I\'ve been trying to decide for months what color of Ameraucana I\'m going to raise, and it\'s been tough, but I\'m pretty sure now that I want to get some nice wheaten/blue wheaten, and splash wheaten...........especially after reading Paul\'s post about the color genetics of them, and seeing the beautiful photos.
I have some hatchery Ameraucanas already for the pretty blue and blue-green eggs only...NOT for breeding.
I know most hatcheries sell EE\'s.
These came from my farm store who got them from Ideal Poultry, so they aren\'t actually mixed with other breeds of chickens like some EE\'s are, but are just mixed colors, which Ideal clearly tells you up front. One is actually a pretty nice representation of the breed, but has a little black in her hackles. She does have the slate legs and lays a beautiful blue egg, but again, I\'m not using her for breeding.
I do want to get into raising true APA recognised Ameraucanas, but want some good bloodlines. I know most of you have some good stock, but also have long waiting lists.
Well, here\'s what I\'m thinking, but you tell me if you think I\'m way off here.
Just a couple of months ago, I noticed some proper colored Ameraucana chicks in the bins at that same farm store (Ideal Poultry stock), mixed in with all their typical chipmunk looking ones. These were nice fluffy yellow Ameraucana chicks. They\'ve never had these before as far as I know, and I go in the store a lot. I\'ve been wondering if Ideal has upgraded their stock recently, and might actually have some decent Ameraucanas I could use in a breeding program.
I decided to take a gamble and buy them and just see what I ended up with. If nothing else, I\'d have more pretty blue or blue-green eggs right?
Well, out of the purchase, I ended up with a buff female, a white male and female, and 3 pretty blue wheatens, which I think are all females. These were all banded pullets by the way, but the one white is definately a male.....heavier, thick legs, scant tail feathers, more prominant pinker comb, more errect stance. I also noticed when I bought him that he didn\'t have that extra row of feathers near the bottom of the wing that the females have (some of you probably know what I mean), but I told myself that since he was banded he must be a female! Nope! Anyway, they all turned out to have slate legs except the buff, which are just slightly green. The two white had the nicest deepest slate leg coloring, but just this past week (about 9 or 10 wks old I think) the color has gone off just a tad. I wonder if this is only temporary though. It was perfect before. All of the blue wheaten pullets leg color still looks right. For what I paid, and for my expectations, I\'m happy with these chicks.
So, I\'m thinking that if I had a nice blue wheaten or splash wheaten male from good lines to breed with these three female blue wheatens, I might get some pretty nice chicks.
Of course, I\'d like to get a couple of nice females from good lines too, but I know from reading here and other forums that good ones aren\'t that easy to come by.
In the meantime, if I start out with these 3 pullets, and a nice male, would that sound like a good plan?
