Ameraucana Breeders Club

The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club => Breeding => Topic started by: Spencer on December 04, 2019, 05:39:26 PM

Title: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: Spencer on December 04, 2019, 05:39:26 PM
I saw back in the mid 2000s that Michael Meunks was selling some of his project crele birds. Does anyone have Mr Meunks email to contact him? I tried an old email I found with hopes of hearing from him.

Does anyone here know what came of the project or how far along he developed them?

I have 5 crele oegb hens and 1 male. I have some bantam white and black ameraucanas also that I have raised with the crele, hoping they mate well in the spring. Wish I had a silver bantam male to work with but I'll be focusing on the black X crele mating this first year. And test mating the whites to determine their underlying color.

If anyone else has worked on this project please feel free to chime in. I'm not concerned with the absence of slate in the legs since this is a project and not concerned with their ameraucana status.
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: Don on December 04, 2019, 08:08:33 PM
Hey Spencer. That is quite the old project and I would be surprised if it was still viable. But Michael might give you some tips on his experiences vs expectations.  Sending you an email.  Drc
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: Spencer on December 04, 2019, 09:10:35 PM
Thanks for the email, good direction.

I'll post here with any updates.
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: Don on December 04, 2019, 09:37:42 PM
You're welcome Spencer. It sounds like an interesting project.  Please do keep the forum posted.

If you plan to dabble with creating and crossing colors I would encourage you to acquire some good references on the subject. One of the old mainstays is Fred Jeffery's "Bantam Chickens" @1970.  It covers all of the major colors, how they are related, examples to breed them and often advice from well known breeders in the past for that variety.  I will try to bring a copy this weekend if you want to give it a look.  The ABA had them in print until just recently (@$30 in hardback) and I hope they are still planning to reprint for the hobby.  But there are still some used copies floating around too.
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: Spencer on December 05, 2019, 07:58:17 AM
Thanks for the info, I found a used copy on ebay, Im going to message the seller and try to get the price down a bit. I'll add it to my saved searches incase someone else lists one for cheaper. The current one is $60.

See ya at the show, no worries if you dont bring your copy. I know there will be a lot going on during the show.
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: Spencer on January 17, 2020, 01:44:02 PM
Thanks again Don for letting me look over your Bantam Chickens by Fred Jeffrey, attached is an excerpt from his book pertaining to the crele colour.
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: Spencer on January 17, 2020, 03:03:17 PM
Also, thought Id add a few pics of this year's breeders to better document the progress over time. The first pic of blks and creles have been living together since April 2019, theyve mated with each other since maturity. The other blk cock and hens I picked up at nationals, I hope they mate well with the creles. I think the 2nd Male will help bring down the high tailset the oegb carry, but the pic is more drastic than how he typically carries it.  Also added a pic of the bantam Dominiques being used in my barred project. I plan to cross the 2 lines in future generations for diversity and to work on the crele barring.
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: Don on January 17, 2020, 03:23:22 PM
I'm Glad your project is going well Spencer. The pictures are very helpful. I hope you raise a good group of these project for your next steps....
I also hope you have good luck raising a nice crop of the birds you picked up from the Knoxville National. I think you have some nice starts there. I hope you can figure out a way to get you and or some birds to the National in Norman OK later this year. Several of my pens have taken to eating eggs. Quite frustrating. So I have my work cut out for me too. 
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: Spencer on January 17, 2020, 03:54:30 PM
Thanks Don! With the newborn in March and moving/renovating in our new home, I won't be able to start hatching till April-June. I'll show a few at the Dixie classic show which was moved to January 2021.

If I hatch a few before April and if someone is driving thru TN on i40 I'd help with gas if they could show a few birds at nationals for me and I'd donate them to the silent auction. I've talked about nationals with Lisa and personally attending won't be an option.

I plan to hatch about 100 project eggs, and 50 whites & 50 blacks.. but time will tell especially if any issues occur.

What variety has started eating the eggs? I still plan on swapping some eggs if it works out on both of our ends.
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: Don on January 17, 2020, 05:28:44 PM
Spencer, it's always the Good birds, the ones you hope to raise from that get into trouble with something. But I am working out some blind roll away nests to help with the issue. I will send you an email with more detail. And certainly, we can trade some eggs later in the season when they are more productive and we both have incubators working well.       Thanks!  And Please tell your family we say hello, too!   
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: Spencer on January 17, 2020, 05:48:05 PM
Sounds like a plan I was getting a lot of eggs a month ago, now I only have 1 laying regularly on entire property. Ready for it to warm up. I'll tell them you said hey, thanks I'll check my email. Hope you get your egg eaters worked out!
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: Spencer on August 30, 2021, 05:46:17 PM
I had to scrap the bantams F1s and their F2 chicks this spring due to a kidney stone. It was my first stone and man did it put me down for a while. Never want another one haha.. Had to pretty much get rid of all my growouts from all my varieties besides a few silvers, whites, and some of my LF crele growouts.

The father was an oversized single barred crele easter egger Mb/mb and yellow skinned, he had to weigh over 10 lbs. The hens I used were some white and black LF. I crossed the F1 daughters, who were barred split to partridge, back to their dad. Unfortunately I didnt put dad up after free ranging and a fox got him this summer :/ but I hatched what was left of the fertile eggs.

I culled all but one F2 son, hes single barred split to partridge Mb/mb and has 1 copy of yellow skin. I saved a couple crele daughters that are still growing out but they dont look like much use so far. I do have a partridge daughter Im pretty happy with but she has alotta growing out to do.

1 Crele Dad
2 Daughters F1
3 Daughters eggs F1
4 Son F2
5 Son F2
6 Son F2
7 Partridge Daughter F2
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: kkdossey on August 31, 2021, 12:57:20 PM
Interesting project you've got coming along there.
Chris Cross may also be working on something like that if you're still looking for that kind of info, I know he has some project stuff going.
Good luck!
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: Spencer on August 31, 2021, 07:00:33 PM
Thanks! I know he had some cuckoos, but when I talked to him last he didnt have them seperated from his cuckoo lavenders.

At this point I'm just riding it out, working on getting them back to Mb/Mb, partridge based, and removing the yellow skin. If I can get that far then Im content on this line. Just wanted a nice backyard autosexing flock.

If I was to do it over Id start fresh with Wheatens and silvers to create a BBR line, then cross over a cuckoo line like Chris's or even a LF barred rock or dominique. Breed around til I had some creles then go from there. But with ever mounting feed costs Im focusing on bantams and keeping half a dozen of these LF for fun. 🤞🤞 hoping they stick around a few more years to see them turn into something
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: kkdossey on September 02, 2021, 11:03:13 AM
Interesting stuff. I've never got in to doing stuff like that. Maybe some day. Keep us posted on them, and you'll probably have people want to buy them too!
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: Spencer on September 03, 2021, 04:47:57 PM
Thanks I hope I keep them long enough to see them turn into something worth keeping around. Take care 🤟
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: Lindsay Helton on September 03, 2021, 08:30:46 PM
Thanks for sharing Spencer. I enjoy seeing photos of your projects.
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: Spencer on September 04, 2021, 04:43:36 PM
:) thanks for the fall newsletter, it was a good read!
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: Lindsay Helton on September 04, 2021, 05:39:28 PM
I’m glad you enjoyed it. :)
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: Spencer on October 31, 2021, 09:12:56 AM
The partridge pullet filled out plumply but her tail leans to the left so she's out of the program. On a positive note, the youngest growout who was a crele hen has filled out well and hopefully she has a descent egg color 🤞

**edit the image resizer site does something funky to the color on some of the pics I upload.
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: kkdossey on November 01, 2021, 06:26:15 PM
Looking Good!
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: Spencer on November 04, 2021, 08:42:15 AM
Thanks 🤟 shes coming along, Ima focus mainly on hatching her eggs this spring. The cockerel is filling out nicely, but has a sloppy comb, luckily hers is nice and tight like her grandmothers.
Title: Re: Crele Ameraucana Project Color
Post by: Lindsay Helton on November 04, 2021, 10:07:19 AM
I am enjoying following the project!