Lavender Ameraucana Breeders .... UNITE

[Caitlin_VT]

I didn't mean they could not be used for meat birds. What I said was I didn't know anyone that raised them for meat birds. I wouldn't.... they are too small. My Marans, Orpingtons, wyandottes and bresse would be better choices for me for meat birds.

People eat leghorns even though they are not meat birds..... they taste like chicken

I eat my extra cockerels. They don't taste like game chicken...just like the chicken you buy in the store! They do not have big carcasses so I usually just skin them and filet off the breast meat and remove the thighs. Surprisingly they usually have quite a bit of breast meat - more than you would expect by looking at them. One of my goals is to have a better dual purpose bird.

 

[jajeanpierre]

I didn't mean they could not be used for meat birds. What I said was I didn't know anyone that raised them for meat birds. I wouldn't.... they are too small. My Marans, Orpingtons, wyandottes and bresse would be better choices for me for meat birds.

People eat leghorns even though they are not meat birds..... they taste like chicken

I wouldn't raise them for meat birds--most take too long to mature and grow although I have a couple of cockerels from this year that grew big pretty fast.

I have a group of 17/18 week old chicks that are really small if you were to compare them to a Cornish X, which grow so fast they are harvested by about 9 weeks. I'm not advocating we produce anything like a Cornish X since that monstrosity probably couldn't survive to 17/18 weeks, succumbing to all kinds of health issues well before then simply because of their rapid growth.

I would not consider them a great egg producer, either.

I think breeders need to breed for their meat and egg production qualities. They are more than a cute fluffy-faced bird that produces a pretty egg.

Someone suggested that Ameraucanas have a different taste. That's not true--they taste like chicken. It is the store-bought mush, harvested at 8/9 weeks that don't taste like chicken--they are tasteless. Sad our society no longer knows what chicken actually tastes like.

An Ameraucana carcass does not look like a Cornish X's, which has been bred for maximum meat production in the shortest amount of time. By the way, I think there are only two facilities in the US that supply all the Cornish X birds in the world (they are patented). The store-bought chicken is the abnormal one, not our dual-purpose birds. I was saddened when I read the post stating that the person only used the breast meat of the Ameraucana birds they harvested. What a waste. Certainly, the legs of 4- or 5-month-old free range birds will not be anything like the legs of an 8/9-week old Cornish X that just sits beside a feeder and eats and eats and eats, but it is very good quality meat that might need a bit more care in cooking than a store-bought bird.

Just my thoughts.

 

[specsussex]

Adding to above conversations: Does anyone know which bantam breeds have been used in some lavender AM breeding programs? I have two Lav. Ams and they are smaller than my other birds, but even have different body types from each other.

 

[jerryse]

Adding to above conversations: Does anyone know which bantam breeds have been used in some lavender AM breeding programs? I have two Lav. Ams and they are smaller than my other birds, but even have different body types from each other.

Lavender Old English Game bantams and lavender Belgian D'Anvers bantams were used .

 

[Shaffer]

Lavender Old English Game bantams and lavender Belgian D'Anvers bantams were used .

Jerry, yes that is what John used. I did not use them. I had what would have been called an EE that had orpington in them also and were LF not bantams. I had 8# males until I lost my best two years in a row to different predators. I am back on track now hopefully. Some say they are a little fluffy but that can be bred out but size is always an issue with every breed I have and that is not as easy to maintain. I had very large blacks that I was breeding before putting them over the lavenders but even they would throw a small bird occasionally (the pure blacks I am talking about). I prefer the lighter version so I cull all the darks in lavenders. My pure blacks were really bred out of two silver hens so I was lucky to maintain some silver based birds since the gold base have a darker color.(IMO)

Now let me say John Blehm was the original breeder of the Lavender Ameraucana and was my incentive to try and find a LF type lavender to use to make LF Lavender Ameraucanas. I first had a LF Old English Game hen but with such bad color and didn;t lay very many eggs so I culled her. Then I searched for anything LF in the lavender color, found someone that also had LF Lavender(they call them self blue) Old English again but was about 1 year too late and they were already dispersed and loss. So a fellow told me about an crested EE type that had lavender in it in Indiana and I ventured to find this bird. Luckily I was able to purchase a pair , lavender crested male and a black crested female split which also had some orpington blood in them. They were large but not very fertile at first. I think this was back in Summer of 2006 but not exactly sure if that was the date. This pair produced the original lavender Orpington type male that was used to make the US lavender orpingtons.

This is also the same pair I used to created the first double tufted rumpless lavender araucana LF in the US.

 

[podgal]

Podgal, I too have been breeding Lav Ameraucana's. I don't seem to have the bad fretting (even with free ranging) that seems to be prevailing. My roo produces 100% Lav When Bred to my Lavenders. & 50% Lav when bred to a blue. They have nice beards & have very nice blue/green eggs. I live in Alliance, OH. I don't show, but I think that these are pretty nice.

thanks. Gorgeous birds. I've got two roos from same pen and am trying to choose which one travels with the turkeys next month. One has been in meat pen and one has been free ranging so some obvious physical differences are evident that, given equal conditions, would go away. The only difference is comb size and they are exact age. One is larger and thicker than the other. Advice on how to choose anyone?

 

[podgal]

These are my two roos to choose from. Top two are free ranging roo and bottom two pics are the roo hanging out in the meat oen. Same age and lineage.

Roo 1

This is penned roo

Which one stays?? Thanks

 

[4theluvofpeeps]

By size I'd take the larger one, but you can't pick on size alone. Other things to consider are the color of the legs (solid or any white patches), beard fullness, and feather quality, which looks like right now their feathers are just coming in. I'd say wait til Spring. That way you can tell feather quality. You never know if one doesn't make it through the winter, then you'll have no Roo! Plus they're both young enough that they could be let to free roam all day and penned up at night together. I raise all my Roos together until slaughter time. then I pick the top 2 I'll keep until I have a clutch of eggs to hatch (Spring), then it goes down to 1 Rooster for the Summer. They are fine being raised side by side for the 1st year.

 

[podgal]

Good advice. I have a dozen roos and 31 hens. Hens getting too much pressure from all those roos. Keeping most of the roos separate really calmed down the flock. Didn't think about losing one. Will look closer at legs and do some beard/muff comparison. I would live to keep both and you've given me good reason to do so...thanks again.

 

[megshenhut]

I have a question about odd coloring on one of my lavender cockerels. This is my 2rd year to breed them. I bred my lavender male to black hens last year for splits. This year I bred the splits back to my male. The young one in question is growing out nicely, but showing a fair amount of white leakage on his wings. I know this is a fault, but now I just noticed that his saddle feathers are laced with white as well. Where in the world would this lacing have come from?