My boys picked for the 2015 season. I do have 5 other lavender boys waiting in the "wings"
Lavender Ameraucana Breeders .... UNITE
- Thread starter DMRippy
- Start date
Lol, same. I have 4 Lavs and a black to choose from.. Can't decide yet, the boys take so long to mature and actually look nice.
Okay, so I’m a newbie, but bear with me. I just spent the last two days reading through all 161 pages of this thread. I thought I’d summarize common topics that have come up more than once. That way, other newcomers don’t have to read through all the pages like I did (and so the same question doesn’t come up over and over again).
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LAVENDER AMERAUCANAS
Lavender is also known as “self blue”. It is NOT related to the “blue” gene. It is actually a diluted form of black. Currently, lavender is not an accepted color of Ameraucana’s. It is an accepted color of Silkies (called self blue), so there is hope to get it approved in the near future. Lavenders were first bred in the bantams by John Blehm, using Lavender Old English Game and Lavender Belgian D’Anvers in 2005. Harry Shaffer soon after started working on large fowl lavenders by starting with an EE that had Orpington genes. Around this same time, John Blehm began working his bantams up to large fowl.
Since it is not related to the “blue” gene, you do NOT want to breed it to Blue Ameraucanas. Only breed to Black (to improve feather quality, type, and egg color) and then use the offspring to improve your lavenders. Offspring of a lavender and black cross will be all splits (half lavender gene, but black color is expressed). Breeding splits to splits will get ¼ lavenders, ¼ blacks, and ½ splits. This is not recommended as it is impossible to tell which black chicks are full black and which are split to lavender. The recommended pairing is split to lavender, which will yield ½ splits and ½ lavenders.
Feather quality is an issue associated with the lavender gene. Most common problems are the feel of the feathers, fretting, slow feathering, and leakage. Fretting is when feathers grow and then stop, creating undesirable contrasts within individual feathers. Slow feathering (or K gene), while desirable with some breeds, actually seems to contribute to the feathering problems associated with the lavender gene. It can also cause roosters to feather out slower. Leakage occurs when either the gold or silver gene (depending on which your blacks were based on) shows through, most typically on the neck (hackles) and back (saddle). It is different from “bleaching” (caused by the sun), in that it is less patchy and found more on the edges of individual feathers. The best way to eliminate these features is to only use breeding stock exhibiting minor (or ideally, none) of these issues and breed back to quality blacks to improve further.
Other less prominent issues include sparse beards, yellow/willow feet/beaks, poor egg color, wrong eye color, and genetic deformities. You can usually tell if your birds have double copies of the beard/muff gene if they appear to have a beard as chicks. However, they could still have one copy of the gene, and not exhibit beards as chick, but grow them as adults. This single copy beard/muffs will typically not be as full as the double copy. If a bird is beardless/muffless, do not use it in your breeding program. If your chicks have yellow/willow looking feet, let them grow out a little before culling. It is sometimes difficult to tell true dermis/epidermis color on young chicks, and they will likely show the proper white skin and slate shanks per standard. If they do not grow out of it, do not use in breeding. The eyes of Ameraucanas should be a bay color (dark reddish orange). If your birds have light eyes, but good type and feathers, try breeding with bird with proper eye color. Eye color alone does not merit culling. Egg color is sometimes a light greenish color with lavender birds. This is common with project colors, and the best course is to hatch from your darkest/bluest eggs and try to identify your best color layers to use in your breeding program. If you are seeing genetic deformities like crossbeak and curved toes, try to first evaluate if there is a nutritional deficiency. If it is only one bird showing symptoms, the bird should not be used in breeding.
Now, a word on EE’s (Easter Eggers)… While Lavender Ameraucanas are not an approved color, it is considered a “project color”, not an EE. Once you cross a Lavender (or any other color, for that matter) with ANY other color, the offspring automatically becomes an EE. If your birds/chicks don’t look like anything in the Ameraucana Breeders Club gallery, then you have an EE. Yes, they can still be nice birds. Yes, they can still be pretty. Yes, they can still be great layers of blue eggs. But they are NOT Ameraucanas. This being said, Lavender Ameraucanas that have been bred to be show quality CAN be shown. However, they would have to be entered in AOV (Any Other Varieties) and the best they can place is BOV (Best Of Variety).
Lastly, we all know how beautiful these birds are, and I’m sure you want some for yourself. Well, if you’re lucky, you may find someone on this thread in your state. However, your best bet is to check out the Ameraucana Breeders Club directory (which is conveniently sorted by state AND color) OR the Auction threads here on BYC. Many will recommend one of two prominent breeders: John Blehm is located in Michigan, and Paul Smith is located in Texas, who both ship chicks to most states.
Lavender is also known as “self blue”. It is NOT related to the “blue” gene. It is actually a diluted form of black. Currently, lavender is not an accepted color of Ameraucana’s. It is an accepted color of Silkies (called self blue), so there is hope to get it approved in the near future. Lavenders were first bred in the bantams by John Blehm, using Lavender Old English Game and Lavender Belgian D’Anvers in 2005. Harry Shaffer soon after started working on large fowl lavenders by starting with an EE that had Orpington genes. Around this same time, John Blehm began working his bantams up to large fowl.
Since it is not related to the “blue” gene, you do NOT want to breed it to Blue Ameraucanas. Only breed to Black (to improve feather quality, type, and egg color) and then use the offspring to improve your lavenders. Offspring of a lavender and black cross will be all splits (half lavender gene, but black color is expressed). Breeding splits to splits will get ¼ lavenders, ¼ blacks, and ½ splits. This is not recommended as it is impossible to tell which black chicks are full black and which are split to lavender. The recommended pairing is split to lavender, which will yield ½ splits and ½ lavenders.
Feather quality is an issue associated with the lavender gene. Most common problems are the feel of the feathers, fretting, slow feathering, and leakage. Fretting is when feathers grow and then stop, creating undesirable contrasts within individual feathers. Slow feathering (or K gene), while desirable with some breeds, actually seems to contribute to the feathering problems associated with the lavender gene. It can also cause roosters to feather out slower. Leakage occurs when either the gold or silver gene (depending on which your blacks were based on) shows through, most typically on the neck (hackles) and back (saddle). It is different from “bleaching” (caused by the sun), in that it is less patchy and found more on the edges of individual feathers. The best way to eliminate these features is to only use breeding stock exhibiting minor (or ideally, none) of these issues and breed back to quality blacks to improve further.
Other less prominent issues include sparse beards, yellow/willow feet/beaks, poor egg color, wrong eye color, and genetic deformities. You can usually tell if your birds have double copies of the beard/muff gene if they appear to have a beard as chicks. However, they could still have one copy of the gene, and not exhibit beards as chick, but grow them as adults. This single copy beard/muffs will typically not be as full as the double copy. If a bird is beardless/muffless, do not use it in your breeding program. If your chicks have yellow/willow looking feet, let them grow out a little before culling. It is sometimes difficult to tell true dermis/epidermis color on young chicks, and they will likely show the proper white skin and slate shanks per standard. If they do not grow out of it, do not use in breeding. The eyes of Ameraucanas should be a bay color (dark reddish orange). If your birds have light eyes, but good type and feathers, try breeding with bird with proper eye color. Eye color alone does not merit culling. Egg color is sometimes a light greenish color with lavender birds. This is common with project colors, and the best course is to hatch from your darkest/bluest eggs and try to identify your best color layers to use in your breeding program. If you are seeing genetic deformities like crossbeak and curved toes, try to first evaluate if there is a nutritional deficiency. If it is only one bird showing symptoms, the bird should not be used in breeding.
Now, a word on EE’s (Easter Eggers)… While Lavender Ameraucanas are not an approved color, it is considered a “project color”, not an EE. Once you cross a Lavender (or any other color, for that matter) with ANY other color, the offspring automatically becomes an EE. If your birds/chicks don’t look like anything in the Ameraucana Breeders Club gallery, then you have an EE. Yes, they can still be nice birds. Yes, they can still be pretty. Yes, they can still be great layers of blue eggs. But they are NOT Ameraucanas. This being said, Lavender Ameraucanas that have been bred to be show quality CAN be shown. However, they would have to be entered in AOV (Any Other Varieties) and the best they can place is BOV (Best Of Variety).
Lastly, we all know how beautiful these birds are, and I’m sure you want some for yourself. Well, if you’re lucky, you may find someone on this thread in your state. However, your best bet is to check out the Ameraucana Breeders Club directory (which is conveniently sorted by state AND color) OR the Auction threads here on BYC. Many will recommend one of two prominent breeders: John Blehm is located in Michigan, and Paul Smith is located in Texas, who both ship chicks to most states.
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Did I miss anything??
- Aug 2, 2014
- 98
- 12
- 48
I am in NE Ohio and looking for a lav amer pullet. The 3 I got last spring turned out to be 2 roos and an OE.. lol. Kept one gorgeous roo and anxious to find his gf. Thanks.
- Aug 2, 2014
- 98
- 12
- 48
nice. Thanks for the update.Did I miss anything??
Wow Rainbowchick! Thank you. You saved me some reading time. 
Question: out of 4 shipped lav/lav split chicks, I am down to 1 sad dotty little 8 month roo. They were the only of my 40ish chickens to die. Is this normal or did I just get a weak batch? Can I expect this little tottering roo to get more robust or should he be culled?
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