We maintain our line of Ameraucana because of
the genes they have that we can make use of in
other breeding projects. We were never interested
in show-quality Ameraucana, so I guess none of
us here paid much attention to some aspects of
their coloration.

We have a cockerel that is an F1 cross of
Ameraucana and White Leghorn. His head and
hackles are white (nearly) while his body is
black-barred. Strangely, his beardmuff is also
black-barred. He looks pretty strange with his
black and barred beard and ear muffs framed by
his white head and hackles. After noticing this, I
recall having seen an Ameraucana with a colored
body and a white beardmuff.

I should go out to the Ameraucana breed club to
see if they have pictures there.

Does anyone know about the genetics of the beard
and ear muff coloration .... are those genetics
independent of other plumage color / pattern
genetics? What are the linkage relationships?

The birds that have crests might be similar ...
These are purely cosmetic traits and so it might be
true that not much rigorous research has been
done, but there may be some anecdotal
formation out there floating around.

It is only my own personal observation, but the males front muff coloration seemed to always be the color of his breast even if there was a break in the breast color in the neck region. If you part the hackle you will see that the breast coloration of the males usually goes right up to the chin, but you can get a lot of red in the necks of mongrel Ameraucanas with mostly black breasts and the muffs are still black. Females seemed to have various muff colors and I can't recall if they also had the same color as their breasts. I would guess that they do.

So ... if we define a 'zone of inheritance' to be an
area in which the plumage is under a common
genetic control .... then, according to your
observations, the breast and underchin and
perhaps facial cheeks are in the same zone of
inheritance for these male Ameraucanas.

Is this universal? Do all male chickens have a
similar zone of inheritance? (maybe females too?)

I'll do some checking within our own flocks here ....

I don't know about the cheeks, but front beard seems to be under the same control as the breast. I had a lot segregating in my mongrel Ameraucanas, autosomal barring, columbian restriction (Co and Db), and BB reds and it was easy to tell in the males that the front of the beard (the long feathers) were always the same color as the breasts. I didn't make the same connection with females, but looking at standard breeds I'd say that they are also under the same zonal control.

I spent some time this morning looking at our
Ameraucana. It appears to me that, in most cases,
the beardmuff is indeed the color of the breast.
But, this isn't always the case. For example, we
have a brown Ameraucana hen with a black tail
and black beard and muffs. She has no
observable black in her breast at all ... she looks a
lot like an RIR hen ... she may even be Columbian.
Also, our main Ameraucana sire in our blue egg
project has lavender ... his breast is partridge and
his beardmuff is lavender.

I am wondering now if the coloration of the
beardmuff might be susceptible to modifyers, like
the Columbian restrctors, Db and Co, and perhaps
some other genetic factors as well. Or maybe it
works the other way around ... that the breast is
subject to restrictors and modifyers that the
beardmuff is resistant to.

I tried to post a response, but it hasn't shown up.

Db heterozygotes will mess things up. Dbdb+ males show patches of all kinds of color on an e+ background (probably others too). The breast can be several colors. We used to call this type of rooster rainbow roosters because they had just about every color you can expect a chicken to have in patches scattered around their bodies. Db is not as dominant a columbian restrictor as Co. Females with only one copy of Db look almost wild-type. Their breasts are a little browner instead of the normal salmon, but you often can't tell unless you hold two birds up against each other. Any distinction that is this fine can't be counted on.

anonymous, rokimoto is very knowledabe, you arent to bad either. at least he has a hand;e, why not dispensewith the anon., and get a name. with the knowledge of these two, and cjean, i quit wasting my time at other sites. i appreciate their willingness to share. thankyou.

Thank you for your post, Rob. I agree with you that
as long as CJR, Rokimoto and others participate
at this site, I don't go to other sites anymore either.

I prefer to be anonymous for personal reasons. I
hope this isn't disturbing to anyone, and I hope I
don't upset the readership of this board by my
presence. I do have opinions and I am willing to
say what I think ... I hope people here can accept
the fact that I have a right to my opinions as much
as they have a right to theirs.

I am hoping that by being anonymous, I can avoid
political situations that have plagued me on other
boards (and those things were my fault too).

This is the only board I participate in anymore. I
feel comfortable here being anonymous .... I hope
you and others won't mind if I stay......

Posting under a pseudonym is just as incognito as posting anonymous but much easier for other readers. However, I'm sure all the courteous people on this board will respect your choice and appreciate your postings.

It seems to me that posting under an alias like
"anonymous" that any number of people can post
under, is even more 'incognito' because it is not
unique to me. I am just one among many, which is
the point of being anonymous. Even though I'm
certain some readers know who I am.

But, your point is well taken and i will try a unique
moniker here for a while and see how it goes. So,
I try to choose a label for myself that is asexual
(gender neutral). Since I read everything I can get
my hands on, I will post as "infomaniac" here for
as long as it works for me.

(Jeeee, this note seems incredibly
self-indulgent...)

Welcome Infomaniac! (sounds a lot better than welcome Anonymous)
You being a HE, a SHE or a IT does not matter, your postings are always interesting.

very good. infomaniac. it was easy to to tell you from the average anonymous, but, this is better.

Has the sex of a chicken-lovers brain ever mattered?