The breeder just emailed me back and said the same thing. She said Paul Smith told her his best blues always came from black to splash breedings. She said her blacks are her best stock so she is starting to breed her blacks to splash hens to try to get better type into her blues.
These are her breeding pens right now:
Black to Splash
Black to Black
Blue to Blue
And a cross that produces 100% splash? What would that be?
She said I could get eggs from one or multiple pens. My goal is nice blues. So I am thinking of getting eggs from the black to splash pen the black to black and whatever she is combining to get the all splash. So I should get black, blue, and splash chicks which would give me a few options. I guess the other way I would go would be to get eggs from the all black pen and eggs from the all splash pen and cross the offspring to get F1 blues. Decisions, decisions. Do splash Ameraucanas tend to have fertility issues or is it just a problem with your particular cockeral?
She did say that in her experience Ameraucanas have proved to be more difficult to hatch. Has anyone else had any problems with fertility or hatchibility in regards to this breed?