The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club > Breeding

Egg shell coloring

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Max:
Although blue egg color is the goal, it should not define the difference between an EE and a true Ameraucana. Egg color is not part of the SOP description. If anyone is choosing egg color over type, then they are doing an injustice to the breed.

Susan Mouw:
I agree with Max.  Egg color is stated in the SOP, but if we lose type over egg color, then we're going to pay those consequences for a long time forward.

Egg color is only a part of the picture - to focus on it as the primary defining characteristic of the Ameraucana breed would be akin to focusing on comb, or just beards and muff - anytime you lose sight of the whole bird, and the entire picture, you are sacrificing long term goals and overall quality.

I think the focus on the blue egg color now is just symptomatic of all the new people coming into the breed and it is cyclical.  It has come up as a focus several times just since I've been breeding (2010) and I'm sure will repeat itself in the future.

We just have to keep reminding ...ourselves...and those that ask that blue egg color is not the single defining characteristic of the breed and to focus on the big picture.

Don:
Sarah,  It is called the "Standard of Perfection" and for just this reason it lists all of the things that we would like the birds to include or Be.  I would say that anyone that has a line of birds that totally agrees with the SOP would be in pretty good shape to name their price.  (That is if everyone interpreted all of the words in the SOP exactly the same way.)

Everyone would prefer to have Sky Blue eggs.  These would be especially nice if they were Carolina Blue.  And that is our goal too.  But we are not there yet and some birds will lay eggs closer than others.  So when you look at type, feather color and quality, combs, weight and size, etc etc, you also look at the egg color that the hens produce.  Hopefully you know what color egg the males were hatched from too.  Every year you have to make decisions based on the goals for that breeding season.  I would not throw out a "tremendous bird" if they produce a slightly off colored egg. I wouldn't put all of my hopes in that one bird either.  But would pair her with a male that came from the nicest egg color, mark the young and watch to see if the traits were better than last year.  But it is best to be honest with folks buying stock or eggs. Just Show them eggs produced by the birds you are selling.     

Regarding off colored eggs indicating EEs.  I would think that it is very easy to get better egg color in a flock of EEs.  You probably don't care what color the birds are.  And you probably don't care how they carry themselves or if they have good combs, etc.  But it they are good producers of better blue eggs you can make progress year after year.  As long as something doesn't trigger the brown egg genes to start acting again.  So using egg color to define EEs seems odd to me.     

DeWayne Edgin:
I wonder if these blacks laying a green tinted egg are splits for Lavender ( self blue ). Blacks have the best egg color and are used to help fix green eggs in the Lavenders. My thoughts on this is, there are lots of blacks around the US that have good egg color. So if you have this problem it would be fairly easy to just get a new line instead of trying to fix green eggs.

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