What happened? Lavender ameracaunas...

[ManOverBoard]

So I've always wanted a lavender variety of chicken.
We recently ordered a batch of lavender ameracauna eggs from eBay and hatched them out. ( Just finished this morning)

We had some shipping issues so the seller included some freebie eggs in the batch to us. We got 6 supposedly lavender ameracauna eggs and 6 Easter egger eggs.
From what I can see in the pictures of the sellers set up and gather from her notes, shes got lavender ameracauna hens and some black and tan Easter egger hens sharing a coop/run both with the same lavender ameracauna rooster.

Out if the 12 eggs. Only 3 of the lavender ameracauna eggs hatched. One of which is actually lavender colored and the poor sweet thing has wry neck.
The other two supposed lavender chicks are almost black. They have some grey hiding under heavy black features. Black feet, beaks, eyes, gray hiding near flanks and yellow on their bellies.
Any idea what's going on here?


The other 6 chicks that hatched
Are Easter egger crossed babies as they have chipmunk like patterns of chestnut and gray and black. One exhibiting a higher percentage of that gray ( lavender) color I was looking for.

All the chicks are so immensely sweet and personable. Super easy to handle and even taking turns cuddling the wry chick separate from the rest.
The chicks also huge.
We happen to have just hatched out quail a few days prior, so relatively of course they seem bigger, but even compared to our maran chicks and Australorp chicks and other ameracauna chicks in the past these chicks are huge fluff balls
A couple of which were so cramped in there eggs. When they came out they looked like big awkward pigeon babies that then fluffed up to wooly bear caterpillars. It's the fluffiest pile of chicks I've ever seen.


Our poor wry guy is so much smaller than the others despite being cramped in his shell with his foot over his head. We're treating him with vitamins, massages, and lots of love. Not sure he'll make the night. His neck seems to be doing much better this afternoon,but we've traded out neck strength for legs. He was standing and stretching his legs early in the day working on walking well, but now he just lays down.

We had a tough hatch out between our shipped quail and shipped chicken eggs. We were hoping for a lavender rooster so we could once again supply our own fertile eggs. Not sure we'll do shipped eggs again.

Was about to leave a review for the ebay seller, but not sure what to make of these dark supposed lavender ameracaunas.
Any input? Is this like some recessed gene?
Here's an above of everyone
.



supposed lavender ameracauna number 1 and 2

An Easter egger crossed baby




And lastly our poor wry guy...

He looks a little yellow here but much less so when not on a yellow towel.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Does the breeder have any black ameraucana hens in the pen maybe? With the feather shredder gene it would make sense to have blacks or black splits in the breeding program to improve feather quality. They really should have noted that in the listing, but that would be the most honest explanation for the black chicks.

 

[ManOverBoard]

Does the breeder have any black ameraucana hens in the pen maybe? With the feather shredder gene it would make sense to have blacks or black splits in the breeding program to improve feather quality. They really should have noted that in the listing, but that would be the most honest explanation for the black chicks.

I'll ask.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I got lavender chicks from a breeder in Alabama last April and a large percentage of them had some yellow on them, like Isabells, but they all feathered out lavender. The sire, half Ameraucana, was a lightly barred lavender and two of the mothers were pb lavender Ameraucanas and two were half Ameraucana, both lavender. She thought all the birds, including the sire, that were half Am, were half lavender Orpington, but she wasn't sure. None of the chicks were black. I don't know if this helps you. Only one had the shredder gene and it was a cockerel.

 

[ManOverBoard]

I'll ask.

Still waiting on a reply, but here is the picture of Dad and upon parusing their other available ameracauna eggs photos I found this hen.

 

[ManOverBoard]

I got lavender chicks from a breeder in Alabama last April and a large percentage of them had some yellow on them, like Isabells, but they all feathered out lavender. The sire, half Ameraucana, was a lightly barred lavender and two of the mothers were pb lavender Ameraucanas and two were half Ameraucana, both lavender. She thought all the birds, including the sire, that were half Am, were half lavender Orpington, but she wasn't sure. None of the chicks were black. I don't know if this helps you. Only one had the shredder gene and it was a cockerel.

I had never heard of the shredder gene till now what is it?

 

[Slothinc]

That is a real bummer if they didn’t mention in their ad that they have some black hens. A lot of people do keep blacks and lavender together, as lavender is a dilution of black that appears when two lavender genes are present. So lavender birds are actually black birds that have two recessive lavender dilution genes. So blacks and lavenders are often bred together to keep type and feather quality (as lavender also oftentimes creates shredded feathers.)

Basically the two black birds that you have (if they came from a pen from that male) will be split to lavender. So they carry one lavender gene. If bred to a lavender bird 50% of the offspring will be lavender and 50% will be black split to lavender (meaning they carry one lav gene.)

I know this doesn’t help your situation with the chicks but if you do keep those birds and end up getting a lavender to breed with them, they can have lavender babies.

They are all just darling in your pictures.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I had never heard of the shredder gene till now what is it?

It was news to me too. The shredder gene shows up in lavender birds and it's just what it sounds like: the wing feathers will appear "shredded" and rather unsightly. Very rough and unkempt-looking. They just grow that way, but it looks alarming, as if the bird has been in a fight or other birds have been pulling on that bird's feathers.. maybe google it to see if you can find some pictures.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Here is a current pic of the sire of my lavenders along with a pic of one of his current chicks.

According to the breeder, the chick's dark legs indicate the mother is a pb Ameraucana.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Sorry, PIC, not "oic"!