Lavender Ameraucana Questions

[LavendarFeather]

I have tried to find this information elsewhere on the site, but always seem to get sidetracked by a million other interesting things... so I thought I would try asking directly. Please forgive me if these things have been asked and answered a million times. I'm still a bit new at this...

I have some Lavender Ameraucana chicks, and I'm wondering :

What is the correct eye color, and is it displayed from birth or does it develop later? I've read things mentioning correct or incorrect eye color, but couldn't find a description.

At what age do their cheek muffs fill out? I've also read that some are missing the muffs. Mine are currently at an awkward stage in their feather development, an look a bit moth-eaten, so I can't tell. Is there hope?

Is there an age when sex becomes apparent? I've got one whom I've known since 4 weeks of age was a roo (he's my avatar, about 5 or 6 weeks old in that picture), two that I'm pretty sure are pullets, and one who is still ambiguous. He has a more developed comb and a bit of dark pink at the base of his beak, but then these two features stopped progressing about ten days ago, and he's become hard to distinguish from the two pullets.

Last question--if they do all have cheek muffs, is it bad to keep a rooster with the hens? I read somewhere that it's not good to breed two birds with cheek muffs, is this so? I promise to read up on it before allowing any breeding to take place, but I would love to keep a roo and have more of these sparkly little chicks. They are just so lovely.

Thanks! I really appreciate any answers anyone has time to give.

 

[pips&peeps]

The correct eye color is bay, which is a reddish brown color. Eye color develops over time.

Your chicks will go through a period where they will appear to have little to no muff and beards, disregard this until they are older and almost fully feathered.

The feather quality on a lavender bird at this point is generally pretty poor. This is why it is recommended to keep crossing back to quality black birds to keep improving the lavenders.

Generally you can tell an ameraucana's sex by 6-8 weeks, sometimes though you may have cockerels that are late bloomers and they will mature slower than the rest. A good clue with the current lavenders available is that the males tend to feather in slower than the females.

Muffs and beards are good!!! In the ameraucana you don't want to breed birds without muffs and beards. You are probably thinking of the tuft gene associated with araucanas; two different things.

 

[speckledhen]

I have tried to find this information elsewhere on the site, but always seem to get sidetracked by a million other interesting things... so I thought I would try asking directly. Please forgive me if these things have been asked and answered a million times. I'm still a bit new at this...

I have some Lavender Ameraucana chicks, and I'm wondering :

What is the correct eye color, and is it displayed from birth or does it develop later? I've read things mentioning correct or incorrect eye color, but couldn't find a description.

At what age do their cheek muffs fill out? I've also read that some are missing the muffs. Mine are currently at an awkward stage in their feather development, an look a bit moth-eaten, so I can't tell. Is there hope?

Is there an age when sex becomes apparent? I've got one whom I've known since 4 weeks of age was a roo (he's my avatar, about 5 or 6 weeks old in that picture), two that I'm pretty sure are pullets, and one who is still ambiguous. He has a more developed comb and a bit of dark pink at the base of his beak, but then these two features stopped progressing about ten days ago, and he's become hard to distinguish from the two pullets.

Last question--if they do all have cheek muffs, is it bad to keep a rooster with the hens? I read somewhere that it's not good to breed two birds with cheek muffs, is this so? I promise to read up on it before allowing any breeding to take place, but I would love to keep a roo and have more of these sparkly little chicks. They are just so lovely.

Thanks! I really appreciate any answers anyone has time to give.

You are confusing the lethal gene of Araucanas with cheek tufts (not muffs). That has nothing to do with Ameraucanas at all. They should have beards and muffs at hatch, though some start with small ones that fill out more later on. If they are truly beardless, do not breed them. I had a blue Wheaten male who looked beardless but got a nice one later on.

I have not had the Lavender variety, only the BBS variety, so not sure how well they conform to the standard yet (they aren't accepted as such at this time)

Correct Ameraucana eye color is reddish bay, but they start with greenish eyes as babies and they change as they mature.


ETA: Oops, Jean and I were posting at the same time. What she said, then...

 

[LavendarFeather]

Thank you both so much! I'm so excited about my chickens in general, but these lavender birds in particular. It's wonderful that there are people out there like you, so helpful and willing to share information.