What comb is this?

[HorseGirlAbby]

I don't believe genetically she'd be silver birchen. She's likely just black with silver leakage! This cross should give you half black and half blue chicks. Delawares are silver which is where the leakage is coming from. I believe Blue Ameraucanas are based on extended black and Delawares on wheaten so I don't believe she could truly be birchen. Someone can chime in if I'm wrong!

Oh, okay. She sure looks birchen, though!

 

[Rhodebar Lover]

Oh, okay. She sure looks birchen, though!
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Wow! She really does. I'm tagging @RoostersAreAwesome for backup because now I'm wondering if I'm off base!

 

[HorseGirlAbby]

Wow! She really does. I'm tagging @RoostersAreAwesome for backup because now I'm wondering if I'm off base!

Here's another pic of her; you can see her front better. She was pretty young here, but still looks the same:

 

[HorseGirlAbby]

I have been looking on Ameraucana breed forums and it does look like Blue Ameraucanas in particular are based in E^R (birchen) while blacks are based in E (extended black). Blues can however be based on either E locus but to breed for a better laced blue, E^R is recommended. I had mistakenly read that they were based in E but it appears that that is not the case for according to actual breeders. E is dominant over E^R and E^R over the other E locuses so if you crossed an E^R with an e^Wh (what a Delaware is) you would indeed get an E^R or birchen bird! So I believe you're right and she is birchen!

Cool! At the time I thought it was weird that she was basically a reverse Delaware.

 

[Chookchicken]

Looks like it might be a wall nut comb.

 

[MysteryChicken]

As you said, a cushion comb is a type of walnut comb, so I’d rather just stick with the more general answer of walnut. Cushions also require an extra gene (I believe it’s called “smooth”) and I don’t know where that would come from.

It’s likely one or more of your wyandottes is heterozygous for the rose comb gene, meaning they have both a single comb gene and rose comb gene, so they can pass both on to their offspring. However, pea comb is dominant over single, so the remaining wyandotte cross might have a pea comb like the rest of them.

Did the ones with pea combs have feathered legs?

I think the Smooth gene is a mutation in the Pea comb. I believe it's found with Rose comb too.

 

[nuthatched]

As you said, a cushion comb is a type of walnut comb, so I’d rather just stick with the more general answer of walnut. Cushions also require an extra gene (I believe it’s called “smooth”) and I don’t know where that would come from.

It’s likely one or more of your wyandottes is heterozygous for the rose comb gene, meaning they have both a single comb gene and rose comb gene, so they can pass both on to their offspring. However, pea comb is dominant over single, so the remaining wyandotte cross might have a pea comb like the rest of them.

Did the ones with pea combs have feathered legs?

Nope, bald as a bowling ball. They were standard in everything else but the comb. I've heard sometimes hatcheries throw straight comb birds in the breeder flocks to help with fertility, I figured it was a very, very washed out straight comb that looked like a pea comb.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Nope, bald as a bowling ball. They were standard in everything else but the comb. I've heard sometimes hatcheries throw straight comb birds in the breeder flocks to help with fertility, I figured it was a very, very washed out straight comb that looked like a pea comb.

Huh, strange. A single comb makes a lot more sense than a pea comb, but it would have to be a pretty weird single to look so much like a pea.

 

[HorseGirlAbby]

@MysteryChicken, @nuthatched, @RoostersAreAwesome, sorry to bother you, this is such an old thread! Do you all think this is still a Walnut comb?

 

[Rhodebar Lover]

@MysteryChicken, @nuthatched, @RoostersAreAwesome, sorry to bother you, this is such an old thread! Do you all think this is still a Walnut comb?
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That appears to be a walnut comb to me