The AMERAUCANA thread

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Hello everyone! Looking for advice.
This guy hatched last year - we had a blue wheaten roo over blue wheaten and splash wheaten hens.
Is he a splash wheaten or a blue wheaten?

Do you have any pictures of the hens? He looks gold/silver split to me, so I'm wondering if one of your hens might be silver wheaten instead of gold wheaten as is proper for the variety. He is not Splash Wheaten as that would make his chest and tail more of a patchy grayish-white color instead of blue-gray as it is, and should not lighten the hackles and saddles to this extent.

 

[kurby22]

Look at that beard on one of my black Ameraucanas from Cackle!

View attachment 3754103
View attachment 3754104

That’s a serious beard!!

 

[Kittykaty]

Do you have any pictures of the hens? He looks gold/silver split to me, so I'm wondering if one of your hens might be silver wheaten instead of gold wheaten as is proper for the variety. He is not Splash Wheaten as that would make his chest and tail more of a patchy grayish-white color instead of blue-gray as it is, and should not lighten the hackles and saddles to this extent.

This is the Ameraucana breeding stock from last year.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Curious, none of them look silver wheaten to me... Maybe the one back left? @I Like Turkeys Any thoughts on that?


Looking back at the picture of the cockerel in question, it looks like he has a heterozygous pea comb instead of homozygous as proper for the breed. How sure are you that he's pure? Any other roosters those hens could have been exposed to? Any chicks hatched out of your other hens that could have been mistaken for pure Ameraucanas in the brooder?

 

[Kittykaty]

Curious, none of them look silver wheaten to me... Maybe the one back left? @I Like Turkeys Any thoughts on that?


Looking back at the picture of the cockerel in question, it looks like he has a heterozygous pea comb instead of homozygous as proper for the breed. How sure are you that he's pure? Any other roosters those hens could have been exposed to? Any chicks hatched out of your other hens that could have been mistaken for pure Ameraucanas in the brooder?

I've bought hatching eggs from reputable breeders, all birds looked purebred, all hens hatched from these eggs were laying blue eggs, and their offspring is laying blue eggs as well. The Ameraucanas were housed with no other roosters, I've had a hedemora hen (lays brown eggs) and a silverudd isbar hen (she lays pale green eggs) in the pen as well, but it was easy to tell the eggs apart. And those were not used for incubation at all.
Could possible inbreeding cause a heterozygous comb and a colouring like that?

 

[I Like Turkeys]

Curious, none of them look silver wheaten to me... Maybe the one back left? @I Like Turkeys Any thoughts on that?


Looking back at the picture of the cockerel in question, it looks like he has a heterozygous pea comb instead of homozygous as proper for the breed. How sure are you that he's pure? Any other roosters those hens could have been exposed to? Any chicks hatched out of your other hens that could have been mistaken for pure Ameraucanas in the brooder?

None look silver wheaten to me either. The back left is the lightest and washed out, but she’d have to be specifically test bred to know for sure. I know wheatens, especially largefowl from the photos I’ve seen, can just naturally get super light. She could be silver wheaten though, but doesn’t exactly seem to obviously be it.

 

[Amer]

None look silver wheaten to me either. The back left is the lightest and washed out, but she’d have to be specifically test bred to know for sure. I know wheatens, especially largefowl from the photos I’ve seen, can just naturally get super light. She could be silver wheaten though, but doesn’t exactly seem to obviously be it.

She looks blue wheaten, which is typically lighter. (I used to have wheatens.)

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

The blue gene has a little bit of a dilution effect on gold pigment as well, so it makes sense that Blue Wheaten would tend to be a bit lighter than plain Wheaten. I was also thinking that she didn't look silver wheaten, but as the palest one she seemed like the most likely candidate if any.

Just inbreeding should not cause gold wheaten to turn silver or pea combs to go from homozygous to heterozygous, those would either have to be genes already in the line or be introduced from somewhere. I'm second guessing on the comb now, though. I keep thinking it looks too tall and thin for homozygous pea, but maybe it's just the angle? Either way, silver had to have come from somewhere. I don't think I have the answers for where, though. He's a handsome guy regardless!

 

[I Like Turkeys]

My Blue Wheaten cockerel.
Excuse the face. He got plucked by a pullet who has now been removed from the flock.

 

[NagemTX]

Here we go, a better picture of my lavender cockerel that I'm using this year. He'll be a year old in May and so far I've not seen any shredded feathers on him like Indy had. He's not as big as Indy tho. His comb is not as tight either.