muffs and beards

[faith valley]

I noticed that one chick we hatched this year had a great muff and beard from a day old chick, and it has just gotten better.  We have hatched out 16 more chicks since then and they are not near as full in the beard and muff, comparing to the first chick that hatched.  Will they develop a better/ fuller beard and muff as they mature or will they always be on the sparse side?  I know that different lines develop at different paces, didn\'t know if this beard muff trait was like that though.

The first chick was from a different line than the second group of 16, and yes these are chicks from breeder\'s stock, not hatchery chicks.

I know that the lines could be crossed to improve the beard/muff.  Just didn\'t know if I might just have late bloomers.

[Guest]

I had once chick with a muff from day one, no beard though... That chick grew up to be a nice black and gold color.  She\'s about 4 months now.  

[John]

As I recall the first chick came from Michael Muenks\' flock and the others came from birds obtained from me.  I think the difference is just in the strains and that all are pure (homozygous) for muffs (& beard).  If the 16 chicks all have muffs the odds are that the parents are pure for muffs.  We know that all the parent birds have muffs so each has to either carry one gene for muffs (heterozygous) or two (homozygous).  If both are heterozygous the odds are that some chicks would lack muffs, some would have muffs like the parents and most would have full muffs.  If all 16 chicks have similar muffs I would guess they are pure for muffs.  If one parent is homozygous and the other heterozygous all chicks would have muffs and the odds are that 3/4 would have full muffs (homozygous) and 1/4, or 4 chicks out of 16, have smaller muffs (heterozygous).  Since all of them appear to have fairly equal muffs and all none of my wheaten and blue wheaten chicks lack muffs the odds are stacked in the favor of them all being pure for muffs.  I don\'t know if there are other genes that affect the fullness of the muffs, but some varieties and strains may have fuller muffs than others.  Also note that although we are after \"full\" muffs the Standard calls for \"medium length\".

[Mike Gilbert]

Yes, with Ameraucanas, bigger is not necessarily better.  The muffs and beards can be too full and fluffy, like Faverolles, and that would not be correct type.   The byword for Ameraucanas is medium.

Actually, in a cross of homozygous for muffs and heterozygous for muffs, half of the chicks should be homo and the other half hetero.   The expected ratio can be demonstrated with a Punnett square diagram.   Or think of it this way.   All the chicks will receive a muff gene from the homo parent.   Half the chicks will receive a muff gene from the hetero parent, and the other half won\'t.

[John]

Mike is the number cruncher and right.  It should be 50/50, not 75/25 when one parent is pure and other not.

[faith valley]

You all went right over my head with all of that...  too funny.  Key work \"Medium\".  The parents all have the medium muff and beards, all the 16 younger chicks appear to follow parent size and amount of beard /muff.  The older chick would have a very full beard and muff then.  This makes total sense now... we are just starting to take a look at all of the chicks a little closer now as we have youngsters that are eagerly waiting to pick up any extra chicks that we might not want to grow out.

Ameraucanas are very much desired in our area, as most of the kids here have easter egger mutts.  Since we know we only want to grow out the wheaten and not the blue wheaten chicks from this batch of 16, would it be safe to only keep chicks showing black tail feathers?  

There are about 6 that have black in the primaries and tail feathers, all of the reast have the blue /grey shade.  Can we assume that the black feathering would indicate a wheaten chick and the grey feathering would be a blue wheaten?  They wouldn\'t change colors later would they?  The ckicks range in age between 5-7 weeks of age.  I would think the older batch should be set on what color they will be correct?

I have been told by Wheaten OEG breeders that the wheaten color doesn\'t really mature until the bird is about 10 months old.  Do you find this to be true with the ameraucanas too?

Thanks for all of your help!!

~Patty~