if you are having problems with crossed beaks, crooked beaks it is both parents that are producing this genetic defect and they both should be made into soup. Feathered legs may be only one parent. Bantam size may be one or both parents(I am not sure the genetics on this since I did not do any research on it). Color issues is another story and I am not exactly sure how it can be corrected but if you look at some strains of OE game bantams self blue some are very clean and others have the defects so some people are doing a better job at breeding them. You really need to test your males and if you only have a few females than that is also feasable. You need a clean face straight comb bird to test and need at least 10 to possibly 20 chicks from the mating to make sure what your bird is carrying. This test is for straight comb and single gene muffs and beards. It would also be best if the testing bird has yellow legs to see if your birds are carrying that trait hidden. Hope that helped some. Good luck. Sorry but I generally don't respond to this forum.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Well this was a private message but if you are having problems with crossed beaks, crooked beaks it is both parents that are producing this genetic defect and they both should be made into soup. Feathered legs may be only one parent. Bantam size may be one or both parents(I am not sure the genetics on this since I did not do any research on it). Color issues is another story and I am not exactly sure how it can be corrected but if you look at some strains of OE game bantams self blue some are very clean and others have the defects so some people are doing a better job at breeding them. You really need to test your males and if you only have a few females than that is also feasable. You need a clean face straight comb bird to test and need at least 10 to possibly 20 chicks from the mating to make sure what your bird is carrying. This test is for straight comb and single gene muffs and beards. It would also be best if the testing bird has yellow legs to see if your birds are carrying that trait hidden. Hope that helped some. Good luck. Sorry but I generally don't respond to this forum.

I REALLY appreciate this response! I have culled all the cross-beaks I hatched (I have no control over the parent stock) but the lavender birds I am raising (Silkies and Ameraucanas) I assume are at least partial siblings to my culls. I am a TOTAL newbie to chicken breeding - my plan with the Ameraucanas is to immediately cross out to an unrelated black (from Jean Ribbeck's B/B/S pen) so I assume all F1s will be split for lav at best. Should I expect some cross-beak is possible from that crossing if my lavs are carrying something nasty? (I know anything is possible. I guess I'm asking if it's likely .... ) I'm thinking I may just test the lavender females with my black male. I do have black females as well but unless I have a lavender male that is really impressive which I can't possibly know yet, I won't move forward with a male at this point. Does this sound reasonable?

I will post again when my birds are more mature - with pictures - and ask for futher guidance.

 

[jerryse]

Hatched july 2.I had 2 lav hens and some split hens with a lav rooster.I never seem to get a good ratio of lav chicks from splits.I could use a better rooster this fall.Anyone going to the national meet in Mo.this fall?Lav or split or even a good black.

 

[faykokoWV]

I had a great split black from Lamike, but a coon got it... coons gone now, but I sure miss that roo!

 

[Shaffer]

Sorry everyone but I have nothing for sale for the rest of the year and still have outstanding orders for eggs which will be impossible to provide until maybe the fall when my new batch starts to lay. So I am not taking any orders for possibly two years till I provide the patient people still waiting. Harry