Silver Ameraucana

[rc50]

Hi hope all are doing good.... Two questions..... Where did the blue egg laying gene come from in Silvers ? Where did the silver gene come from in Silvers... ?>

Thanks a ton

rc

 

[Lady of McCamley]

The history of Ameraucana is long and varied with many twists and turns.

The original blue layers came from Chile, in the Araucana region, and were imported around 1914 to Europe, having been exhibited at a poultry exhibition in Chile. They were billed as natural birds but were actually already the result of refined breeding by a doctor whose name escapes me at the moment. He refined the natural birds of the Araucana Indian tribe who bred a rumpless, blue layer, to a tailed brown layer as it was known that the ear tufting was a lethal gene.

From this original import evolved a convoluted line of birds that varied greatly in appearance, as the original Chilean birds varied in appearance.

Over time, breeders refined the apperance while keeping the blue laying genes (2 possible in pure lines). Numerous breeders worked on the efforts, and in America two lines developed. The rumpless, tufted, line which retained the name Araucana, and a tailed and muffed line which also called itself Araucanas. The rumpless breeders made it to the APA finish line first and were recognized by the APA leaving the muffed and tailed breeders, well, miffed and out in the cold.

They continued to develop their own line of blue laying bids that were muffed and tailed and renamed them to American Araucana...shortened to Ameraucana.

Colors were refined to the standard 8 known today, silver being one of them.

I let someone else step in with stronger feather genetics, but silver is a common pattern in the natural world, so I'm not surprised to see it as one of the colors that developed as the original standard.

Lofmc

http://ameraucanabreedersclub.org/history.html

 

[rc50]

Hi thanks a ton for your reply... but I am looking for more than a history of the breed... I would like to know what breed, breeds were used to create Silvers.... where did the blue, where did the silver genes come from to get silver ameraucanas.... are they silver duckwing > silver quail... ? what genes are in silver ameraucanas... ?

 

[nicalandia]

I would like to know what breed, breeds were used to create Silvers.where did the blue, where did the silver genes come from to get silver ameraucanas. are they silver duckwing > silver quail? what genes are in silver ameraucanas?

The Silver Ameraucana line was created by John Blehm and Mike Gilbert, they introduced the pattern from Silver Leghorns(not surprisingly the APA SOP calls for the same description on the male based on the Silver Leghorn: silver hackle with black striping, and a silver saddle with no striping),

The blue eggshell gene came from the easter egger lines they crossed with silver leghorn as Mike Gilbert said so himself "easter egg chickens were crossed with other breeds to get the recognized colors".


In the case of Silver Ameraucana, logic would indicate that the original breeders used wild type based or wild type looking EEs stock that laid blue egg shells to start with(some EEs do lay blue eggs, while most lay green) as that would have saved them a few generations and Silver Leghorn stock, bred them together and refined the most important traits like blue eggs, slate shanks good type, color can be improved after that.

Silver Leghorn rooster

Silver Ameraucana rooster

Silver Ameraucana like Silver Leghorns are regular silver duckwing e+/e+ S/S(S/- for females), they are not silver quail pattern.

 

[nicalandia]

I would like to point out that there were many paths in creating the Bantam version of Silver Ameraucana, some breeders use OEGB with LF

From: http://ameraucanaalliance.org/forum/index.php?topic=220.0

Mike Gilbert: My understanding is that the late Ralph Brazelton of Kansas developed some Silver bantams back in the day before they were known as Ameraucana.

Jerry Segler: The silver bantams I received from Ralph Brazelton were mixed with whites when I received them . He did not have a silver rooster at that time . So they were nearly gone . Due to the rooster being white in this mating there was no salmon breast in the hens . I was unable to get good colored females from these . I added silver Duckwing Old English bantam to these to restore the female color . This line was eventually lost . No one else had any so I recreated them . I used the white hens and silver Duckwing Old English for this . I had no color problems with these so I guess the whites were silver based at that time . Anyway mating this way the females had salmon breasts . This line was believed lost later but I found a hen and revived the line . These have since been blended with ones John Blehm and Curtis Beck had .

Mike Gilbert and John Blehm worked on that line .

John W Blehm: Even though bantam and LF silvers share common ancestry they appear to not be the same genetically for the silver color/variety. At least with my lines of each the cockerels of each size go thru different feather patterns (phenotype) as they molt and mature.
The influence of Old English Game still shows today. I see that back in 1994 my breeding pen for bantam silvers had "4 medium sized hens x bantam black cocks". I probably didn't have a decent silver cock to use, but also the outcross probably helped get a little better Ameraucana type.

 

[rc50]

HI.... Thanks a ton for that info... Hope you are doing great..

 

[nicalandia]

HI.... Thanks a ton for that info... Hope you are doing great..

You are welcome

 

[rc50]

Nicalandia...
What besides finding a silver ameraucana line that has great blue egg color what would be the best route to making the egg color a better blue?
Again thanks a ton for all your help...

 

[JedJackson]

The Silver Ameraucana line was created by John Blehm and Mike Gilbert, they introduced the pattern from Silver Leghorns(not surprisingly the APA SOP calls for the same description on the male based on the Silver Leghorn: silver hackle with black striping, and a silver saddle with no striping),

The blue eggshell gene came from the easter egger lines they crossed with silver leghorn as Mike Gilbert said so himself "easter egg chickens were crossed with other breeds to get the recognized colors".


In the case of Silver Ameraucana, logic would indicate that the original breeders used wild type based or wild type looking EEs stock that laid blue egg shells to start with(some EEs do lay blue eggs, while most lay green) as that would have saved them a few generations and Silver Leghorn stock, bred them together and refined the most important traits like blue eggs, slate shanks good type, color can be improved after that.

Silver Leghorn rooster
View attachment 1421955
Silver Ameraucana rooster
View attachment 1421957

Silver Ameraucana like Silver Leghorns are regular silver duckwing e+/e+ S/S(S/- for females), they are not silver quail pattern.

Makes sense, but with one problem-- silver Ameraucanas have white skin. Easter eggers and Leghorns have yellow skin. So I'm thinking other breeds must have been used to get the white skin and slate blue legs.

 

[rc50]

"Nicalandia..."
"What besides finding a silver ameraucana line that has great blue egg color" what would be the best route to making the egg color a better blue?
Again thanks a ton for all your help...