Lavender Ameraucana Breeders .... UNITE

[buckabucka]

I have a breeding/hatching question:

I have lavs, blacks and blues from P. Smith. One black hen and one lav. The rest were Roos. One of the hens started laying about 6 weeks ago. They were great looking from day one but very small. I assumed they were from the lav b/c she is very petite and I beleive smith lavs have bantam in the background.

We set 8 of her eggs Nov 25th. I had one pip but in the middle of the egg and turned almost 180 degrees from the air cell. I wasn't home to help and we lost it. The other one to pip only made it internally, in the same malposition and the others died very soon before that.

It was my first incubation so very sad and demoralizing. I checked the two that pipped, which is how I know the positions were oriented wrong. However the chicks were in the right placement body wise with head tucked under the wing and ready to pip.

Both chicks were perfectly formed, absorbed the yolk and the external pipped one was ready to come out, with blood veins not visible etc only had a slightly large naval still (not sure if this is deformity?)

My questions are this:

1: did the small egg size prevent proper positioning to air cell? Membranes were not shrink wrapped and air cells were proper size.

2: Both chicks were dark black/blue feathers with yellow feather spots... So, according to black x lav breeding this should not be possible. Were they blue x lav? Or must these eggs be from the black hen? Splits black x blue are supposed to be all yellow at hatch, correct?

Thanks for any advice or ideas!!!

Sorry to hear about your bad first hatch. My first hatch, I got nothing, so don't give up! There are so many factors involved in hatching, that it is difficult to know exactly what went wrong, although experience is the best teacher.

I can tell you that I have one hen who's eggs will not hatch without assistance (not an Ameraucana, though). I have tried three different hatches with her eggs. It is as though the chick grows too big for the egg and can't finish zipping. The chick dies in the egg. My last hatch, I went in after 24 hours and completed the zip and the resulting hen appears perfectly healthy, but I am not going to try hatching this particular hen's eggs anymore.
The small egg size may or may not have caused your problem.
Sorry I can't answer the chick down question.

 

[LavenderCrow]

Maybe you guys can help me. One of my Ameraucanas is very little and has very poor feathering. I'm nearly positive that it's younger than the rest by at least a week, so I can expect it to be smaller, but is there any reason for the awful feathering?

 

[jerryse]

Maybe you guys can help me. One of my Ameraucanas is very little and has very poor feathering. I'm nearly positive that it's younger than the rest by at least a week, so I can expect it to be smaller, but is there any reason for the awful feathering?

Yes lavender has feather issues . It is called fretting . You could also have slow feathering or tardy feathering . Each is different . I think fretting has been discussed on this thread somewhere .

 

[LavenderCrow]

Yes lavender has feather issues . It is called fretting . You could also have slow feathering or tardy feathering . Each is different . I think fretting has been discussed on this thread somewhere .

I knew that they had feather issues from time to time, but out of all my lavenders I never experienced it, so it's new to me. Thanks!

Edited to add picture of said feathering.

 

[cwrite]

I'm really glad I found this thread. I'm not in a position to breed poultry yet, but I hope to in the future. In the meantime I got hold of a dozen fertile pure Araucana eggs for a broody to raise. I'm busy working my way through the thread, but so far I've had all the problems I've come across so far. I have terrible fretting, but at least I know what is up with their feathers now. And I have one that looks like a bantam. Out of the 11 that hatched 6 were lavender and 5 are quite cream. They are 10 weeks old now and the cream males are showing almost a salmon colour on their feathering. I wonder if anyone could tell me where that comes from. It looks like lavender mixed with another araucana (Australian for Ameraucana with crest).

The one next tot he fence is the small bantam like one. The one in front is a pullet and the two behind are are the males (I think) that are showing patches of salmon colour. Some chicks were more yellow with pink legs and have turned into cream and lavender chicks.


The chicks that were grey with grey legs have grown into this.


I also wonder if anyone has any ideas about the very faint barring visible on his tail?

They were all hatched from very blue eggs that were much bigger than I expected.

 

[buckabucka]

I'm really glad I found this thread. I'm not in a position to breed poultry yet, but I hope to in the future. In the meantime I got hold of a dozen fertile pure Araucana eggs for a broody to raise. I'm busy working my way through the thread, but so far I've had all the problems I've come across so far. I have terrible fretting, but at least I know what is up with their feathers now. And I have one that looks like a bantam. Out of the 11 that hatched 6 were lavender and 5 are quite cream. They are 10 weeks old now and the cream males are showing almost a salmon colour on their feathering. I wonder if anyone could tell me where that comes from. It looks like lavender mixed with another araucana (Australian for Ameraucana with crest). The one next tot he fence is the small bantam like one. The one in front is a pullet and the two behind are are the males (I think) that are showing patches of salmon colour. Some chicks were more yellow with pink legs and have turned into cream and lavender chicks. The chicks that were grey with grey legs have grown into this. I am not a breeder, but I have a few lavenders, none of which are perfect. What struck me about the photos though, is the birds almost look like they are crested. Perhaps it is the photo angle? I also wonder if anyone has any ideas about the very faint barring visible on his tail? They were all hatched from very blue eggs that were much bigger than I expected.

 

[buckabucka]

Sorry, my reply got buried in the middle of your post.
Here it is alone:
I am not a breeder, but I have a few lavenders, none of which are perfect. What struck me about the photos though, is the birds almost look like they are crested. Perhaps it is the photo angle?

 

[cwrite]

Sorry, my reply got buried in the middle of your post.
Here it is alone:
I am not a breeder, but I have a few lavenders, none of which are perfect. What struck me about the photos though, is the birds almost look like they are crested. Perhaps it is the photo angle?

Yes they are crested. Just ignore that. It's part of the Australian standard for these birds - muff, beard and crest. The cream and lavender ones have the most crest, but seem to be lacking muffs and beards. The lavender ones have much less crest and some muff and beard. From what I've read this means that they only have a single gene for the muff and beard. A double gene would be better. I'm just not sure what the cream ones are. Could they be something like porcelain or even wheaten crossed with lavender?

Also, why is there faint barring showing up in some of the lavenders tails? Is this from cross breeding at some stage? I'm still reading through the thread but so far I haven't seen anyone else with this problem.

 

[Caitlin_VT]

Some of my birds also seem to have a faint barring. It could just be related to the color, or maybe due to poorer quality feathering. Some of my male birds also have cream coming through. Not sure if this is acceptable or not, but I am breeding away from it. It seems to be more common in the darker males.

 

[LavenderCrow]

I'm really glad I found this thread. I'm not in a position to breed poultry yet, but I hope to in the future. In the meantime I got hold of a dozen fertile pure Araucana eggs for a broody to raise. I'm busy working my way through the thread, but so far I've had all the problems I've come across so far. I have terrible fretting, but at least I know what is up with their feathers now. And I have one that looks like a bantam. Out of the 11 that hatched 6 were lavender and 5 are quite cream. They are 10 weeks old now and the cream males are showing almost a salmon colour on their feathering. I wonder if anyone could tell me where that comes from. It looks like lavender mixed with another araucana (Australian for Ameraucana with crest).

The one next tot he fence is the small bantam like one. The one in front is a pullet and the two behind are are the males (I think) that are showing patches of salmon colour. Some chicks were more yellow with pink legs and have turned into cream and lavender chicks.


The chicks that were grey with grey legs have grown into this.


I also wonder if anyone has any ideas about the very faint barring visible on his tail?

They were all hatched from very blue eggs that were much bigger than I expected.

Those cream ones definitely look like Porcelains! Quite pretty, if you ask me.