Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[samouw]

The third one, pink tag, always caries her tail like that. I whistled like a hawk at her to get her to be still and her tail actually came up a tad bit for the picture.

Make sure the cockerel you are going to use with her has a correct tail set. You will get some chicks with the correct tail set and can move forward with those. She is, otherwise, a nice pullet and I wouldn't throw her out of a breeding program for that tail set, if I knew I had something to compensate for it.

 

[Chicken5555]

Make sure the cockerel you are going to use with her has a correct tail set. You will get some chicks with the correct tail set and can move forward with those. She is, otherwise, a nice pullet and I wouldn't throw her out of a breeding program for that tail set, if I knew I had something to compensate for it.

I'm definitely going to take your advice, since she has a good body type and is from excellent stock. I just need to see how Maxon looks over the next couple months. So far his tail set looks right, but I've heard so much about how the boys mature more slowly so I'm trying not to make any judgments on him yet.

 

[samouw]

I'm definitely going to take your advice, since she has a good body type and is from excellent stock. I just need to see how Maxon looks over the next couple months. So far his tail set looks right, but I've heard so much about how the boys mature more slowly so I'm trying not to make any judgments on him yet.

Yes, the boys can be frustratingly slow to mature. lol

 

[Chicken5555]

@samouw I am confident that my cockerel will be a good one for breeding. He is your champion's brother, after all

 

[samouw]

@samouw I am confident that my cockerel will be a good one for breeding. He is your champion's brother, after all

I wish we knew for sure which pen he came out of...it would be much easier to determine the best breeding plan for him.

 

[pips&peeps]

Has any one heard of the practice of breeding black into their line of silvers from time to time to improve certain traits?

I did and it made fantastic improvement on the birds type the second cross. I would suggest if you do it to only keep the pullets and only ones that do not express feather shafting.

Keep breeding back to pure silver and yes it will take some time. This is a second or third generation pullet after the cross.

 

[enggass]

The reason I ask is that I just inherited some of someones last years Silver breeding flock. She had crossed a Silver Cock with a Black Hen - some of the resulting F1s are the ones I got. 5 Black Hens. Plus I got from her a Silver Roo from same Dad but different mother... Hens are all Black except for one that has some white speckling on the head... She told me that the F1 Black Hens will likely generate Silver babies if mated back to the Silver Roo seen below.

My plan for now it so cross back any Silver Babies F2s to this same Roo... Thoughts?

 

[pips&peeps]

The reason I ask is that I just inherited some of someones last years Silver breeding flock. She had crossed a Silver Cock with a Black Hen - some of the resulting F1s are the ones I got. 5 Black Hens. Plus I got from her a Silver Roo from same Dad but different mother... Hens are all Black except for one that has some white speckling on the head... She told me that the F1 Black Hens will likely generate Silver babies if mated back to the Silver Roo seen below.

My plan for now it so cross back any Silver Babies F2s to this same Roo... Thoughts?

I would not use him. See all those spots on his breast, those are bad. If you can find another cock or cockerel I would go forward with that instead.

 

[enggass]

Thanks. Where can I find a list of desired/ideal traits in Silvers? Both Cockerel and Hen

 

[samouw]

Not a great pic, but this is the cockerel that won BB, AOSB, and 2016 SE District Champion Ameraucana, out of 50 Ams shown at Forsyth Fowl Fanciers this past weekend. The light is behind him, so you can't see his green sheen.