Blue Ameraucana

ARU_profile.jpgFor the past several years, Appleworm™ has maintained a single flock of the Blue-Black-Splash variety of Ameraucanas developed by Paul Smith of Gainesville, Texas.  These heavy birds are productive layers of medium-sized blue eggs.

As we worked with the birds we got from Mr. Smith, we discovered a genetic irregularity with the line: Some of the hens were heterozygous for the dominant blue-egg gene.  We discovered this in the process of creating “Olive Eggers,” a cross of an Ameraucana and a Black Copper Marans.  In theory, the resulting hens should have laid green eggs.  The mother, the Ameraucana, contributes the blue shell and the father, the BCM, provides the brown “paint” that lightly covers it.  What we discovered, however, was that half of the hens laid light brown eggs: brown paint over a white shell.  Had the hens been homozygous for the blue trait, this would not have happened.

This irregularity is not significant, as the blue-egg gene is dominant.  We could have continued to hatch Ameraucana hens, each of them laying blue eggs.  But, because we, and many people who buy Ameraucanas from us, are interested in producing Olive Eggers with them, we abandoned this line of Ameraucanas and acquired a new one.

We do not, however, plan on offering many Ameraucana chicks from this flock this year. In 2015 we will pen most of our Ameraucana hens with “Bloom,” our new Black Copper Marans rooster, for the creation of Olive Eggers.  Our primary reason for this is to determine whether our new Ameraucana line is pure-bred for this blue-egg-laying trait.