What a great looking bird, so calm, and easy to handle. But of our 8 birds, this one is by far no rocket scientist, but what she lacks in brain power she makes for in her good looks and charming personality.
Like most people I started with Easter Eggers thinking they're the same as Ameraucanas, then started my first Ameraucanas with several small flocks/lines of Blue, Black,and Splash birds. They averaged from poor to decent layers, temperaments were okay but slightly shy. The boys were GREAT though, always friendly and talkative but a bit of drama queens when it came to handling. They don't freak physically but they make a slight screamish sound, it's kinda cute.
I then expanded myself into Wheatens, Blue Wheatens, and Buffs after the BBS flock and got into much more friendly, better layers of even brighter blue eggs. Loved them.
In general I think Ameraucanas are an awesome breed, but the confusion of them vs Easter Eggers gets almost tiring in that so many people just don't fully understand what you mean when you're describing them, and the other thing is, I shyly have to admit - Araucanas, the other blue laying breed, have much more desirable characteristics for me. That doesn't make Ameraucanas "un-cool" though, as their having a tail and more availability is nicer, plus their Buff color is just amazingly beautiful.
So in the end my thought is always this - ANY flock must have, if not an Ameraucana, some sort of colored egg layer, but honestly I think Ameraucanas need more recognition out there than their much confusing rival, the Easter Egger. If not a neat blue egg layer with great cold tolerance, the roosters especially make wonderful pets and show birds.
I have only one Ameraucana, but she is a ball. She is on the larger size, and is lacking any kind of beard, muff, etc. She gives me about 5 eggs per week at 9 months old. She is very flighty most of the time and was hard to tame down. She is the bottom of my pecking order of 12. She has a very docile temperment, shy, but when you are quiet with her she will come over and pick at your shoes, pants, jump on your shoulders. All around a great bird.
I love my Ameraucana's! They like to be petted, not as cuddly as my other chickens, but allow affection. A little more shy than my other chickens, as well. Takes them a bit to relax around you each day, but they do.
Our Blue Ameraucana took the opportunity to challenge for the leadership role as soon as she was moved into a new coop. She was very aggressive with the other hens and would even peck their feathers out at night while on the roost. Separation for days or weeks didn't help. We finally had to give her away. She was extremely flight and wanted nothing to do with two-legged creatures. Her eggs were small and blue and fairly regular. Caught her more than once on top of the coop with her beak in the air trying to crow like a rooster. On the positive side, she DID try to protect her flock, very aggressive with cats and squirrels. Would not get another though as most of this behavior seems to be standard according to others we've spoken to about it.
Hard to handle , which is probably good for them, but really nice to look at, lay the blue, green and olive eggs
Our Ameraucana is slightly larger than most of the other birds, and fits in well with the other birds. We love the unmistakable Americauna tufts arounf her eyes and the blue eggs she lays.
Well, since they're only 3 weeks old, I don't have much to report. But they're growing a lot faster than the Barred Rocks I got with them.
I own one bantam wheaten and she is just a sweetie.
No, she doesn't sit on my lap, but she DOES come to my whistle (most of the time.) She allows me to pick her up sometimes, and she will "cuddle" once I'm holding her. Taffy is VERY independent, although not the "head Hen", and NO ONE gives her grief.
Maybe it's because she's bantam or her color, but the only time she has been flighty (although she CAN fly quite well) has been after her chick was hatched. She settled back down after about a week. Unless she's molting, she lays eggs regularly and with great efficiency. No fuss, no bother.
I REALLY want another buff or wheaten. They seem to have such wonderful personalities.
I did raise her from a chick, so that may be one reason she's so friendly. But whatever it is, I'm sure glad I have her!
I absolutely love this breed!! The hens are very docile and lay beautiful medium sized greenish/blue eggs. Occasionally some will escape the coop but they definitely know where home is and come promptly back right before dusk. They are the most kind to my son who is 3 and sometimes chases them.
I also have a RIR/Ameraucana rooster, Donnie. He is BEAUTIFUL!!! He will come and hop into your lap to see if you have a treat and occasionally fly up and land on your shoulder to just hangout and say Hi. He literally follows me everywhere just like a dog. He'll follow me to the mailbox and follow me right back home. He waits for me at the back door until I come back out. At night he waits for me to walk him to the coop and tell him to go to bed. Once I forgot and went outside about 2 hours after dark and there he was at the back door waiting. I opened the door and he ripped me up one side and down the other apparently yelling at me telling me how late I was, needless to say that was the last time I was late!! :)
He was left in a dog crate along with another young rooster. They were bought for kids for Easter and the kids were bored with them so they were left to live in a dog crate. He has come along way. He tries to stand up against the dogs and come at me once.. He no longer comes at me but my dogs are on the inside back yard and I guess it makes him feel tuff.
My first rooster was an EE, and he was a mean guy -- atacked me from behind, raped my hens, and was a general pest. He was pretty, but he had to go -- and then he was tough to boot! Never again!
I love my apparent Easter Eggers. I have been mistaken about what kind of chicks these are. I just hatched several chicks and these came from blue or greenish eggs. I just love the little blondie, although she has red feathers coming in down the front with a beautiful blonde head. They change so quickly. I also hatched several Kacoo Marans so I might be able to get some of those olive eggs. I have a beautiful black Easter Egger that I noticed was developing her bearded area. Thank you lllia for letting me know. I appreciate all the educational information I can get.
I've owned my ameraucanas for about a month now. They are beautiful birds, yet only available in a several colors. Easily mistaken as ester eggers, so be sure you purchase from a reliable breeder/hatchery. Over all they are a joy to own, and a great breed to experiment with for beginner breeders.
I purchased Coco last year and she is my favorite bird. She may be a little moody but she is the most beautiful bird I have ever seen. She looked like a little owl when I first bought her and she is as gorgeous now. Although she is the dominant girl in my hen house, she is great with me and my little kids. I purchased 2 more this year.
I love my 20 week old hen....she is VERY BEAUTIFUL!!! I love her to pieces! My only complaint is that she won't eat fruit!!!! AHHH!!!!
The egg color is a big hit, especially with children. Easy-going, bottom of pecking order, probably because they are the smallest in my flock. One stays within the pen, the other kept flying out, eventually to her demise. Likes to hide eggs, must be the Easter egg influence.
My rooster that passed away last year (Blanco) was so passive that when it hit 104 degrees outside, he let me put him in a 5 gallon bucket of water and he just chilled in the bucket floating for maybe 5 minutes then got out by himself. I still have a hen Frecles she is now letting me pick her up from in the yard easier. I also know that Freckes favorite cereal is Honey Nut Cheerios, she will jump for them.
We brought our ameraucana home when she was two months old. She's always gotten along well with the other chickens. She lays a smaller sized green egg about 6 days a week. While most of my other chickens have warmed up to me, she has always been somewhat stand-offish. She does not like to be petted or held like the others do. This is my only ameraucana, so I wouldn't judge the entire breed by her personality, and I would definitely recommend these to anyone looking for some of the varieties that lay colored eggs!
Our blog: Dixie Creek Farm
Am looking for some Ameraucana my email is charleshatten@gmail.com i will settle with a cock and two hens for starters just let me know and if you will let me know where you are and if u ship if far.
My husband suprised me with 6 ameraucana chicks for my birthday. I'm just hoping they are girls but have a feeling we have at least 2 roos. They are silver and two have white feathers around their necks the others have brown.
Ameraucanas are great birds for someone who's going to keep them for showing, breeding, or pleasure, I don't see them being very good for meat or eggs. Mine are smaller than all my other birds, and their eggs are obviously smaller as well. My cockerel is pretty human-friendly, he'll come over & eat out of my hand. They're beautiful birds to have running around the yard.
Mine are not as friendly as my other breeds, they rarely get close enough to eat out of my hand and they never jump up on me when I sit down. They seem to kinda do their own thing, and are good at foraging and free-ranging.
Edited to add/update: ALL of my Ameraucana pullets went broody, all at the same time. They successfully hatched out some of their own chicks and are good Mommas.
Sweet chicken slower to lay, Pretty cute head and pretty colors. flighty
I just added black ameraucanas to my buffs. They are wonderful chickens and good layers, I recommend they highly. They get along well with other breeds.
We got our Ammies 2 weeks after our originals. So there is quite an age difference, but all the chickens seem to get along, which is nice. They're very timid, and they like to run around. We let the big ladies go outside, then we rotate and herd the babies outside. They're a pain to get back in, i once chased one everywhere. It was probably traumatized. But theyre very sweet and beautiful birds, I recommend them. Theyre not one to flap everywhere, and theyre very very very sweet.
We got three about a month ago! My boyfriends mom wanted them for the kids so they can go pick out different colored eggs out of the coop! So one is hers she is brown and her name is brownie! And the two other ones are my boyfriends and there names are Big Bertha and Gerausche! When we first got them they were so fluffy and cute and they have very cool markings! And they are still very cool looking and beautiful! Kinda ugly right now because they are loosing there baby fluff feathers and getting there adult feathers so they kind of look like rats! But so far we love them we have three other ones that are barred rocks that are almost the same age they dont get along. But they are beautiful colors! I cant wait for them to be able to join the other hens and rooster outside! We are planning on breeding them as soon as we can. 
This by far is my most favorite breed. I have Lavender Ameracuanas that I purchased from a breeder. I would recommend this breed for any flock. Excellent layers of blue eggs. Friendliest breed I have by far. Started laying at 4 1/2 months. I am so impressed with these birds that I plan to get a rooster this Fall and do some major true breed hatching next Spring!
I have two of these, one Black Ameraucana and one Brown-Red Ameraucana and really enjoy both birds. They are good layers of large blue-green eggs, provide loads of entertainment, and are friendly to other birds in the flock. One of the two is a very skittish bird, unwilling to come get treats from my hand and scared of any movement, but the other doesn't have issues with either. I bought them at 12 weeks old from a breeder so it may have had to do with breeding or how they were raised. Definitely great to have a couple in the flock
I have 4 of these girls and I love their appearance. I live in WA state and heard they were good in confinement and in cold areas and they have proven to be that as well as good layers throughout the winter, if you keep them warm and a light in their confined space all winter. My hens lay from light green to light olive green to light pastel blue eggs. One lays a giant sized egg and all ar wonderful hens. I have no complaints about these girls.
We bought six Ameraucana chicks from our feed store that were all supposed to be female. We ended up with three and three. We gave the roos to a friend because we live in a subdivision and didn't want any crowing. The remaining three were raised from day old babies and never became friendly or easy to handle. We ended up with two that were a bronze and black and one white and black. They were beautiful ladies, I have to say that and they began laying at about 24 weeks and were reliable almost daily layers from the start. We free range them during the day and trying to get them back into the coop was a struggle. They would run every which way and were just a pain in the behind in general. None of us could ever get very close to them, though Oreo (the black and white) would on occasion try to get close enough to eat from the hand, but then run away. I was very surprised at their flightiness, but maybe I was comparing them to our Comets who were extremely friendly and lovely birds. Unfortunately, our dogs turned on them one day out of the blue and killed all of the Ameracaunas. I will never have another one, that's for sure!
I have wheaton and blue wheaton ameracuanas and they are super sweet. I love the color and i love their leg color. Mine love to be held and make great pets. Mine aren't at laying age yet, but the color of ameracuana eggs is amazing! I love this breed and they are great for any backyard flock. Here are some of mine.
We have a rooster and two hens the colors of the birds are awesome these are the sweetest birds we have they seem to like the interaction we have with them and are very curious, our guys are not old enough to lay yet
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We got our Ameraucana girls from Murray McMurray and they were great the first full year that they laid (except all we got was khaki green and tan). They are super-sweet girls and not too difficult to catch. When being held they are very calm.
After their first year of laying, however, their productivity went WAY down. This will be their second full summer and I would say that each girl is now laying maybe one egg a week (and no, there's no possibility they're laying outside the house somewhere). We've always used lights on a timer to keep their "daylight" consistent to encourage laying throughout the year and they have ready access to a large electric-fenced yard, plus I occasionally let them out to wander our property and graze on grass and bugs (with supervision--too many predators). Our other breeds that we got at the same time are still laying great.
Also, this past winter was extremely mild for Vermont. It was more like a Pacific Northwest winter (I grew up out there). However, we lost 3 girls. Their house was well-ventilated (actually the winter was mild enough to leave it open much of the time) and didn't smell bad, the girls didn't have mites or upper respiratory infections, they were not attacked by predators, they didn't have diarrhea... They just... died. I think they just reached the end of a very, very short life. Not very hearty at all.
I got my first hatching eggs for Ameraucanas in 2010. They were for Blue and Blacks. I ended up with two blue pullets, one black pullet, and one black cockerel. Then came the heat wave. In 2010 we had a horrible drought and intense heat. Even with a fan blowing through the coop, a shaded outside area, and frozen water bottles, I lost all but one blue pullet. For whatever reason, she managed to make it through the heat and is my foundation hen today. She's by far the sweetest of the Ameraucanas I own. I taught her to fly up to my arm and shoulder on command.
When I brought the birds home , she was the first to get a name....Zena, after the warrior princess. Ever since she was a chick, she was always looking for the next best place to fly, the newest corner to investigate. She is fairly aggressive, but not mean with the other birds.She is number two in the pecking order. She has always been okay with being held,all of my hens are hand trained, but when I pick her up she always shrieks as though I am murdering her, " Unhand me, you foul curr!!!" she says. A wonderful addition to the flock!
i love this bird its the wierdest one i have
I love getting blue eggs everyday from these beautiful birds.
I have Black, Blue, and Splash Ameraucanas. Egg colour is more green than blue but I'm working on that. Fabulous personality but my first Ameraucanas lack size. I'm hoping to work on that.
Another of my favorites...beautiful blue, green, olive eggs. A must have for every barnyard flock.
