Breeding Ameraucanas

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muffin57
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Breeding Ameraucanas

Post by muffin57 » Thu Dec 13, 2018 5:24 pm

I have the opportunity to purchase some lavender ameraucana fertilized eggs. I have the BBS Ameraucanas, but I believe they may be all males. If I hatch some lavenders and breed any females with my males next year what color would be the best to breed with the lavenders black, blue or splash? I would appreciate any thoughts.
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Happy
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Re: Breeding Ameraucanas

Post by Happy » Thu Dec 13, 2018 5:47 pm

I may be wrong but I think you need two chickens carrying lavender to produce lavender (self blue).
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muffin57
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Re: Breeding Ameraucanas

Post by muffin57 » Thu Dec 13, 2018 10:09 pm

Thanks Happy, but I wonder of the black, blue or splash roos which color would be best to breed to a lavender hen just so I can stick to my BBS birds. I just want to do it once to get some hens. I will then keep the lavenders separate from my BBSs.
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Penny
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Re: Breeding Ameraucanas

Post by Penny » Fri Dec 14, 2018 9:01 am

I dont have any personal experience to add as Im just starting into my Ameraucana breeding journey with BBS, but I read an article on the ameraucana alliance website that said when they were originally trying to introduce the self blue gene, they bred them back to black. Dont know if that helps...
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Re: Breeding Ameraucanas

Post by Ontario Chick » Fri Dec 14, 2018 10:21 am

Just a heads up, the Lavenders seem to be more delicate, so if you can get local eggs, great, with shipped eggs the survival is probably going to be pretty low.
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muffin57
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Re: Breeding Ameraucanas

Post by muffin57 » Fri Dec 14, 2018 5:12 pm

Thank you for the replies. I will probably breed a black roo with any lavender hens. That's what I figured OC is that it might be best to get these eggs locally vs being shipped.
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windwalkingwolf
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Re: Breeding Ameraucanas

Post by windwalkingwolf » Fri Dec 14, 2018 5:36 pm

All of the offspring will be split to lavender, meaning they will all carry a copy of the gene and will pass it down. Keep this in mind later when picking BBS breeders from any lavender x BBS mating. If the chicks grow up to mate with another bird carrying the split, you will get lavender back, and more splits. If you decide to go ahead with mating lavender hens to a rooster of a different colour, I'd recommend marking the resulting chicks asap after hatch so you can keep track of who is who for future breedings. If you mix them all together and have no idea who carries what, you're in for a mess.
That said, in my opinion, your best bet for a lavender cross mating is a black rooster. If you use blue or splash, the resulting blue birds may have bad colouring: poor (or non-existent) lacing, washed out hackle and saddle colours. The blacks may too, but it might be easier to identify a sharp, black bird with beetle green sheen over muddied, faded, ratty black birds, then it will be to separate splits from regular lighter blue ones on a wish and a prayer.
Another issue you may encounter, is that when mixing colours (or even a different line of the same colour) in Ameraucanas like this, is that type may go right out the window. The colour varieties are genetically quite different, and fairly new in poultry breeding, so when mixing colours, all sorts of weird throwbacks can happen. Leaf or rose combs, off-coloured eyes, squirrel tails, rumplessness, undersized birds, among other things. These are things you have to stay on top of in any breeding program, but it's magnified in Ameraucanas because it's such a young breed and because of the genetic dissimilarities between varieties. This is why outcrosses in this breed are called Easter Eggers and NOT Ameraucanas, because even though they might have come from two "pure" Ameraucana parents, they are hiding surprises and may not breed true. If you decide to sell eggs from these chicks or their offspring somewhere down the line, make sure you let people know that they're possibly (likely) split to lavender. Even if they're lucky and never pair two of them together and get lavender back, they may encounter other mystifying things like poor feather quality, high chick mortality, or an abject refusal of any of their birds to conform to standard LOL.
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kenya
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Re: Breeding Ameraucanas

Post by kenya » Sun Dec 16, 2018 3:55 am

I have bred lavender to blue ameraucana, made very little difference in results, no bad feathers no low mortatility and although they say split the lavender has never shown up again. I do not breed lavender ameraucana any longer because yes in my experience , and I have bred lavender Ameraucana, lavender Orpington and lavender d'Uncle. They all had problems with feather quality, crossed beak, heart attacks and poor hatch rate, chicks would go right up to the end then die.
I can't see any problems with doing a one time outcross to lavender to increase your flock size.
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muffin57
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Re: Breeding Ameraucanas

Post by muffin57 » Sun Dec 16, 2018 4:27 pm

Thanks www and kenya for the input. I spoke to the woman yesterday who was going to sell me eggs, but instead she is going to let me buy a hen from her. She is worried the eggs wouldn't be pure now, as she has all her chickens together. She has 6 hens and a roo. I don't know of anyone else around here with ameraucanas. If I waited to purchase eggs from southern Ontario it would be another year before I would get any eggs. I will have to keep this hen separated from my other birds for awhile. How long should I leave her before putting a black roo with her?

Here are a few pictures of my ameraucanas taken 2 days ago. Finally I get pictures of them all together.
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kenya
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Re: Breeding Ameraucanas

Post by kenya » Mon Dec 17, 2018 3:29 am

Most people say a month to ensure the new rooster will be the sire. Good luck, let us know how it turns out.
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