What happened? Lavender ameracaunas...

[ManOverBoard]

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.

Thank you, that's very helpful information.

We're totally new to the chicken gene breeding scene. Wehave older ameracauna hens that are blonde(probably not the accurate term) and gray. Would crossing them with one of the lavender split boys produce anything with a higher percentage of grey feathering?

One of our girls.
The other is a higher percentage of grey with a blonde top half

 

[ManOverBoard]

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

View attachment 4077489

View attachment 4077490

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

Oh my goodness so handsome and so cute. That's what I was expecting to come out.

 

[ManOverBoard]

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.

Sounds awful

 

[ManOverBoard]

Thank you, that's very helpful information.

We're totally new to the chicken gene breeding scene. Wehave older ameracauna hens that are blonde(probably not the accurate term) and gray. Would crossing them with one of the lavender split boys produce anything with a higher percentage of grey feathering?
View attachment 4077491
One of our girls.
The other is a higher percentage of grey with a blonde top half

 

[Slothinc]

Thank you, that's very helpful information.

We're totally new to the chicken gene breeding scene. Wehave older ameracauna hens that are blonde(probably not the accurate term) and gray. Would crossing them with one of the lavender split boys produce anything with a higher percentage of grey feathering?
View attachment 4077491
One of our girls.
The other is a higher percentage of grey with a blonde top half

Unfortunately, no, unless your current birds carry lavender, which probably isn’t likely. Because it is a recessive gene, you will need it coming from both parents to create a lavender.

If the two black chicks were a male and a female, you could breed them together and get 25% lavender chicks and 75% black chicks (of those, some would not be split to lavender so this would only hold true breeding the first generation chicks together, not the second - but you could keep any lavender chicks you get and sell any black chicks.)

Something to keep in mind though, is that if you do get a lavender boy for your flock, and breed him to your reddish colored girls, it is as though you are breeding a black bird to them. So the babies will all be black, possibly with a little leakage. They will all carry lavender but none will be lavender unless the hen carries it also. That is why lavender flocks are generally just kept with lavenders and blacks in them and not other colors.

If you want, you could take photos of your current hens and make a post asking what color rooster would give the best variety of coloring over those hens.

It may be that you would like to get a blue or splash rooster. Splash, if bred to black will create all blues, and if bred to blue (one of the hens in your photos looks blue laced to me) it would create blues and splashes.

Other than that, I am not super savvy with all the different color variations. Amer and NatJ and mystery chicken on this forum are all super smart with genetics, so if you decide to make a post about what color rooster would be best, you could tag them in it.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Sounds awful

It's not very pleasing to the eye IMO, and it's def a show fault, so you wouldn't want to breed it, but it's not harmful.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Thank you, that's very helpful information.

We're totally new to the chicken gene breeding scene. Wehave older ameracauna hens that are blonde(probably not the accurate term) and gray. Would crossing them with one of the lavender split boys produce anything with a higher percentage of grey feathering?
View attachment 4077491
One of our girls.
The other is a higher percentage of grey with a blonde top half

Unfortunately, that is an easter egger, not a true Ameraucana. And that other Ameraucana hen you posted from the breeders site appears to be blue, not lavender.