Author Topic: Breeding splash Ameraucanas  (Read 4801 times)

Lindsay Helton

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Breeding splash Ameraucanas
« on: June 12, 2020, 09:20:10 PM »
The Ameraucana Breeders Club is seeking approval for the splash color variety in large fowl. I will plan to create a few educational posts about breeding the splash color variety in the coming months in order to promote the effort. This approval effort will require a concerted effort by numerous Ameraucana breeders across the U.S. in order to be successful.

First, some of you may wonder how a splash Ameraucana is created. A splash Ameraucana is created from breeding a blue Ameraucana to a blue Ameraucana, a blue Ameraucana to a splash Ameraucana or a splash Ameraucana to a splash Ameraucana. I will attach a breeding chart to this educational post.

Blue x Blue will create approximately 25% Splash.

Blue x Splash will create 50% Splash.

Splash x Splash will create 100% Splash.
 
If you open up your American Poultry Association Standard of Perfection book, you will notice that for the blue color description, it states that the neck, back, tail, wings, breast, body & fluff, and lower thighs should be laced in black.
 
In recent years, Andalusians have been crossed into several blue Ameraucana breeding programs to achieve the lacing that the standard calls for in the blue Ameraucana color variety.  While there are a few conflicting studies out there, multiple scientific studies have found that there are three genes involved in creating the black single lacing on a blue Ameraucana. Those three genes are the Pattern gene (Pg), Melanotic gene (MI) and Columbian gene (Co).
 
The Pattern gene is responsible for creating patterns on plumage. It organizes black pigment concentrically. The Melanotic gene is a black intensifier. It enhances and moves black pigment to the outer border of the feather. This makes the outer border black and double lacing is created (Pg+Ml). By adding Columbian (Co), which is an eumelanin restrictor, the inner laces are taken away and single lacing is created (Pg+Ml+Co).
 
The Pg, MI and Co genes that create the lacing in a blue Ameraucana can also result in partial or incomplete lacing in a splash Ameraucana. We will not being seeking for the splash Ameraucana color variety to have lacing present as consistent lacing is not achievable on a splash Ameraucana. The lacing on a splash Ameraucana that is produced from blue breeding programs that have true lacing is not consistent due to the two copies of the blue gene having a disruptive effect and distributing the melanin that is present on a splash Ameraucanas at random. This is also impacted by the e-allele they are built on. There may be additional modifiers that have an effect on the lacing being more or less consistent, but unfortunately there has not been significant scientific research completed on the subject.

Thank you Jean Ribbeck and Brian Reeder for your help while creating this educational post.
 
A special thank you to the American Poultry Association for giving me permission to use excerpts of the standard when creating these educational posts. To breed Ameraucanas to standard and to be aware of defects and disqualifications, you will need a copy of the APA SOP book. To buy an American Poultry Association Standard of Perfection book, visit the following link:

http://amerpoultryassn.com/store.htm
 
For more information on the Ameraucana breed, visit www.ameraucanabreedersclub.org.

W. C. Carefoot (1992) Inheritance of the lace‐tailed laced plumage pattern of the sebright bantam, British Poultry Science, 33:2, 297-302, DOI: 10.1080/00071669208417468
 
W. C. Carefoot (1988) Inheritance of the laced plumage pattern of the blue Andalusian bantam, British Poultry Science, 29:1, 175-178, DOI: 10.1080/00071668808417040
 
W. C. Carefoot (1986) Laced and double‐laced plumage pattern phenotypes of the domestic fowl, British Poultry Science, 27:1, 93-96, DOI: 10.1080/00071668608416858
« Last Edit: June 25, 2020, 08:05:10 PM by Lindsay Helton »
Joshua 24:15

Birdcrazy

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Re: Breeding splash Ameraucanas
« Reply #1 on: June 13, 2020, 12:45:49 AM »
Lindsay, I want to help in the Splash recognition project by hopefully raising some grow outs that meet the color requirements for this project. In the past I have read articles that stated Blue Ameraucanas did not have true lacing, but rather a light edging. There was even discussion that the SOP description needed to be changed from lacing to edging. It was about that time some started crossing with Andalusians to get a bolder lacing on their birds. I can remember back over 10 years ago you saw many Blues being shown that had no lacing or edging. Would this be the type of breeder birds to use to eliminate having Splash chicks without lacing in their plumage? If so, I have culled all of those type birds over the years. I remember over 10 years ago before all of the discussion about lacing vs edging and adding Andalusian blood, I had one breeding pen of a Black cockerel over Blue hens with no lacing or edging. About 3/4 of the blue chicks developed with heavy edging. Their base color was on the darker side of Blue, but the edging was overall and almost to the point of looking like a Blue Seabright. What are your thoughts to setup ideal breeding pens? I'm sure others out there trying to help in this project would appreciate your thoughts as well as myself.
Gordon Gilliam

Lindsay Helton

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Re: Breeding splash Ameraucanas
« Reply #2 on: June 14, 2020, 05:13:38 PM »
Gordon,

Hopefully Paul, Jean and other breeders of splash will chime in with their thoughts on breeding the splash color variety.

Jean and members of the standards committee have been a lot of help as the ABC drafts the standard for the splash variety. I have not received many emails from splash breeders regarding the standard and hope to see some of those emails trickle in.

I have enjoyed reading the descriptions of the splash varieties that have been approved, and studying the underlying genetics to better understand how and why a consistently laced line of splash Ameraucanas based on E is not achievable. It perplexed me that a color variety that calls for lacing could/would be used to create a non laced variety.

Do you have a copy of your Standard of Perfection book on hand?

I was reading the color descriptions of the splash varieties that have been approved this afternoon (generally speaking). I was looking at the standard for the splash modern game and the splash silkie. Much like in our case, the blue color varieties call for lacing in the hackle, back, tail, wings, breast, body and legs while the splash color varieties do not. The disqualifications listed for the splash modern game are "any appearance of rust in the plumage. More than 50% blue in the plumage."  The disqualification listed for the splash silkie is "any appearance of rust in the plumage." I need to get out my ABA standard.

I am going to reach out to some of the splash modern game bantam breeders and request photos of their splash birds. It would not be as useful to reach out to splash silkie breeders because they are soft feathered. It will be interesting to see the edging and or lacing in the splash modern game bantams. The other standards for splash varieties that are approved and are created from blues with lacing do not address the lacing or edging issue in their standard. It did not affect their splash varieties getting approved. I am curious about the standard committee’s thoughts on the wording of the standard in regard to that aspect, if it needs to be addressed and the interpretation of APA judges.

The long and the short of it is the standard will not call for any lacing, as consistent lacing is not achievable on a line of E based birds carrying two copies of the Bl gene.

The educational post has generated some feedback from APA judges and some other folks versed in genetics so that has been nice. That was my hope. The ABC welcomes any feedback on the splash standard and I can be reached personally at abcsecretaryhelton@gmail.com.

I am going to talk with some members of the standards committee this week about the standard. Please feel free to send me an email about any questions or concerns you have regarding the standard and I can submit those thoughts with my email to them.
« Last Edit: June 14, 2020, 07:55:06 PM by Lindsay Helton »
Joshua 24:15

Don

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Re: Breeding splash Ameraucanas
« Reply #3 on: July 06, 2020, 11:00:09 PM »
From what I've read, none of the Splash descriptions refer to the Lacing in the Blue portions of the "Splashed" feathers. Rather they refer to "Blue" where the description is detailed. The lacing is carried over if the Blues you use for breeding meet the Blue standard, either in edging or in true Blue lacing. This happens in the Splash birds that I've seen in Andalusians, Ameraucanas and Sumatras. I will have a look at some of the other breeds that are shown in Splash next time I am a show. Cochins are accepted and I am aware that Old English are shown in Splash from time to time also. I would be curious how the Standard Committee suggests that this may be written into the standard, or if it is just understood to be accepted by the judges. Alternately you'll have people creating a subpar Blue line without lacing to make the unusual splashes. This is also true in the leg colors of the Splash descriptions. The colors are all written with solid leg colors, ie Blue, slate, etc.  The leg colors of the splash carry over the Splash pattern also.  At the very least it might be helpful to have the Standard description written such that the leg color variation and Splash lacing are not considered a fault in the target Standard for judging.   
Don Cash
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Re: Breeding splash Ameraucanas
« Reply #4 on: July 09, 2020, 07:47:42 PM »
Don, I have spoken to a couple judges one of them being Sam Brush, patterns, lacing, or what ever you want to call them are not acceptable on splash birds. 
Jean

Don

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Re: Breeding splash Ameraucanas
« Reply #5 on: July 09, 2020, 09:05:20 PM »
So what we are saying is that we can't use Blue birds to breed Splash show birds?  How else do you keep the lacing from presenting on the Blue Splashed feathers?  This would apply to either lacing or the more normal edging, right?   And just to be clear, we are talking about the lacing on the Blue feathers in the splash coloring, not the field color?   
« Last Edit: July 09, 2020, 10:30:05 PM by Don »
Don Cash
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Lindsay Helton

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Re: Breeding splash Ameraucanas
« Reply #6 on: July 10, 2020, 01:47:48 AM »
I think Jean is referring to the written standard and pointing out that calling for edging or lacing in the splash variety is not acceptable. Naturally, our “goals” when breeding blues and splashes will be different. One standard calls for lacing and the other does not.
« Last Edit: July 16, 2020, 02:53:42 PM by Lindsay Helton »
Joshua 24:15