lavender vs self blue

[Suki]

Yes the ABC is claiming victory for "self-blue"    

[Harry Shaffer]

I would say it is a defeat and not a victory. 

[Shari Nees]

Personally,  I call that color, lavender but that's me.

Worked with the Lavender color for 3 years,  learned a lot by doing test breeding.
 And during that time, I have decided its a color I don't want to continue with for various reasons.

Ones with the best feather structure and health,  was the birds that looked Lavender, all the feathers and shafts were lavender in the front half of the bird, but the tail and some of feather to the back of my birds had a slightly darker shaft, very even color and would breed true.

3rd year in, Mareks ripped through the pure Lavender flock,  only birds that did not have any issues were the above.  Luckily, they were in an area away from the rest of my birds.  Disinfected that whole area twice with virkon s. 
Of all the years raising poultry in WA and OR, I have never dealt with that disease.  Had a crash course here in VA. 

[Rebecca G Howie]

I would say it is a defeat and not a victory.

I agree, Harry. Self Blue just causes more confusion and heartburn when people are trying to understand the difference between a Lavender and a Blue variety

[John W Blehm]

As I was doing chores the LF lavenders caught my eye so I took some photos.  Here is one, with a few split pullets in the shot also.  Tails on the LF males are ratty, but some are better than others.  Overall I think they are looking great.

[Russ Blair]

I know pictures usually do not do birds justice. In this case they all look like the same color/shade. Which means I would agree they look pretty darn good John. Keep up the good work.

[John W Blehm]

I kept 6 LF lavender cockerels and I'm using the three with the best tails to breed from.  The other three are in my pen with a bunch of spare cockerels of different breeds and varieties, both bantams and LF.  This photo is of one of two that are sharing duties over 19 pullets.  The other keeper is mated over one extra large pullet. 
I know there is a push by some in the new ABC to try to put some distance between their LF lavenders and mine, but Harry is the only other breeder to create a strain after he heard I was.  He and I know those that we sold lavenders to and we know that the two lines were crossed by some of them.

[Mike Gilbert]

 John, based on that photo, the cockerel appears to be one of the best lavender males I've seen to date.   Do you think feather quality will be an ongoing issue with this variety as it has been in some other breeds?   

[John W Blehm]

...Do you think feather quality will be an ongoing issue with this variety as it has been in some other breeds?

Yes, but never say never.  The problem is mostly with the tails on the males and even once the variety is recognized it should keep many from going higher than BV.  Breed from the best has been the plan, but after over 10 years some tails especially on LF cockerels are as bad as ever.  Outcrossing with blacks may still be the best way to see improvements.
For those of use that like the lavender color, but don't want to deal with the ongoing feather quality issue I believe breeding other varieties that incorporate lavender may be the answer.  Take multicolor black and white varieties like birchen and silver and add lavender to turn the black areas lavender and we can have lavender birchen, lavender silver, etc.  Will they have the same feather quality problems as 100% lavender?

[John W Blehm]

Here are a few more photos of lavender Ameraucanas.

[Mike Gilbert]

John, are you hatching lavenders this year?   Both LF and bantam?

[John W Blehm]

I hope to.  I didn't keep many breeders, so I only have two pairs of bantams and a trio of lavender/black (split) large fowl.
I set up my breeding pens the other day and will start collecting eggs to hatch in another month...getting excited about another hatching season!

[Mike Gilbert]

I set my first eggs on December 5th so they would hatch the day after Christmas.  Candled them today and had 46 out of 71 fertiles.   Got fertile eggs from all the Ameraucana pens, but had two Chantecler roosters infertile, a white bantam and a partridge LF.  Go figure. 

[John W Blehm]

Here is the sad news that we've known was inevitable...

John;

I hope all is well with you and your's.

I am contacting you to announce the Board of Directors voted to include the Self Blue Ameraucana into the Standard of Perfection at the APA board meeting in Columbia, Mississippi on January 24th, 2020.

If you have any questions or concerns please let me know. As always, if I can be of any help just let me know.

Bart Pals

As the breed club that represents Ameraucanas we'll add large fowl "self blue" as an APA recognized variety, but personally I've never had a true self blue chicken and will continue to breed and show my lavender Ameraucanas.   

[Heidi Grable]

Hi.
I got lavender bantam from John a couple years ago. Love them so so much. I was part of an independent effort to gain acceptance in the ABA, which we officially got in December 2021 in Knoxville. We had a great turnout with 84 birds and nine breeders represented. The color was officially recognized as self blue since it needed to match the large fowl, although many of us refer to them as lavender except for showing purposes.
I'm reaching out to you guys, because we need your help. We've tried as an unaffiliated group to avoid drama and to work peaceably toward gaining acceptance for a color we are in love with. Some of us are members of one club or the other or both, but we all share a love for lavender bantams. But now we would like to get APA acceptance, and we need a minimum of five breeders who have at least 5 years of APA membership. We have four with enough seniority. Breeders can participate as much or as little as they would like - mainly we need at least one more to sign the affidavit to get things started. The breeders who sign don't have to participate in the prequalifying and qualifying shows if they do not wish to. But we do need one more - would anyone here be willing to step in and work with some really awesome people so we can begin the process? Please?
Thanks so so much for your time. Suggestions are very welcome.
Heidi Grable