Need Cross Ideas

[WynnStormborn]

I have 2 roosters I bought them both from a breeder at her facility:
1st is a pure Black Ameraucana

2nd is an Easter Egger with a pure White Ameraucana father but with similar color/pattern to a laced Barnevelder or Wyandotte (unknown mother).

My hens:
Easter Egger that looks exactly like the roo and lays blue eggs

pure black Ameraucana lays blue eggs

Crested Cream Legbar x White Leghorn lays blue eggs

Blue Cochin

Barnevelder

Sapphire Blue Plymouth Rock

Blue Marans

Black Cuckoo Marans

Salmon Faverolle

Black Astralorp

Ancona

Rhode Island White

Rhode Island Red

I know black is a hard color to breed out of unless I want to go blue. Even then I think I would just need more variance in color for my Ameraucana hens because I want to still have a purebred bird to breed back to.

The lacing on the Easter Egger though could be fun. Hard to tell what will happen with it since I'm not positive which hen was his mother. I plan on trying to pair him with my blues to see if I can get something that looks like a blue laced red wyandotte that lays pretty eggs. Might be a 1 in 10 chance. Maybe it would be better to cross him with my other laced birds and breed those to my blues?

I have room for more birds if you have any ideas one what I could/should add.

I'll try to take some pictures today, if that's helpful.

Thank you for any help and/or ideas

 

[Ridgerunner]

Since you want purebred you only option is to breed the Black Ameraucanans.

Blue is not a good color for your goals. Blue is a gene that modifies black. That means if you have a solid blue bird the underlying color is black. You are not likely to get a pattern breeding your EE rooster to a blue hen. You should get blue or black.

Not knowing the EE's mother it's hard to know what to breed him to. It sounds like his father was a recessive white, not dominant white, so you can't be sure what genetics he got from his daddy. I don't know what hen to breed him to but blue or black are not good choices for your goal.

 

[WynnStormborn]

The post is about crosses. A purebred isn't the goal. Having a purebred Ameraucana to breed back to that isn't black would be the goal which is why I think I just need more Ameraucana hens because breeding the Easter Eggers back to the black Ameraucana I have will just give me more black birds or black with some leakage. At least that is my understanding.

With my Easter Egger, how would one get blue lacing instead of black lacing without using blue? Since I believe his lacing to be black I thought at least a small percentage would have lacing and that a small percentage of that would be blue lacing.Or is it just that the non patterned birds have EE which covers up everything so I may get black or blue but no pattern?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I know black is a hard color to breed out of unless I want to go blue. Even then I think I would just need more variance in color for my Ameraucana hens because I want to still have a purebred bird to breed back to.

I'll quote you to show why I thought you might want a purebred bird. That's the only color of Ameraucana you listed. Maybe i don't totally understand your goals.

The only way to get blue is to breed to a blue chicken. You may then need to go an additional generation to get blue lacing. So breed him to a blue bird and then back to his daughters. See what you get.

 

[WynnStormborn]

My CCL x WL is white with some black spots. She should be pure white with the dominant white of the leghorn. Would I get splashed birds if I put the Black Ameraucana over her?

 

[WynnStormborn]

That's the only color of Ameraucana you listed. Maybe i don't totally understand your goals.

It's the only color I have currently. I'm trying to figure out what colors to use to get away from black. I would like to have some straight ameraucana, yes. I just don't know what other color of Ameraucana I could get that would affect the black since it's dominant.

 

[WynnStormborn]

The only way to get blue is to breed to a blue chicken. You may then need to go an additional generation to get blue lacing. So breed him to a blue bird and then back to his daughters. See what you get.

Okay, that makes sense. I suppose I could try jumping ahead by adding a blue laced red wyandotte. My Easter Egger should have the blue egg gene from his dad so I could possibly get some crosses that looked like the wyandotte but lay a green egg, yes?

 

[WynnStormborn]

Also something I'm curious about. If my blues were lavender, would that be better for breeding away from black?

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

In my limited experience, with my own crossbreds, is that within a few generations they get pretty darn homogeneous. If you want a colorful flock you'll need to consider bringing in outside birds. I'd use your EE roo or maybe both roo. Call it good with that.

I too am not entirely sure what your goal is here. So maybe I missed the mark?

 

[WynnStormborn]

In my limited experience, with my own crossbreds, is that within a few generations they get pretty darn homogeneous. If you want a colorful flock you'll need to consider bringing in outside birds. I'd use your EE roo or maybe both roo. Call it good with that.

I too am not entirely sure what your goal is here. So maybe I missed the mark?

I'm not sure what you mean. I plan on using both roosters (I just don't know with which hens yet). I know I will get lots of color variation in eggs regardless of color of the chickens. They are all non related birds at this point and I am looking for advice on what breeds/colors to add as I have plenty of space. I have a lot of black birds. I am looking for a color besides dominant white (since I don't want all white birds either) that would give me at least 15% patterned and/or not wholey black birds... (I'm assuming blue or splash would be the only way to breed to a black roo and not get 100% black chicks)

I'm fairly fond of blue and silver lacing on red. I have 2 laced hens and a laced Easter Egger rooster. But they are all sort of gold/red and black/green.