What's wrong with their feathers?

[Jubaby]

Here is a picture I took of the Rooster #1 - Ozzie. His comb is really pretty similar to Rooster #2. He is currently in a pen with hens, but just a bunch of mixed flock.

 

[Jubaby]

Hi Everyone! I hatched four more chicks a few weeks ago. They are feathering out beautifully. I'll post some pictures of the chicks when I get home this afternoon.

kathyinmo is now officially the first person to successfully hatch some of my eggs! I have sent eggs to another person, but theirs didn't hatch. I have sent to a few others, but still waiting to hear of their successful hatches soon.

Congratulations Kathy!

I have ordered a batch of show quality Blue/Black Ameraucanas chicks to be delivered in early March, and I am working on a new LARGER chicken barn to house them all. I am planning to put the original rooster, Ozzie, in with the Blue/Black Ameraucanas when they are grown. It will take a while to get the next generation going, but still working on it.

Julie

 

[kathyinmo]

Downy doesn't bring to mind Down's Syndrome to me ...AT ALL ! ! !

 

[onthespot]

I keep a lot of different varieties. Doesn't mean I interbreed them. They are in separate pens and no way they could interbreed. I don't know where the change came from, but the same change has been documented in several other breeds as happening spontaneously. No reason this could not be the same. Silkie takes a lot of generations to breed out that dark skin, crest, beard, extra toes, small size, squatty stance, short backs, high wingset. Imans silkies are very true to standard type, not your generic "barely a silkie" type of bird. I would think a cross of those two varieties would NOT be able to fly under the radar for multiple generations from someone who breeds birds close to the show standard. I just don't think they wouldn't "notice" if their ameraucanas were pint sized, crested, bearded, five toed and squatty looking. I also don't think they would choose them as breeders if they produced any that looked like that. I say, quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, (or in this case, ameraucana) it is probably a duck, (or in this case, a bird of non-mixed ameraucana ancestry) Just my opinion.

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
It would be rather insulting, to accuse a breeder of interbreeding, wouldn't it?

 

[aveca]

QUOTE:
Aveca - Chile is a large country, with many different weather 'zones'.

So is USA where california quail dont live in east coast. the west coast blue jay looks nothing like east coast blue jay.

In those days there were not border lines and signs and birds think nothing of crossing the today country border line that they cannot understand birds just go where they are comfortable ignoring any person imposed border of a country. the article said PERU. MAINLY CHILE, AND A HANDFUL OF OTHER COUNTRIES had them... .the entire coast of peru, chile, and the rest of the countries along the costal dryerareas probably had thier own versaions of this rumpless probably slim feathereded bird. they and again You can only speculate been different colors according to different regions.

 

[kathyinmo]

Congrats Julie and Kelly. Love the pictures! I took a few today. Here's a couple, outside on a windy day.

 

[kathyinmo]

Oh, that's great news! I can hardly wait to begin breeding mine!

 

[alicefelldown]

awwwwww I want to hug mr/ms bad hair day - it looks like a Skexis from the Dark Crystal.

 

[AquaEyes]

Quote:
I have three Blue F1 females mated with a Splash Fluffy that are laying - I'll send you a PM.

I've been reading this thread for a while now, and I feel I have to interject about how breeders are attempting to breed more of these birds.

The health problems you are encountering are likely connected to the degree of inbreeding that went on with getting the first few out there. I keep seeing the same breeding plan -- breed fluffy to non, then breed F1 back to fluffy parent. This is NOT the way to proceed with birds that are exhibiting inbreeding depression. I will explain.

Yes, it is true that breeding a homozygous recessive (Fluffy) to a heterozygous (non-Fluffy split to Fluffy) will give 50% Fluffy offspring, but with regards to getting fresh blood, you're taking two steps forward and one step backward.

You start with an inbred Fluffy. You breed to an unrelated non-Fluffy. The offspring get half their genes from their inbred Fluffy parent, and the other half from their non-inbred non-Fluffy parent. Then you take those hybrid offspring and breed them back to their Fluffy parent. The babies from THAT breeding now get 75% of their genes from their inbred parent/grandparent. That's two steps forward, and one step backward, with regard to getting fresh blood into an inbred line.

This is what you should to to increase the health of future generations of Fluffy Ameraucanas.

Breed a Fluffy to several unrelated healthy strong non-Fluffies. Then breed F1 offspring from one non-Fluffy parent with a half-sibling from another non-Fluffy parent. You'll get 25% Fluffy offspring from this breeding. The remaining non-Fluffy offspring have a 2/3 chance of being split to Fluffy. Yes, you'll get a lower percentage of Fluffy, but here's the benefit for an unhealthy inbred line -- these Fluffy F2's will get only 50% of their genes from their Fluffy grandparent, and the other 50% will come from two different unrelated healthy lines. Continue the process again, breeding the Fluffy F2 to several unrelated healthy non-Fluffies, and again interbreed the half-siblings. The Fluffy F4's from the second round of half-sibling matings will now have only 25% of their genes coming from the original unhealthy inbred Fluffy ancestor. You should see fewer problems related to inbreeding rather quickly.

What to do with the non-Fluffies? Well, you could cull them...or, you could use them to breed with later generations of non-Fluffies that aren't very related to them, or you could trade them with another breeder who is also working with this line. Once you start getting healthy hatches of Fluffies, THEN you can think about dipping your toes further into the inbreeding pool to get higher percentages of Fluffy offspring.

Think about it.....

ETA -- The plan I'm outlining above is the same basic plan for introducing a new gene into one breed from another. I posted a response to the Large Lavender Cochin Project thread (see post #8) with the same idea. Think of your Fluffy inbred birds as a different breed, and you want to transfer just the Fluffy characteristic, but leave off the unhealthy inbred characteristics (think of them as traits from the "other breed"). With that being your goal, you don't want to breed back to your original Fluffy, because that would also be breeding back to unhealthy inbred characteristics. Read the post I wrote in the link, and translate the premise to your breeding goals with the Fluffy Ameraucanas.