Challenges of Breeding Lavender Ameraucanas

Lavender, or a sort of pastel slate blue, is one of the loveliest plumage colors in chickens. The color lavender is not common, primarily because of the breeding challenges involved. Still, several breeds come in lavender varieties, including Ameraucana, Marans, Orpington, and Plymouth Rock. I have lavender Ameraucanas, therefore I’m more familiar with them than with any other breed.

Lavender Plumage

Lavender plumage is the result of a genetic mutation called the lavender allele (lav). This allele is autosomal, meaning it is not on the sex chromosome. Therefore lavender is the same in both hens and roosters.

The lav allele is associated with the gene that generates eumelanin, which is one of the three types of melanin. Eumelanin is responsible for black or dark plumage color in chickens.

Lavender is recessive to black and dilutes black to a pale slate blue. Since the lavender allele is recessive, it must come from both parents for the chicks to appear lavender. In other words, both parents must be homozygous for lavender to get 100% lavender chicks.

Lavender plumage is an even shade of light blue, called self blue. The term “self” refers to the fact that all the feathers are one color.

Blue Plumage

Blue is a similar color to lavender, but the two differ genetically. Rather than being recessive, like lavender, blue is an incompletely dominant gene and therefore results from a combination of two alleles.

Blue chickens do not breed true. If you mate a blue to a blue, you will get only 50% blue chicks. Half of the remaining chicks will be black and the other half will be splash.

To get 100% blue offspring, you must cross black with splash. And, unlike lavender chickens, blue chickens are not all the same shade of blue.

Shredder Gene

Unfortunately, the lavender gene is associated with a recessive shredder gene, sometimes called the tail shredder gene. The shredder gene is common to all lavender chickens, regardless of breed. Its presence results in feathers with detached barbs, giving the plumage a decidedly ragged appearance.

To improve the feather quality of lavender chickens, breeders mate black to lavender to create splits. A split is a heterozygous chicken that appears black but is carrying the recessive lavender gene.

The black chicken used for this breeding must be homozygous for black, or so-called true black, meaning it does not carry the recessive lavender gene. Crossing true black with lavender gives you 100% splits.

When you breed a black split rooster to lavender hens, you get 50% lavender chicks with a suppressed shredder gene and therefore improved feather quality. The other 50% of the chicks will be splits.

Breeding Splits

Breeding split to split yields 25% lavenders and 75% black chickens, of which 50% are splits and 25% are true blacks. At this point you have no way of knowing which chickens are true blacks and which are splits carrying the lavender gene, unless you get a DNA test for lavender.

Breeding true black to split yields all black chickens, of which 50% are true blacks and 50% are splits. So you have no lavender offspring and, again, no way other than DNA testing to determine which black colored chickens are carrying the lavender gene.

So the practical, and less expensive, way to suppress the shredder gene in lavender chickens is to produce splits by breeding true black to lavender. Then breed the splits back to lavender, and selectively breed the best of the resulting lavender chickens.

Crossbeak

While the shredder gene is common to all lavender chickens, crossbeak (or scissor beak) is a genetic defect that occurs in Ameraucanas. In birds with this condition, the two halves of the beak don’t both grow in the same direction. A chicken with this defect therefore cannot properly close its beak and has trouble eating, drinking, or engaging in other normal activities such as pecking and preening.

Crossbeak has several potential causes and is by no means unique to Ameraucanas. However, often it is a genetic condition, as it is with the Ameraucana breed. Ameraucana breeders have unsuccessfully tried for decades to eradicate the defect.

Only a small percentage of Ameraucanas develop crossbeak. Still, breeding a chicken with crossbeak is not a good idea, as the likely result is more of the same. If you’re into Facebook (sorry, I’m not) you can join groups devoted to the details of managing chickens with crossbeak.

Lovely Lavender

Despite the challenges associated with breeding lavender Ameraucanas, they remain beloved for their awesome pastel plumage. Not to mention the delight of going out to gather eggs and finding a lovely blue-shell Ameraucana egg in the nest.