Speckled Ameraucanas Genetic Question

[TwoChicksChix]

Hey everybody,

so I breed Ameraucanas in 7 color varieties, and they are by far my favorite breed. I just love their little faces!

I’ve been wanting to work on an Ameraucana color project for awhile now but wasn’t sure what I wanted to go for. Then I saw some Jubilee Orpingtons and Speckled Sussex and thought, hey! I want that but with muffs!

Of course, I could just get some Mille fleur D’uccles but they don’t have exactly what I want. For starters, I want large fowl, blue eggs, and I want them to be mahogany based instead of gold based like Mille fleur are.

So I decided that I’d use Speckled Sussex rather than Jubilee Orpingtons to bring in the red Mille fleur pattern. One, they’re easier to come by than with the Orpingtons and two their body type is similar.

So my issue comes with what Ameraucana color cock to use over the Speckled Sussex hens. I’m using an Ameraucana rooster because of the sex-linked dermal melanin.

The two choices I have come to are Buff or Wheaten. Both colors produce solid colored chicks the first generation, the Buff producing Buff and the Wheaten producing Red Columbian. It's the second generation of each after I breed them back to each other that I get multiple different types from solids to Mottled to Red Mille Fleur. The reason I'm more partial to the Wheaten than the Buff is that I already have a Wheaten cockerel I'm growing out that can be used for the project since I already breed this color type.

I know the main issue for F3 would be doing test breedings to see whether the cockerels and pullets are homozygous PP for pea comb and OO for blue eggs, plus the muff gene. So I plan to possibly use some White Leghorns for that, though I could also just use any straight comb white egg laying breed.
What do you all think? Is there anybody actually working on this project with any insights?

 

[NatJ]

I would use the wheaten male. Having one is a great recomendation! Also, the genetics of wheaten are fairly well understood, while buff is apparently still a bit of mystery. Mysteries may be fun sometimes, but not if they make your project more puzzling.

For test mating at F3 generation, you could just as easily test-mate them with some pure Speckled Sussex: single comb, no blue egg gene, no muff.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I would think that orloffs have a closer body shape, as well as the beard that you want. Why not use them?

 

[TwoChicksChix]

There are a couple reasons I don’t want to use Orloffs. They’re harder to come by, their comb is more difficult to work with, their pattern isn’t always well done, it’s not APA recognized anymore so it can be difficult to find good quality ones, plus they have yellow legs which is a b*tch to breed out when mixed with slate.

Overall, not worth using them when a speckled sussex is much easier in many ways. Plus they do have similar body types. Ameraucanas is just a little bit more heavy while Orloff is heavier than that. So it’s basically doesn’t matter about body shape and size.

 

[nicalandia]

I would use the wheaten male. Having one is a great recomendation! Also, the genetics of wheaten are fairly well understood.

I agree, Wheaten is just like wildtype except it has the eWh wheaten e allele instead. The first cross will look Redish Columbian but not as red nor as restricted as the Speckled Sussex.

You will also find very difficult keeping dark shanks on the F2s that are mottled. Mottling is a dilution gene that affects melanin production