I think I'll end up doing that in the spring unless his brothers really outshine him. Pair him with a hen or two he'd compliment for the most part and see how that goes. I just fear hatching a ton more high-tailed birds; the look of a super short back/high tail isn't very ideal to me, but he's quite pretty otherwise.
I'll get some new pictures of them once I'm done building out this brooder / integration pen in my largest hoopcoop. They are both looking good. From GypsyHen and the rest of the breed club: Silver bantams are in the worst shape as a whole for the breed. So its not supersizing they don't fit the standard. They are going to be my toughest project going forward.
Good luck with getting more females. Sounds like the silvers are going to take a lot of focus to work on.
Oh they are. Silvers and the Brown Reds are the most endangered of the Ameraucana verities. I want Brown Reds(gold birchen) eventually. Then I can work on silve birchen, add blue to the birchen and Silvers, and gold to the silvers.
Easter-eggers like what Murray McMurray sells aren't even mixed-color Ameraucanas. Their Easter-eggers have traits that you couldn't get out of just mixing true Ameraucana colors, traits that were bred out of Ameraucanas along the way as the breed was being established, so them trying to claim that they're just mixed color and are really for real Ameraucanas doesn't even make sense. They've maintained their line of these birds since before Ameraucanas were standardized; their line is essentially what existed before the standard, basically a branch on the same family tree. Kind of like how Barred Plymouth Rocks were bred from Dominiques (among other breeds), yet despite their similarities Dominiques are not considered the same thing as Barred Plymouth Rocks. Easter-eggers share ancestry with Ameraucanas, but that does not make them the same thing.
McMurray just stubbornly refuses to acknowledge that their Easter-eggers are not true Ameraucanas because the term 'Ameraucana' was simply what was used to describe bearded, blue or green egg laying chickens back in the day before the breed actually entered the standard. And before that, 'Easter egg chickens' were called Araucanas, right up until that breed was standardized, which is why you still see some EEs referred to as such. But it's been like 40 years at this point since Ameraucanas were standardized, so I'm not sure why McMurray have decided to die on this hill when most of the other large hatcheries have caught up to modern day and started labeling their EEs properly without issues.
In short, Easter-eggers like what McMurray sells as 'mixed-color Ameraucanas' aren't even part Ameraucana technically, they're more like cousins of the breed.
Looks like he doesn't have the Lavender shredder gene, too. Yay!
The only hatchery that I have used seams to be pretty good. My Ameraucanas come from Cackle and I've been told through evaluation they will be a good start. Cackle actually supported the Ohio national and showed some of their birds there.
Red Roof Hens in NC has a bantam line of BBS Ameraucanas and some other project colors. I have some of her BBS and while they’re not perfect, they’re healthy and great temperament and a great starting point. Some of her line and their sons I mixed with another line I have.
Would you consider selling any of the pullets or will you have chicks/hatching eggs next spring?
