Is it Murphy\'s law?

[Guest]

Is it Murphy\'s law that the Ameraucana hen I have who doesn\'t come anywhere near the Standard...she has no beard or muff, so she\'s named \"Slick\"...lays beautiful blue eggs?  Argh!!  And of course the ones with the nice muff, perfect pea comb, beautifully slate colored  legs...lay greeny colored eggs.

Heh...lol

Liz in Utah

[Mike Gilbert]

Liz, if you have a hen that lays good blue eggs and is good otherwise, you should really consider using her as a breeder.
If the male you use is full blooded for muffs & beard, all the chicks will have muffs.   If those chicks are then mated back to another male pure for muffs, about half of that second generation will be pure for muffs also.   Usually you can tell which are pure and which are not by the relative size of the muffs within the same strain of chickens.

[Guest]

Hi Mike,

I didn\'t realize that the muffs could come from one side like that.  Slick\'s pretty funny looking, she\'s the ONLY chicken I have with a bare face and neck.

I would love to breed her but I don\'t have a roo...only a dozen pullets.  I am trying to figure out who else lays these pretty sky blue eggs, the rest of the girls look pretty alike.  My guess is about 3 of the 8 Ameraucanas lay the nice blue eggs.

Thanks for the advice, if I can come up with an Ameraucana roo from blue-egg lines I will probably give it a shot

Liz