Lavender/Black Ameraucanas

[Trish44]

I started out this year with two lavender hens & a black rooster. All of the chicks that hatched were black. I have kept a black rooster from this year's hatch & plan to breed him back to the lavender hens. I also have kept two black pullets from this year & plan to breed those back to the black rooster. I guess my question is this: in order to keep improving the feather quality on the lavender Ameraucanas do I want to then keep lavender chicks this coming spring & if so then do I want a lavender rooster in order to get all lavender chicks? I just need to know what direction I need to go next year with this project. I'm following the advice I got from you Jean this year, so where do I go from here?

[Jean]

I started out this year with two lavender hens & a black rooster. All of the chicks that hatched were black. I have kept a black rooster from this year's hatch & plan to breed him back to the lavender hens. I also have kept two black pullets from this year & plan to breed those back to the black rooster. I guess my question is this: in order to keep improving the feather quality on the lavender Ameraucanas do I want to then keep lavender chicks this coming spring & if so then do I want a lavender rooster in order to get all lavender chicks? I just need to know what direction I need to go next year with this project. I'm following the advice I got from you Jean this year, so where do I go from here?

That depends on what you get in your offspring; whether they have good feather quality or not.  You want to see birds with a light lavender color, not the pewter looking ones with little bars throughout the bird.  The feathers should look nice and tight, not shredded up like the bird is always ready to go into molt.

[Trish44]

OK, so then IF I get birds that have good feather quality out of next spring's hatches, do I want to then keep a lavender rooster out of those to continue the line? I guess I just want an idea of where I'm going with this project this coming year so I know what I need to do, if I need to keep some lavenders for breeding or not.

[mustangsaguaro]

That depends on what you get in your offspring; whether they have good feather quality or not.  You want to see birds with a light lavender color, not the pewter looking ones with little bars throughout the bird.  The feathers should look nice and tight, not shredded up like the bird is always ready to go into molt.

I was actually going to ask this question as well. I actually wanted to get away from the black splits and concentrate on just Lavender. However, I've got one really nice young (still to young to tell if male or female) black split bird. Wondering if I should keep this bird or not for next year. I have a few other black splits that aren't nearly as nice as this bird. As soon as I know there sexes they will get sold or go to the stew pot. They are only 3mos right now so still to young for me to tell there sexes.

Jean you talked about not keep pewter looking birds. Do you have a picture of an example you might be able to show. If you don't is there anyone else here that might? 

[HappyMtn]

Trish- I just noticed you plan on breeding a split roo to split hens? If I am reading correctly...you will end up with some black offspring that do NOT carry lav, and you will not know who is who without lots of test breedings, so I would recommend against that pairing.

I have to agree with Jean about the lighter lavs. My lighter ones have much better feather quality. You really need to handle them as well though to feel the difference. They are almost "buttery" if that makes any sense. My issue now is being able to identify the silver lavs that I have popping up. They are gorgeous birds, but I need to keep the solids and its hard to tell until they grow quite a bit. 

 

[Trish44]

HappyMtn - No I want to breed my black split to my lavender hens. If I understood Jean correctly previously I want to do this in order to produce lavender chicks. To this point I only got black chicks from the black rooster with the lavender hens. This year I want to get lavender chicks.

[John]

When you think Orpington you think buff, with Rocks you think barred, with Hamburgs you think spangled and so on with the most recognized variety associated with a breed.  With bantam Ameraucanas wheaten was/is probably the most recognized variety because it was the first one, but with LF Ameraucanas my guess is that blacks are the "standard".  Since whites and lavenders are recessive and based on the same e-locus gene as blacks we have a fantastic advantage to be able to out-cross to the best blacks and produce whites and lavenders with just as good type...within a short period of time and while producing very few culls.
I used bantam lavender chickens and LF black Ameraucanas to develop LF lavenders, so it took time to get the size up to where it should be on LF lavenders.  The good news is if size is still an issue an out-cross to an extra large black is an easy fix.  Feather quality a problem?  Use a black with great feathers.  My biggest setback with the LF lavenders has been feathers on their shanks.  You can breed two birds of different strains together with no feathers on their shanks and end up with this problem.  I've seen it happen with other matings also over the years.  Each chick is inspected under a large lighted magnifying glass and any chick with feathers on their shanks goes into the "reject" brooder.  This is a big reason I haven't been able to fill some orders for LF lavender chicks the past couple years.  The problem isn't as bad this year, but still a problem.
I'm rotating 4 cocks over my LF lavender hens and here are three waiting for their turn.   

[Mike Gilbert]

I have had to cull chicks this year in LF Brown Red Ameraucana and in Silver Laced Wyandotte bantams because of feathers on their shanks.  In both cases they are a year or two removed from an outcross.
The Ameraucana outcross involved the Champion large fowl of show Black Ameraucana female when we had the National Meet in Kentucky.  I was trying to improve size in the Brown Reds.