White Ameraucana Chicks

[philipu]

of some of their feet and yellow(green) tint on shanks.
It appears as they are maturing and getting their first feathers,
that the yellow on the bottoms of the feet is gone and white/pink
now, the shanks are also loosing the yellow(green) tint and looking more slate each day.  Does this occur often in the whites, and
why the yellow in the beginning? Thanks, phil

[John]

With my experience the answer is no.  Willow/yellow legs and/or yellow on the pads of their feet should never appear.  

The only exception is some people say young wheaten chicks appear to have \"willow\" legs as they change from the flesh color they have when hatched to the blue/slate adult leg color.  I would say that isn\'t true willow, but rather a progressenal stage of blue/slate.

Yellow on the pads of the feet = cull for sure.

[Mike Gilbert]

I don\'t think you mentioned how old these birds are now?
The reason they were not hatched with dark legs, is because they are something besided E or E>R at the e-locus.   They could very well be wheaten at the e-locus (recessive white can be anything), which inhibits the development of dermal melanin.  If that is the case, the chicks could very well have been hatched with yellowish legs that turn dark over time, just as in buff and wheaten birds which are also wheaten at the e-locus.   I would not cull them if they are good otherwise.
At any rate I would give them time to have a chance.  You should know, however, that some breeders maintain you need E at th e-locus to avoid brassiness in the males.   I think it depends more on the strain (modifying genes) but have never set up a program to prove it one way or the other.

Mike Gilbert

[philipu]

I don\'t think you mentioned how old these birds are now?
The reason they were not hatched with dark legs, is because they are something besided E or E>R at the e-locus.   They could very well be wheaten at the e-locus (recessive white can be anything), which inhibits the development of dermal melanin.  If that is the case, the chicks could very well have been hatched with yellowish legs that turn dark over time, just as in buff and wheaten birds which are also wheaten at the e-locus.   I would not cull them if they are good otherwise.
At any rate I would give them time to have a chance.  You should know, however, that some breeders maintain you need E at th e-locus to avoid brassiness in the males.   I think it depends more on the strain (modifying genes) but have never set up a program to prove it one way or the other.

Mike Gilbert

Hi Mike,
The chicks were hatched the lst of June.
So I will not do anything as far as culling until they get a few more months on them.
I did notice that there were two at least that were more silver in their down color, and they are looking really good.
I am new to the Ameraucana, but, I\'m really enjoying the birds,
they remind me alot of my Orloffs.
The beard and muff, not peacomb,
Question I have some blue bantams, that have been laying,
is it worthwhile to incubate them?  I heard you get a better bird in color by using black...I have a splash I will use on a black pullet I have, but both are too young.
phil

[Mike Gilbert]

I would say it depends on the quality of the blues.   I have a project going to improve the lacing on blues, so I am breeding nothing but blue to blue for the next ?? years.
I did get some decent blues this year from my blue over blue mating.    

Mike

[philipu]

Thanks Mike,
I have a quad of Blues that I got from Laura, type looks good on them, they have old feathers on them, they will need to go
through a molt to see the real color and lacing.. . they are laying.  I put 18 eggs in the incubatortoday, to see how it goes...I
don\'t like hatching this late in the summer, but.....Ithought
I would give them a shot.
I only have one black bantam pullet, shes looking good.
I would like to find some good black bantams, but I don\'t
know who has what..I would like to get some black bantam this spring.

On the whites(large fowl), they are losing all green tint  in the shank, and no yellow on the foot pad.... I went out
today and took some soap and water, with a coarse rag and
the dry scale with the green rubbed off, and it\'s looking like
a good slate color...I guess time will tell,
On the Ameraucana, at what age does the eye color start coming in, these birds are just 6 weeks old.
Thanks, phil

[John]

Unless they had some green dye on their legs or they were stained by grass chicken soup is the answer.  

[philipu]

Good One John, good play on words....phil