True Ameraucanas?

[Just Rosie]

Ok, I've seen this thread a million times, I'm sure you're all sick of seeing it but I can't seem to find what I'm looking for.
I did a lot of research before purchasing my chicks from a very nice breeder that was quite a drive for me. She was listed on the ABC breeder directory, though I know that doesn't guarantee anything.
Anyway, I ordered I think 10 BBS day old chicks from her back in march. Shortly before pickup time, she let me know her BBS batch was pretty low and she wouldn't have enough chicks to cover what I ordered, so she let me know she was working on a "mottled" Ameraucana. I of course asked for pictures, and I have to say they are a beautiful bird! So I accepted some of these as replacements. I know obviously this right here is probably my answer, but I wanted to see if anyone who has ameraucana experience has any opinions about it.
So anyway, not all of my chicks survived, but by the end I had 4 roos, 3 hens. Currently, one blue roo, 2 black hens, and one hen that I think is my trouble maker. She is all black, save 2 small hidden tail feathers that are white. (Mottled) We are finally at egg laying age, and imagine my disappointment when I found some very questionable green eggs. Now, not all of them are green, some are much more blue, but there are a couple that are borderline olive.
I did contact the breeder, she said she hadn't had a hen produce this color, she advised I cull the hen from my breeding program, and even the more green layers, if I was able to. (I only have 3 hens! )
Today while they were grazing, I happened to pick up the hen in question, and noticed that she has WHITE earlobes. (Everyone else has red) Is that even a thing in Ameraucanas? Everywhere I read says red earlobes, but I didn't see anything else that specified ONLY red.
Yall, do I have an EE on my hands? I didn't ask her out right if she had some EE and maybe I got one of those, I don't want to insult her. And knowing that this "mottled" color is not accepted at this point, I know there is no "standard" for what to expect in color.
I hate that I've been waiting for these girls to lay for almost 9 months, and out pop some green eggs!
What would y'all suggest as to how I handle this? I hate to give up my hen, especially only having 3 total. I'm not even positive it is HER laying the dark green eggs. But I do want ameraucanas, not easter eggers, so perhaps I will keep her this year. I plan on purchasing a few more chicks, or hatch them myself, so I guess once they're laying I can separate or rehome her.

 

[Just Rosie]

I suppose you would want to see said eggs: (these are their first ever laid eggs, I have noticed a bit bluer in some eggs since)

 

[Ridgerunner]

I got some hatching eggs a few years back from a lady in Arkansas that was working on a mottled Ameraucana project. She was one of many in a consortium trying to develop them and then get the new color/pattern approved by the APA. She said she had been working on them for 15 years and it was still a work in progress. Interestingly she was mostly working on things that make them Ameraucana: eye color, comb, conformation, for example. Getting them consistent in feather color/pattern was not at the top of the list. That could quickly be fixed once they took care of the other stuff. The eggs were pretty much blue, not really any green that I saw. My main interest in getting Amerauana was just the blue egg gene so i was happy with "project" Ameraucanas. I used them to make mottled red or black Easter Eggers that laid green or blue eggs and we broody a lot.

I don't know if your breeder is in that consortium or what stage she is in, but it sounds unlikely she has a finished project. I would expect to find flaws. I don't know what color a true Ameraucana's ear lobes are supposed to be but I'm sure one is a requirement. Two white tail feathers does not mean mottled. Mottled is a recessive gene, you have to have both copies at the gene pair to be mottled before it shows up. But she could certainly be split for mottling.

I don't know what your goals are. Why do want Ameraucana instead of Easter Eggers? Are you going to show them? Do you only want blue eggs? Without knowing your goals I can't make any specific suggestions. But from my playing around with genetics, if you have something you don't want get rid if it now. Don't let it contaminate what you do want.

 

[mixedbreeds]

If you want pretty blue eggs from ameraucana’s I would get rid of them. I don’t see an egg there that’s even close to the blue eggs I get from mine sorry.

 

[chickens really]

Pictures of your Birds would definitely help...

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

To get the mottling in the Ameraucanas she brought in a brown egg layer and that’s why some of the eggs are dark green.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

The 3 eggs pointed to by the arrows are probably from the Mottled Ameraucana as they are too green to be pure Ameraucanas eggs. The rest of the eggs are blue enough to have come from true Ameraucanas.

 

[Just Rosie]

I don't know if your breeder is in that consortium or what stage she is in, but it sounds unlikely she has a finished project. I would expect to find flaws. I don't know what color a true Ameraucana's ear lobes are supposed to be but I'm sure one is a requirement. Two white tail feathers does not mean mottled. Mottled is a recessive gene, you have to have both copies at the gene pair to be mottled before it shows up. But she could certainly be split for mottling.

I don't know what your goals are. Why do want Ameraucana instead of Easter Eggers? Are you going to show them? Do you only want blue eggs? Without knowing your goals I can't make any specific suggestions. But from my playing around with genetics, if you have something you don't want get rid if it now. Don't let it contaminate what you do want.

Right, when I saw the mottled hens she had produced, the mottling was very subtle on them, mostly through face and neck. So I'm assuming my hen was in her earlier days of experimenting.
As for what I want, really I'm just a snob who wants Ameraucanas, not easter eggers. I like having a breed in almost all of my animals. I also always want blue or blue-green eggs, which is why I chose the ameraucana breed, and I would like to breed and sell these chicks, so to me, it helps having a specific breed.
I just wonder, like you said, the breeder focused on traits rather than the actual mottling, wouldn't this hen still conform to breed standard in the most basic ways, because she was bred from another ameraucana? I'm assuming that Mottled is a mutated gene either discovered or perhaps planned through knowlege of genetics... but surely it wouldn't involve another breed, marring the purity of the line? I suppose you're right, I should pull this hen from my stock, and I probably will next year when I have more to replace her.

 

[Just Rosie]

To get the mottling in the Ameraucanas she brought in a brown egg layer and that’s why some of the eggs are dark green.

So really, you're saying her "Mottling project" was just throwing together some colors, not breeding ameraucanas true. Well shit

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

So really, you're saying her "Mottling project" was just throwing together some colors, not breeding ameraucanas true. Well shit

No for the first generation cross she needed to bring in a brown egg layer. She would breed all those offspring back to true Ameraucanas for body type and egg color. After 8 generations the bird is practically pure.