Has anyone ever crossed a Houdan with Ameraucana? What about Satin Silkie?

[RememberTheWay]

If you have ever done a cross with a BW mottled Houdan roo to an Ameraucana hen I would love to see pictures.

I am currently planning out my breeding pens and have some color projects and various things going on. I have a mottled Houdan rooster that I have no mate for but I was actually thinking the other day that maybe a crested Ameraucana looking bird would be fun with satin feathers. I have three purebred lavender Ameraucana hens just coming into lay. I have two lavender Ameraucana roosters here. But thought that creating a lavender bird with muff beards and a crest might be fun. My two options for doing that are the mottled Houdan or a black satin silkie rooster I have here as well.

I would love to see examples of anyone else birds that have done similar things especially if you worked on it for more then one generation.

Photos are of the satin silkie rooster (purchased and have no clue what his background is but the comb says something else is going on there) and my lavender Ameraucana hens. Also a photo of the Houdan when he was much younger.

 

[AinaWGSD]

I guess the deciding question is whether you want clean legs or feathered legs? Both roosters are going to give you black split to lavender chicks. Probably mostly crested, with or without beards and muffs, likely at least some with 5 toes. To get lavender chicks you could cross the F1 chicks with each other or cross one of the F1 males back to the ameraucanas. The silkie cross should give you feathered legs. The houdan cross would also be split for mottling, so that could pop up down the line as you work back towards lavender.

 

[RememberTheWay]

I guess the deciding question is whether you want clean legs or feathered legs? Both roosters are going to give you black split to lavender chicks. Probably mostly crested, with or without beards and muffs, likely at least some with 5 toes. To get lavender chicks you could cross the F1 chicks with each other or cross one of the F1 males back to the ameraucanas. The silkie cross should give you feathered legs. The houdan cross would also be split for mottling, so that could pop up down the line as you work back towards lavender.

Thanks. I knew all the chicks would likely be black on the first generation cross and that it would be a several generations project. The silkie though I would imagine Is also split to silkie feathering, so that wod pop up later too. Maybe that could be fun but I think I want to work with regular feathers. And I would definitely want clean legs. I would also have combs to think about. I think pea combs are dominant over straight combs but the Houdan has a v comb and I have no clue what the comb is called on the silkie. Maybe a buttercup comb? Not sure, it's all spikey. Silkie also has melanistic skin, so that would have to be considered.

This photo was actually taken from an internet scammer, that tried to scam me and is likely from someone else's farm, but I do like the crested lavender bird in it. I'm hoping to do something similar with a line here.

Editing to add- this actual screenshot is from Reddit after I did a Google image search with the photo I was sent by the scammer. The people in the screenshot are NOT the people who tried to scam me and I have never spoken with them. I took the screenshot bc it served as proof that the person I was talking to had stolen the photo from the internet.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Pretty! I can see why you would want to work towards that. Silkies are supposed to have walnut combs, but I don't know enough about comb genetics to guess how that will play out. If you don't want silkie feathered birds popping up down the line it would probably be better to go with the houdan. Also, your silkie seems to be non bearded so you could have non-bearded birds pop up in future generations.

 

[RememberTheWay]

Pretty! I can see why you would want to work towards that. Silkies are supposed to have walnut combs, but I don't know enough about comb genetics to guess how that will play out. If you don't want silkie feathered birds popping up down the line it would probably be better to go with the houdan. Also, your silkie seems to be non bearded so you could have non-bearded birds pop up in future generations.

This is another photo I found for inspiration. Though this one is supposed be an opal Legbar I believe.

And I know he definitely has small wattles. I should look at him closer to see what he has and doesn't have actually. I like him bc he is very wide and has nice body capacity and nice sturdy legs. He also is a very healthy and hardier bird then some of my others.

 

[Melz-chicks]

I think my Ameraucana was mixed with a barred rock by the coloring. But I have an ameraucana hen and a Houdan rooster. This is the outcome I got of their chicks. Seems like all of the barred color ones are roos and the black one is a hen. They are about 4 months old now and this is what they look like. They have the puffy cheeks and feathers are starting to show more on their heads. The one in the back right in the second pic is a Cochin, so don’t mind her.

 

[Melz-chicks]

I think my Ameraucana was mixed with a barred rock by the coloring. But I have an ameraucana hen and a Houdan rooster. This is the outcome I got of their chicks. Seems like all of the barred color ones are roos and the black one is a hen. They are about 4 months old now and this is what they look like. They have the puffy cheeks and feathers are starting to show more on their heads. The one in the back right in the second pic is a Cochin, so don’t mind her. View attachment 3993624View attachment 3993625

They also all ended up with the 5 toes like a Houdan.

 

[RememberTheWay]

I think my Ameraucana was mixed with a barred rock by the coloring. But I have an ameraucana hen and a Houdan rooster. This is the outcome I got of their chicks. Seems like all of the barred color ones are roos and the black one is a hen. They are about 4 months old now and this is what they look like. They have the puffy cheeks and feathers are starting to show more on their heads. The one in the back right in the second pic is a Cochin, so don’t mind her. View attachment 3993624View attachment 3993625

Interesting. If your hen is barred then they would create Sex-Link chicks I think. All males would be barred and the females would not be