Blue Ameraucanas?

You'll have to excuse my ignorance here but I'm not that familiar with the "blue" varieties of any of the chickens so I'm hoping someone can clear it up.

My neighbour "chicken sits" (no h) every year when friends head south and the friends like nice looking birds. Well, this year they left him with 4 Ameraucanas: 1 rooster and 3 hens. They are a grayish-blue colour so I'm assuming they are "blues". I attached a few pictures but they are from my phone so you'll have to excuse the quality. Am I correct in that assumption that they would be considered blue?

His wife isn't keen on keeping the rooster but I've tried to convince him that it would be a shame to get rid of such a nice bird, especially since he has 3 hens with it. So I told him he should keep the eggs and sell them as hatching eggs. Does anyone know what they would typically sell for? Or if I was to hatch them for him, what should the chicks go for?

Any advice would be appreciated.

I wish the picture quality was better. They are pretty nonetheless. I get the impression that the friend babysits the chickens at his home for months? are the chickens his to keep or something, little unclear about what is going on. I am not sure what he could charge for hatching eggs. I know that I sell my hatching eggs for $2 each. Regardless of breed, and the price does not change. Period. Don't try to undercut, but just won't charge any more for an egg because a breed may be more valuable than another one. He could at least pay for some feed if he were to sell fertilized eggs, helps with paying the feed bill. Hope you get some good responses about blue. Try and see if you can get more clearer pictures. Does friend have a camera??? Have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

I think that cockbird is very nice, by the way.

I don't see any hint of lacing so my guess is that they are poor quality blues or possibly lavenders. I have no experience with lavenders.

If they are indeed blues, I consider a blue to blue mating to be less desirable than a black to blue mating. Even with my muscovies, I've never crossed a blue to blue in 10 years of working them. Now, if they are lavenders, you do want to cross lavender with lavender.

Hmmm... lavender. Thanks Wayne, hadn't consider that. Lavender wouldn't be a recognized APA colour, correct?

CynthiaM,
Well, usually he keeps them over the winter while they are gone and the plan would be to get them back in the Spring. However, in the past, they see something different and get those instead, and he inherits the birds.

I think I'll have to do a bit more research on the lavenders and see what I can find.

I think the photo quality is misleading. That is definitely not a lavender roo and given the rarity of lav ameraucana's (with several members on this forum searching country-wide for hatching eggs or chicks and coming up empty handed), I doubt they are lav's. The rooster looks pretty nice, nicer then the best one I kept (and then butchered) from a local breeder. I don't think the photos are clear enough to show lacing even if they had it. This spring I bought blue am chicks for $20 for 5 chicks, (or they were $5 each if less than 5 chicks), I can't recall what hatching eggs are, perhaps about $30/doz? I found that the cockerels had a lot of copper leakage in their hackles as they grew, but overall really nice chickens.

Definately blue not lavender. They look like nice birds, may not meet the colour variety of the Standard but they are pretty and I bet they lay well. The good lacing in the blue seems to be a rare thing.

Omega Blue Farms wrote:
If they are indeed blues, I consider a blue to blue mating to be less desirable than a black to blue mating. Even with my muscovies, I've never crossed a blue to blue in 10 years of working them. Now, if they are lavenders, you do want to cross lavender with lavender.

Hmmmm....I am in the process of choosing two cockerels to keep for the cochin breeding. I was going to choose two blues to breed to blacks and blue hens. Now rethinking what I should be keeping, only got 2 days left to make some very final decisions, a whole lotta cockerels heading off for processing Wednesday, sigh....guess I need to get out the big gun and ask a question...I think the rooster is beautiful. Have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

ok, others seem pretty sure that they are not lavender. Like I said, I have no personal experience with the variety.

Since it is confirmed that they are blue, and the question has been asked in the advice forum, I will share some honest advice.

1) I've never seen a genetically blue chicken that didn't have some hint of lacing. Even in the absence of the proper lacing genes, the blue gene produces a poor quality lace.

2) This is based upon the photos and could easily change if viewing the rooster in person, but from what I can see, the rooster stands too tall to have proper ameraucana balance. The bottom of his chest should sit a bit below the bottom of the tail. I would also like to see a bit more back.

3) The size and positioning of the roosters legs suggests to me that he may have less meat:bone ration than would be ideal. Since hatching eggs and/or chicks would produce 50% males, I think it's worthwhile to consider how those males will be utilized by our community.


So really I don't see any harm in keeping the wife happy and getting rid of the rooster. There are several breeders on the island doing some great work on blacks. Therefore if one still wanted to hatch from the hens at a later date, there are still options available which could easily provide a better outcome.

Omega Blue Farms wrote:ok, others seem pretty sure that they are not lavender. Like I said, I have no personal experience with the variety.

Since it is confirmed that they are blue...


... There are several breeders on the island doing some great work on blacks. Therefore if one still wanted to hatch from the hens at a later date, there are still options available which could easily provide a better outcome.

That makes sense to me. My fear was that you needed 2 blues to get a blue but after reading the posts here and the other blue thread, I think it seems clear that is not the case. It would seem a good quality black would be the same or better than a suspect blue.

Thanks everyone for the input, I'll consider myself a bit more educated for the future!

....Coopslave has some nice blacks...