What's wrong with their feathers?

[alicefelldown]

That's actually really great to hear - at least he's somewhat honest now ya know? Better than the big hatcheries!

 

[SteveH]

Quote:
Even with the off color feathers and green legs , I would consider these two to be valueable assets for breeding with Julie's silkie feathered ameraucana type birds . IMO , to be able to add some unrelated blood to Julie's birds that already have the silkied feathers , clean legs , four toes , and blue egg gene would be a great addition to the splits everybody are waiting to make with regular feathered Ameraucanas ; every one of those splits will have new blood added but still all tied to the original pair .

 

[alicefelldown]

Quote:
I guess that depends if you want to mix unknown EE blood with the birds that Julie has. I know in my breeding project started from her flock, I will only be using high quality Ameraucana birds for my out-crossings (and hopefully trade with others who are breeding these to keep the blood from Julie's pair strong).

In the simplest terms - EE is a mutt that can be anything with at least one copy of the blue laying gene. A lot of us that have been researching and following with hopes to refine this "variety" believe that even though there there is something different about these birds - they seem to be (and have come from, as far back as the early '90s) very pure Ameraucana stock. None of the sellers / breeders associated with the birds Julie raised know of any potential cross breeding with any Silkies (either they didn't raise them, or if they did, they were acres apart in fully secured pens).

Lots of people cross their EEs to Silkies and end up with birds that have silkie (h) type feathering. What makes Julie's original find special is that no one has been able to find the Silkie in their past to give them the h gene. For me personally - I'd like to keep it that way, and would hope that the other breeders working on this "variety" do the same.

Otherwise these end up the same as all the other EE/Silkie crosses: BYC Search: Silkie EE Cross with no incentive to keep this "variety" going.

To each their own though.

 

[trisha19]

I understand where you are coming from with wanting to keep them as true, for me I have always and will always call mine EE, thats what they are. I am hoping to get some kind of color pattern out of what I get separate them and see what they produce by color. This is a project for me. There are alot of people out there who like thier ee and other who stand by the ameraucana. To each is thier own is right. It is human nature to want to cross breed things to get the "new" stuff either for looks, egg production, size and so much more. If we look back everything bred has been cross breed somewhere, and many people have worked on perfecting the lines. I am just happy I have been lucky to get this suprise in my flock. The offpring may be awful but I am willing to take the time and find out. But with all this said I respect everyone who is trying to keep the silkied ameraucana line true, good for you. I just wanted to state where I was at. I by no means want to step on anyones toes.

 

[kathyinmo]

I got my Ameraucana's from Paul Smith in the mail yesterday!

Now, to get them grown out, so I can breed them with our furry friends!

 

[alicefelldown]

Yay!!

 

[SteveH]

" In the simplest terms - EE is a mutt that can be anything with at least one copy of the blue laying gene. A lot of us that have been researching and following with hopes to refine this "variety" believe that even though there there is something different about these birds - they seem to be (and have come from, as far back as the early '90s) very pure Ameraucana stock. None of the sellers / breeders associated with the birds Julie raised have Silkies, or have neighbors with Silkies. "


I'm sure you contacted " Pat " because she was a breeder of some of the birds Julie has . I don't remember the reply . The Ameraucanas she was selling were of EE descent [ first link ] , and she also had a large fowl splash Silkie [ second link ] with what appear to be both crossed hens and smooth feathered hens that could be black Ameraucana or EE .
http://www.ovabid.com/detail.asp?id=2251
http://www.ovabid.com/detail.asp?id=1737&bigpic=0#img

 

[klf73]

I think the "wheaten" silkied would be best used in a wheaten breeding program personally. I would get some wheaten and try to breed the silkied feathers while trying to correct the leg color, jmo. That is what I would do....If it goes with b/b/s then you never know what you will end up with and I think it would be a LOT more work....

 

[Jubaby]

I agree with Krista - try and find some quality wheaten ameraucanas and continue with your breeding program to refine the qualities you are looking for. There's nothing wrong with two of these projects going on simultaneously. I've been contacted by several folks who are wanting to work with wheaten lines. See if you can't start trying to separate the ones you want to use away from the other EE's and look for some pure ameraucanas to add with them. The silkied feathering is beautiful whether they are pure or not.

I still feel pretty strongly that there is some silkie blood in my chickens somewhere back in the ancestry, so technically mine are probably not pure either. Since mine are splash, it makes more sense to breed with the blue, black or lavender lines.

Anyways - I think your chickens are lovely!

 

[alicefelldown]

Quote:
The Amera auction of Pat's you linked are not the same flock that these birds came from SteveH.

Back on Page 31, I posted Pat's reply:
Quote:
I'm working on getting pictures of the feathers at a microscopic level (Julie's silkied ameras & some normal silikies for comparison), since as viewed by the naked eye they are EXTREMELY dissimilar. Julie's seem to have sections of barbs that 'velcro' together, while a true Silkie's feathers are completely 'down' like, with no connecting barbs. I posted casual findings here.

If anyone has any questions for Pat, please let me know and I will send her another email. This is so much fun!!

So yes, I mis-quoted myself in saying that Pat didn't have Silkies - she did, but claims they were 5 acres apart from the Blue/Black/Splash pen - which was never crossed with any other Ameraucana or EE pen in all her years of breeding them.